Barnard.co - Logo Design

💻 Here’s my Illustrator workflow. If you have two monitors, try it out, see if you like it.

Firstly, I like to float all of my tools over to the right hand monitor and I’ll arrange the ones I use all the time nice and neatly

Then under Window - Workspace - New Workspace I can give this a name. If you hit Edit - Keyboard shortcuts you can find the command ‘Reset Current Workspace’ and give this a shortcut.

That way when you disconnect your laptop and your panels get all jumbled up, you can press your shortcut to reset them!

Blend modes got an upgrade!

Step 1 - Download Adobe Illustrator Beta

Step 2 - Go to Window - Blend

Step 3 - Select two shapes

Step 4 - PLAY!

This is probably the most unrated shortcut in Illustrator.

If I duplicate an object and press CTRL/CMD+D it’ll repeat that last step as many times as I press it.

This is called ‘Transform again’ and it’s bloody handy for making things like grids. But it is WAY more powerful than you might think.

If I grab ONE anchor point and stretch it down, you’ve probably seen a ‘Line extension’ label come up before. It tells you that the path is following a straight line. But if I grab two anchor points and try it… Illustrator says NO!.

So instead, move your first anchor point using your line extension, then click on your second anchor point and then press CTRL/CMD + D for ‘Transform Again’ and it’ll repeat the last transform you made, meaning your shape is now extended perfectly with the same proportions.

It works with any transform. So that includes position, rotate and scale! 👍