Nick Cassway's designBLOG

A classic. Make a Celtic Trinity knot in Adobe Illustrator using basic tools including the Ellipse Tool, Reflect Transformation, and the Pathfinder.

Another beginner level illustrator tutorial that uses very basic tools to make a really cool graphic. Animate it and hypnotize your friends!

Learn how to draw this Helios style sunrise in Illustrator with just a few tools. Amaze your friends!

If the basic bar graph feels a little boring, there are plenty of ways in Illustrator to spruce it up. In this tutorial, we’ll take the basic bar graph and embellish the bars with a photo.

In this tutorial, we will create a pie chart and then crop it to the shape of a coffee cup, By using this shape it will reinforce to your viewers what the chart is describing.

In this tutorial, we will use the stacked column graph tool and a layer mask to create a diagram of how to make a cappuccino. The visual analogy of this chart uses the outline of a coffee cup and clear proportions to illustrate the recipe.

In this tutorial, we will be creating a simple comparison chart with embellished graphics to develop a higher level of understanding. The goal of this diagram is to deliver information quickly and in a way that is readily understood. For this comparison, we will present two pieces of data side by side. The viewer can take away from the comparison that one thing is larger than another thing and that the comparison may have something to do with water and/or rain. It is up to you as the presenter or editorial designer to fill in the missing pieces.

For this tutorial, we will be making a highly abstracted icon of a pointing hand using some very simple shapes. Beyond being an exercise in using the pathfinder tool, the tutorial presents a way of thinking about creating icons.