Centre for Continuing Education, the University of Sydney ABN: 15 211 513 464 160 Missenden Rd Newtown, 2042 (02) 7255 1577 info@cce.sydney.edu.au Terms and conditions: cce.sydney.edu.au/legal Date of issue:
Discover hundreds of courses from our short courses list, open to everyone, in-person or online. Select by subject area, delivery mode, location, and more to find the right course for you. Enhance your professional development, grow your technical and people skills, and support career progression. Enrol individually or schedule team
This two-day Adobe Illustrator introductory training course will provide you with essential drawing skills and the knowledge needed to progress towards the Adobe Illustrator Course: Level 2. You'll be guided from the basics right through to designing logos, branding and graphics for advertising purposes.
Your own Adobe Creative Cloud account is required for this course. You will also need your own device. For further details, see 'Before the course'.
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
use the Adobe Illustrator application
create custom paths
enter text in an Illustrator document
enhance documents
proof documents to make them more accurate
save images for web and print.
Starting with Illustrator CC 1
Understanding vector graphics
Starting Illustrator in windows 8
The welcome experience
Opening an existing document
The Illustrator workspace
The status bar
Understanding artboards
Closing a document and exiting Illustrator
Navigating Illustrator
Understanding panels
Displaying and hiding panels
Floating and docking panels
The tools panel
Working with the tools panel
Understanding workspaces
Working with workspaces
Working with the control panel
Navigating with the hand tool
Navigating with the navigation panel
Changing document views
Using the zoom tool
Creating and using custom views
Working with objects
Understanding paths and selection tools
Selecting with the selection tool
Working with isolation mode
Selecting multiple objects
Making marquee selections
Using the direct selection tool
Selecting with the magic wand tool
Understanding smart guides
Moving objects
Copying objects
Grouping and ungrouping objects
Locking and unlocking objects
The alignment and distribution tools
Aligning objects
Distributing objects and spacing
Inserting images
Deleting objects
Setting up a new document
Understanding templates
Understanding document presets
Adjusting units of measure
Creating a print document
Saving a new document
Working with a document
Understanding artboard options
Moving and resizing artboards
Creating and deleting artboards
Understanding grids, guides and rulers
Displaying and hiding rulers
Making guides
Locking, unlocking and clearing guides
Viewing and hiding the grid
Layers
Understanding layers and sublayers
Understanding the layers panel
working with the layers panel
Creating layers and sublayers
Naming layers and assigning colours
Grouping layers
Reassigning objects to different layers
Rearranging layers and sublayers
Hiding and displaying layers
Locking and unlocking layers
Deleting layers
Shapes
Understanding the shape and colour tools
Preparing the workspace
Creating basic shapes
Creating polygons
Creating other shapes
creating lines and spirals
Editing path segments
Using offset path
Understanding drawing modes
Colour, fill and stroke
Understanding fill and stroke
Understanding colour
Understanding colour controls
Applying colour using the colour panel
Applying colour using the swatches panel
Applying colour using the eyedropper tool
Swapping fill and stroke colours
Working with stroke weight
Working with stroke width
Applying dashes to strokes
Gradients
Understanding gradients
Applying a linear gradient
Changing the direction of a gradient
Changing colours in a gradient
Colours in a gradient
Adding colours to a gradient
Applying a radial gradient
Saving a gradient
Applying a gradient to a stroke
Working with type
Understanding type in illustrator
Understanding formatting options
Inserting and formatting point type
Inserting and formatting area type
Cutting and pasting text
Formatting text
Formatting paragraphs
Copying formatting with the eyedropper tool
Creating columns of text
Text and objects
Typing on a path
Converting text into editable path
Working with character objects
The touch type tool
Styles
Introduction to drawing
Understanding drawing in illustrator
Drawing a straight path with the pen tool
Drawing closed paths with the pen tool
Draw curved paths with the pen tool
Drawing objects with curved paths
Adjusting curves created by the pen tool
Drawing paths with the curvature tool
Drawing paths with the pencil tool
Add fill to closed paths
Saving and printing
Understanding save and export options
Understanding file formats
Exporting an illustrator document
Saving for a microsoft office program
Saving as a pdf file
Saving an illustrator document for the web
Printing an illustrator document
Packaging a document
Getting help
Understanding the help menu
Using help
Searching for online help
Suitable for anyone wanting to learn the basics of the Adobe Illustrator software.
This introductory course assumes little or no knowledge of the software.
Delivery modes
Face-to-face, presenter-taught training using your own device
Online training via the platform Zoom
Face-to-face classes
These classes run in a classroom and you will need to bring your own device with Adobe Illustrator installed. You should ensure it is fully charged as access to power is limited. Please note that the University does not carry any responsibility for your lost, stolen, or damaged devices whilst on the University premises.
Online classes
You will need your own device with Adobe Illustrator installed. We also recommend using a computer with a larger screen, or two screens/devices. A small laptop screen provides limited space, and it can be difficult to manage following the facilitator’s screen and using your own software.
Course materials are provided electronically using Dropbox.
Before the course
You will need an Adobe Creative Cloud account to participate. If you don't have an existing account, you can purchase an Adobe Creative Cloud account here. Please bring your account login details with you to class.
Recommended operating system: Windows or Mac
Recommended software for PC: latest version of Adobe Illustrator
Recommended software for Mac OS: latest version of Adobe Illustrator
Download the BETA version through your Creative Cloud to access the AI features
Learn Adobe Illustrator basics, from creating custom paths and shapes to working with layers, colour, and gradients. This two-day course covers everything needed to design logos, branding, and graphics. Ideal for beginners in vector design.
Xavier Beau-Davis has extensive qualifications and experience in design and graphic arts, including a Bachelor of Design and a Diploma in Graphic Arts. He also successfully runs his own company specialising in creating websites.
Xavier has operational experience in a myriad of industry sectors such as Financial Services, Insurance, Education, Information Technology, Local Government, State Government, Commonwealth Government, Not-For-Profit, Banking, Entertainment and the Media.
Xavier has been a computer trainer and teacher for many years in both corporate and educational environments and holds a Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment. He has experience consulting or delivering training in all the aforementioned industry sectors.
Xavier believes that computers are just a tool to let people create their own designs and he enjoys providing learners with some simple techniques so that everyone can achieve this goal.
Master the fundamentals of Adobe Photoshop, from image editing to working with layers, text, and selections. This two-day course is perfect for beginners looking to enhance photos, create graphics, and prepare images for print or web.
Expand your Adobe Illustrator skills with advanced tools, effects, and colour techniques. Learn to create vector graphics, work with patterns, masks, and live paint, and prepare documents for print or web.
Learn Adobe InDesign basics to create layouts for print and digital publishing. This two-day course covers essential tools for working with text, images, colours, and exporting projects. Perfect for beginners in graphic design and layout creation.
Learn Adobe After Effects fundamentals, including motion graphics and visual effects. This two-day course covers tools, animations, effects, motion tracking, colour correction, and 3D layers. Great for those new to motion graphics.
Learn essential video editing techniques in this two-day Adobe Premiere Pro course. Master tools like effects, transitions, keyframes, and more. Create professional video projects with hands-on practice, colour correction, and multi-camera editing.
Explore Adobe Express for creating eye-catching social media graphics, videos, and websites. Perfect for beginners, this hands-on course covers templates, photo editing, and AI tools for impressive designs. Ideal for both personal and business use.
Learn to design professional-quality graphics, presentations, and social media content using intuitive tools and templates. Perfect for beginners looking to create stunning visuals with ease.
The mix of instructions, practical exercises, and often provision of individual assistance during the exercises is an excellent training/learning method. The latter helped me focus on skills that I really need at work.
Ruben Allas
Toni Barker
Kim Kelly
The course and the instructor were excellent. The venue overall is also great, including location, parking and rooms/facilities.
Alexandra Pitzing
Bruna Daudt
JAMES EWART
Hester Gatt
Maka Toetu
The tutor had a talent of conveying complex concepts and principles in the simplest way, which made it so easy for me to understand the basic functions of a difficult problem. By the end of the lesson, I could work the primary tools of the program and, further, understand why I would use them. The technology available for use in the class was up-to-date.
lelien chua
Serena Hodgson
Esther Segado Torres
Jose Sanz
Wayne Hayes
Michelle Greenway
Nadia Peri
Diane Dundas
Cerys Carter
JAMES EWART
Great course and knowledgeable tutor; recommended.
Lyn Garling
A great tutor and very patient - thank you! Course was interesting and fun and facilities were good too. Now, for my next course... ;-)
Lyn Garling
Emily Mastoropoulos
Heath Jansson
Heath Jansson
We had a really wonderful teacher who took an interest in everyone's learning and explained things at a great pace. The teacher makes a huge impact on learning so I am really glad I had a brilliant tutor. Thank you for a great course.
Shelley Gehrels
Todd Wheeler
Laura Wyllie
Adam Wasiel
Sarah Garrett
Natalie Mitropoulos
The tutor was very patient, attentive and helpful, the right person in the right place. Although I was using Illustrator a bit in my job I was showed tips and tricks which will help me in the future while doing internal designs. Thanks again.
Lenka Filipovicova
The tutor was very knowledgeable and shared his experiences willingly. As a mature age student I was put at ease, as it can be very intimidating entering into such a fast paced course after such a long time.
Gabrielle Segavcic
William Gee
Alessandra Ciampi
Debra Reid
Allison James
Brooke Austin
Caitlin Thom
Lauren Bremner
Erin Craig
Peta Banks
Mwangi Wangethi
Georgia Kriz
The tutor was fantastic to work with and made the course lots of fun, whilst still giving us lots of knowledge and skills practice. I would highly recommend this course to anyone that works with graphics.
Jackie Mullins
This is a fantastic course, packed full of info and delivered by an excellent tutor.
Louise James
The tutor was great and the content covered in the course established a great foundation on which to continue learning and developing skills. The learning environment was relaxed, yet the tutor managed to fill the day with really useful information and practical exercises. I will continue to use CCE as my first choice for short courses in the future.
Kele Maher
Victoria Shipp
Katharine Hassett
Vicky Duong
Great tutor, great course!
Christine Connell
The course gave me all of the information I needed. It was easy to understand and follow along with instructions. I liked that the classes were very personalised.
Denise Marinkovic
The tutor was absolutely brilliant. Really knows their stuff. We covered a lot of material and we got excellent hands-on experience.
Tijana Miljovska
This course was outstanding. The trainer was absolutely superb - entertaining, easy to understand,and presented the material in such a way that it was fun to learn. Highly inspiring. I plan to do the advanced course in the no too distant future.
