Pattern in Illustrator

7/27/2019 Pattern in Illustrator

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Sometimes when I create a pattern background in Illustrator I dont end up with a Pattern Swatch.

Instead, I create a Symbolof the repeating element and I create a whole background repeating this

Symbol: duplicating 1, then 2, 4, 8, 16 and so on. Its just not always that simple to create perfectly

seamless patterns, especially with geometric forms. Today Ill show you how to create a geometric

pattern shape and fill a background with it using the method I just described.

Inspiration

I found this beautiful pattern on FFFFound and I thought, this is perfect for a tutorial. It's a beautiful

geometric form with an interesting twist. It might look very simple at first glance, but it is a bit

misleading. There is the mirrored effect, plus there is the vertical brown line to consider as well. After a

bit of analyzing, I came up with the following method.

Creating a hexagon shape

Select the Polygon Toolfrom the Toolbox and draw a hexagon. Hold down the Shift Keywhile dragging

the shape.


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Give the hexagon a dark red fill and brown border of 75 pt. Open theAppearance Panel, select the

brown Stroke of 75 pt and click the Duplicate Selected item icon at the bottom of the panel to add a

stroke on top of the brown one. Give it an orange color and a thickness of 25 pt. This way we have a

hexagon with 3 strokes with the exact same width: brown orange brown

Rotate the hexagon

Select the Rotate Toolfrom the Toolbox and click in the right corner of the hexagon to us as rotation

point. Hold down the shift and rotate the hexagon 90 as shown in the image above. You might want to

turn Smart Guide on for this exercise. Use command/control + u to switch Smart Guides on and off.

Add a vertical line to the hexagon


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Make sure your Rulers are turned on: go to View > Show Rulers or hit command/control + r. Drag avertical guide from the rulers to the middle of the hexagon. If you have Smart Guides turned on you

should automatically notice where to release your mouse and it should also snap to the point. Select the

Line Toolfrom the Toolbox and draw a vertical line by holding down the Shift key. Give the line the same

dark brown color and a weight of 25 pt.

Turn strokes into fills


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Hit command/control + a to select everything. Go to Object > Path > Outline Stroke to turn the strokesinto filles. Chances are the tick stroke of 75 pt is not turned into a fill. Select your object and go to the

Appearance Panelselect the 75 pt stroke from the panel and go to Object > Path > Outline Stroke again.

The reason why I turn the strokes into fills is because in the next stage I need to be able to make the

object snap around its borders to make a perfectly seamless pattern background. Plus, I also need to

tweak a little bit to make this pattern work.

Tweak the brown border


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Select the Direct Selection Tool(white arrow) from the Toolbox and click the top corner point of thehexagon. Hold down the Shift keyand drag the point down till it intersects with the inner brown border

as shown in the image above.

Duplicate and rotate 180


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Select the Rotate Toolfrom the toolbox. Hold downAlt/Option Keyand click somewhere to the top rightof the hexagon just above the top right side of the orange hexagon as shown in the image above. In the

window enter a value of 180 and click the Copybutton to duplicate the object.

Move the duplicated object in place


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Click and drag the bottom right corner of the orange hexagon using the Selection Tool(black arrow) andmove the object until it intersects with the intersection corner of the inner brown hexagon and vertical

brown line as shown in the picture above. Make sure Smart Guides are turned on so the object will snap

to this point. It should be perfectly placed in that spot, that's why you need to turn on Smart Guides on

and why we converted the Strokes into Fills. It makes the job much easier.

Create a pattern symbol


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We're almost there now :) The shape we have now is the pattern that gets repeated to create a patternbackground. Smart thing to do now is to create a Symbolof this. This way we keep our file size low and if

we decide later to change something about this pattern. Add a Stroke, change its colors, change the

shape or whatever, the whole pattern background will get updated. Make sure the Symbols panelis

shown. Go to Window > Symbols to reveal the panel on your workspace. Hit Command/Control + a to

select the entire object and drag it in the Symbols panel. Give it a name and hit the OK button.

Create pattern background from a pattern symbol


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The object is now turned into a Symbol including the one still on your canvas. Now you can create awhole background with this pattern Symbol. Duplicate and move the Symbol by holding down the

Alt/Option Keyand Shift Key. If you have the 2nd pattern in place, select both and do the same so you

have 4 in a row, or column, depending how you've moved/duplicated them (horizontal or vertical). Then

do the same again by duplicate 8 symbols, 16 and so on and on. Then duplicate in the other direction

until you have your canvas covered in a pattern background as shown in the above image.

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Pattern in Illustrator