Two BIGGEST TIME SAVING Adobe Illustrator DESIGN HACKS every blogger needs to know

If you are a busy entrepreneur who is still creating every aspect  of your business, including creating ALL the pretty graphics that go along with it than you will NEED to listen up because I'm going to show you 2 of the NEED-TO-KNOW tricks inside Adobe Illustrator that will not only save you loads of time but they will help you maintane a cohesive look and feel to your brand.  Trust me, once you know these two tricks you'll be whipping out blog graphics and social media images like a ROCKSTAR!

Oh, and if you are wanting to give Adobe Illustrator a try, go ahead and downlaod a 1 month  trial version HERE.

1. Multiple Artboards

Don't let the term "artboard" scare you. It's just Illustrator's name for your project workspace.  But here's what few Illustrator users know... you can work on multiple artboards at the same time!  You are not limited to only having 1 project in front of you at any given time. You don 't have to flip between multiple windows or screens if you have a multi-page project.  So let's say I have written an EPIC blog post and now I want to quickly flush out a set of graphics to accompany said epic blog post.  I will need a feature image for the blog itself, I will need a square image for Instagram and I will need a vertical image for easy pinning on Pinterest.  After I create my first initial artboard (sized for Pinterest) I will then create a 2nd artboard (square for IG)  and 3rd artboard (sized for Twitter and/or inside my blog) right next to each other so I can easily copy and past my first layout and just re-size it to fit the other two artboards. Boom!  Major time saver!

2. Set up a library for each "brand" you work with

Did you know you can organize and keep your brand logo and images all together in a neat little library that is accesible by the click of button from any Adobe CC program?  No lies, it was a super awesome day the day I learned this little tidbit of time saving goodness. So let's pretend that you have a logo, an icon, a specific pattern and of course, specific brand colors. All you have to do is add each of those "assets" to your library and then they are right there waiting for you each time you create content. So much faster than digging up your logo file, pulling up your color swatches from a previous image, or copying and pasting that really cool pattern you created last time.  It's all right there, time and time and time again, like your BFF in real life. Oh and your library items are automatically synced to your Creative Cloud account, so you can work with them wherever you are, even if you’re offline.  Super-de-duper!

Imagine the time savings if you had multiple accounts or brands that you create images for? Yup, you can (and should) create a different libarary for each and every account you work with! 

Create personal and shared libraries to keep track of brand identity assets, frequently used icons for web layouts, video clips, or your go-to brushes and color themes for illustrations. ​

Here's how to create a library inside your Adobe CC App:
1. From any Adobe CC application, go to Window > Libraries to open the Libraries panel.You can use the Libraries menu to create a new library and name it specific to a client's name or brand, or simply add assets to the default library, named My Library.  
2. Click plus (+) in the Libraries panel to add graphics, text styles, colors, and effects from your document. You can also add graphic assets such as shapes and photos by dragging them directly from your project into the Libraries panel. Asset thumbnails are organized by category, so they’re easy to locate. Double-click an asset’s title to rename it. Now that the asset is saved to a library, it’s easy to drag and drop it to add it to other projects

I sure hope this helps somebody out there save LOADS of time and maybe even some frustration.  Also, if you care to share how long you've been working with Illustrator I would love to know since I consider myself sort of a veteran (15+ years with Adobe Illustrator) and yet these are two fairly new tools for me. Leave a quick comment below if you have time to connect, thanks!