Here is my international symbols assignment. It was our first assignment, our job was to learn the basic tools of Adobe Illustrator and adjust to the interface by recreating the international symbols provided to us. International symbols are signs that can be understood by anyone no matter the language. For example, looking at the skull and crossbones sign lets you know that there may be danger and you must be cautious. On the last six signs we had a bit more freedom. We were allowed to chose the template by

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searching the web and make a sign that should be about sailing, horseback riding, swimming, hiking, rock climbing. and nature walks.

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There were three major techniques I learned and used to create the images. Those being, transforming, live tracing and using the pathfinder. I used transforming with the snowflake symbol. Basically you use the shape tools (such as the rectangle or ellipse tools) to create a basic shape and transform the object while copying and pasting. For example if you look at the snowflake icon you can see that I started with a rectangle, copied and pasted, and either reflected or rotated it around.

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Next there is the live tracing. Using the live tracing you can trace an image, simple as that. I personally found this as my least favorite way of doing things even though it was the easiest because no matter how much you play with the settings it still ends up looking painterly and/or messy. Something you’d might find a bit rare in graphic design. To me it looks like someone turned the pressure sensitivity all the way up on their graphic tablet and didn’t care where their lines thickened. You can tell I used the live trace on the skull and crossbones and the gears images.

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And finally there is the pathfinder. Similar to the transforming way of doing things you start with basic shapes and transform them. However then things get a bit more complex and you pull up the pathfinder panel. The pathfinder panel gives you the option to merge or divide shapes together. The radiation symbol was a symbol I used the pathfinder on. I started with a circle and drew three lines over it to show where I wanted to sever the circle into different parts. After using the pathfinder tool I used the direct selection tool to select the parts I didn’t want and deleted them.