Using the symbols panel in Illustrator

The symbols panel in Illustrator is a hidden but powerful tool for creating a more efficient workflow for brand projects. Reused components of branding (logos, buttons, etc) can be easily turned into symbols that are readily accessed in any project. Using symbols also helps create consistency both within an individual project and across the larger branding. Let's take a look at how to use the symbols panel.

Creating symbols in Illustrator

Open the symbols panel from the window menu option. Select symbols. This will open up the symbols panel. It's a good practice to clear out the default symbols and start fresh. To do this, simply select all the symbols and click the trash in the lower right corner of the panel.

Now you have a fresh panel. To create a new symbol, select the piece of artwork you want to use and either drag it into the symbols panel or click the create new symbol button. A dialogue box will show up listing several options.

Enter a name for your symbol. Make sure its something that's easy to recognize in case you have multiple variations. The export type can be either movie clip or graphic. The differentiation is mainly for use in Flash, but when using the symbols in Illustrator the type doesn't matter. The default symbol type for Illustrator is dynamic, and I would highly recommend leaving that option selected. We'll talk about dynamic symbols in a moment. Registration is another option that's included for working in Flash, but for use in Illustrator you can leave it set at the default position in the center. 9-slice scaling is also useful for Flash, but is largely unnecessary for our purposes.

Using dynamic symbols

Now that you've created a new symbol, let's go over the benefits of creating dynamic symbols. Using dynamic symbols gives us the ability to quickly drop multiple instances of our artwork into our project and make edits either locally or globally to that symbol. Using the direct select tool, you can adjust individual components of each instance. You can change the color, size, transparency, and other appearance options for each instance of your symbol.

But let's say you're working on the project and you realize a curve or stroke in your artwork needs to be adjusted. Adjusting each instance of the symbol would be tedious and the end result inconsistent. By using a dynamic symbol, however, when you make changes to the symbol definition (double-click an instance with the direct select tool), the changes are applied to every instance of that symbol in your project and across any project that might use that symbol. It's an extremely powerful tool, especially when reusing elements in a UI design context, for example.

If you want to make changes that don't change every instance, you can expand the instance of the symbol, effectively breaking the link between it and the master symbol in the panel. This instance now behaves independently of the rest.

Create a library for quick access

Once you have created a bunch of symbols you can save them as a custom library for quick access in later or other projects. To do this, select all the symbols you want in your library, click the library icon in the symbols panel and then click save symbols. Name it and you're good to go. To find your symbol library at a later time, simply load it from the library selector in the symbols panel. Using libraries saves time when switching between projects and you never have to wonder which file you left your assets in.