Adobe Illustrator for Jewellery Training Options

What is Adobe Illustrator?

Adobe Illustrator is a long-standing graphic design tool that works with many of the same basic principles as the 2D elements of most CAD packages. It’s only natural, then, that it makes an ideal supplement for drawing 2D lines to be later turned into a 3D model, or even using it as a design tool in its own right for precise technical illustration or laser engraving images. Adobe Illustrator training has been the secret weapon of many jewellery design houses I’ve encountered (and trained) over the past twenty years.

Adobe Illustrator’s Advantages and Weaknesses

Adobe Illustrator has been the gold standard for vector line design since the late 1990’s when it took market share Freehand and Corel Draw. part of the reason for this is that not only are the vector line tools stupendously fast (Indeed, there is no faster program you can use for vector line work), but many of the advanced curve attributes the program adds make illustrating certain types of jewellery wonderfully easy, such as anything involving chains.

In addition, it contains tools for automatically making lines from existing bitmaps, making the transition from scanned image to 3D model even more efficient.

All that being said, ultimately Adobe Illustrator is a 2D software package. While you can import and export vector lines to other 3D CAD programs, Illustrator sits in its separate category from the other tools discussed here. It’s the best in the business for 2D designers or jewellery draftsmen. But for most 3D CAD designers, it mainly serves as a design visualisation aid or a secondary CAD program.

Of course, there’s more to it than just that. I wrote a Frequently Asked Questions page all about the specific strengths and weaknesses of different jewellery CAD programs relative to each other.

If you’d like to know more, you can also Contact me to discuss the advantages of Adobe Illustrator relative to other jewellery CAD programs (and 2D design software), and whether Illustrator is the best 2D design software package for you.

Adobe Illustrator in Action

Here are some examples of jewellery design drawing in Adobe Illustrator from the CADJewellerySkills Youtube channel:

To Learn More About Using Adobe Illustrator for Jewellery CAD/CAM

If this whets your appetite for learning more about how to use Adobe Illustrator for your jewellery design work, I can provide you with two options:

1. I now offer an Adobe Illustrator short course through the Goldsmiths Centre at three levels (Parts 1, 2, and 3).
2. If you’d rather not wait for the next class or there is something specific you’d like for Adobe Illustrator training, Contact me to find out more about bespoke private tuition in Adobe Illustrator to suit your business needs and timetables.