Symbols in Illustrator

In this post, I will introduce you to Symbols in Adobe Illustrator and guide you through a step-by-step guide on how to create, store, and edit these incredible visual elements.

If you are familiar with User Interface (UI) design or if you have seen apps like Figma and Adobe XD in action, you may know what Components and Instances are: reusable graphic elements, like icons and buttons. In Illustrator, these are known as Symbols and they share the same purpose: streamline our design process.

I will also add a quick note about Symbol Libraries and Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) Libraries and help you decide the best option for each project.

This post is based on my Illustrator Advanced Course. When you become a BYOL member, you gain access to this course as well as my 30+ additional courses on After Effects, Photoshop, Figma, Lightroom, and more. As a BYOL member you will also enjoy personalized support, earn certificates, and tackle exciting community challenges. Head here to sign-up!

Fire up your laptops and let’s hit the road!

Symbols in Illustrator

Time is short, and deadlines in design are always just around the corner. Time-saving practices and tools are true lifesavers and Symbols are perfect examples of how we can streamline our design process through short and quick actions. Let's get into the how!

Symbols ensure efficiency and consistency. We save time by creating a base object and reusing it in multiple instances, throughout any artboards and documents. These duplicates remain linked to their respective Symbol, so every time we edit the original object, all instances are automatically updated.

We can also create Dynamic Symbols. Instances created from Dynamic Symbols hold a unique appearance (color fill, stroke, etc...) while keeping their original shape. A cool way to study and create icons and logo variants.

Symbols can be organized and shared in Symbol Libraries, permitting easy access to other team members. We can also use CC Libraries to store Symbols, but we will have a closer look at these in a bit.

Creating Symbols

We are going to create symbols from a basic vector shape, a stroke path, and a text object. That’s how versatile Symbols can be! We will use a map as background to this tutorial and add some markers and notes to guide us on our visit to lovely Granada, Spain.

Let’s begin by opening the Symbols panel. We can use the shortcut Shift + Command + F11 on a Mac, or Shift + Control + F11 on a PC. We can access it from the top menu bar, by clicking Window and then Symbols.

Inside our Symbols panel we can find default Illustrator symbols. These can change according to the version you are working with, but they won’t differ much.  

 There are also multiple Symbol Libraries that Illustrator includes for us to open and explore. Click on the lower-right Symbol Libraries Menu button to access these. I admit that I don’t use them often, but you might have used these symbols, so go ahead and have fun with them! For the purpose of this post, we will keep the focus on our own designs and move on.

Let’s create our first symbol: a location marker.

This is a basic vector shape, I’m sure we’ve all seen these on maps and GPS interfaces. I teach you how to draw elements like this in my Illustrator Essentials Course, so if you’re not entirely comfortable with designing a shape like this, join us at BYOL, and begin your journey from Zero to Hero!

Let’s select the shape with the Selection tool (shortcut V) and click on the New Symbol button (the one with a + icon) to add our location marker to the Symbols panel.

This opens the Symbol Options window. Let’s insert our new Symbol’s name (I’ll call it Location). Next, we set Export to Graphic and, for this example, click on Static Symbol.

Static Symbol instances are bound to their Symbol. They can be transformed (rotated, scaled up or down, flipped, etc.), but their appearance attributes can only be changed by editing the original. All instances will be automatically updated, remember that.

Dynamic Symbol instances can be transformed and have their appearance attributes changed, but they always keep the original Symbols shape.

Click OK when you are done. The new Symbol is now visible as a thumbnail in the Symbols panel. Hovering the mouse cursor over it reveals its name. Double-clicking the thumbnail opens an editing window.

Next, we will create a Symbol from a stroked path, like a cute round swoosh. We click on the New Symbol button to open the Options window and give our path symbol a name (I’ll call it “Path” and amaze the audience). This time let’s select the Dynamic Symbol option.

Finally, let’s create a new Symbol from a text object. We simply have to repeat the process.

Important tip for Type Symbols:

• We can’t edit live Type Dynamic Symbol’s instances. Any changes to content and appearance will have to be made to the original Symbol and all instances will automatically update.

• To have multiple appearance settings and keep the text live, we can create a Symbol version for each style.

• If we convert the text to outlines before saving it as a Symbol, we can change its appearance but the content is no longer editable.

One last detail:

We can easily differentiate Static and Dynamic Symbols in the Symbols panel. Dynamic Symbols have a small + icon at the lower-right corner of their thumbnails.

Placing and Editing Instances

Now it’s time to reuse the Symbols we’ve created. Let’s say we need to identify several locations on our map for future reference. We will need to place instances of your “Location” Symbol over those places.

We can click and drag new instances directly from each thumbnail in the Symbols panel, but you know I’m a teacher and I have to show you more than one way to get things done in Illustrator, so if we click on the Place Symbol Instance button, a new instance of the select Symbol will be copied to the artboard.

Quick and easy! Every time we click and drag from the Symbols panel or hit the Place button, we get a new instance.

Let’s edit our location markers. As we now know, we can’t change the appearance of these instances because they are duplicates of a Static Symbol. To change the appearance, we must edit the original symbol’s definition. We can click on the Edit Symbol button on the Properties panel or double-click the thumbnail. If you are trying this for the first time, you may see a message like the one below, warning you that any changes to the symbol will affect all linked instances. If you don’t need this reminder, check the Don’t Show Again option before clicking OK.

We now jump to Isolation Mode and perform the changes we need. I’ll just swap Fill and Stroke with the shortcut Shift + X and raise the stroke size to 6 pixels. Once we’re done, we hit the Escape button or click on the Exit Symbol Editing Mode button.

We can now see that our location marker’s new style has been updated on the preview thumbnail and on all instances. Efficiency and consistency, all at once! Cool, huh?

How about our swoosh Symbol, the stroke path? Do you remember that we’ve made it Dynamic? Of course you do! Let’s see how we can change its instances. I’ll circle some map locations to remind me to visit certain parts of Granada, but without a precise address or specific point of interest, something like a park, a road, or town area.

Looks nice! Now let’s say we need to set a different color to only one of those circles, so we don’t forget that we can only get there by bicycle. Using the Direct Selection tool (shortcut A), we click on the middle circle and change its stroke color using the Color Picker. As simple as this!

Only that specific instance was changed. The other two instances and the original Symbol did not update to this new color. And that’s exactly what we wanted to happen!

What if we want to edit the Symbol? What will happen to the instance we have just updated with a new color? Let’s double-click its thumbnail and have a look!

We’re back in Isolation Mode! Let’s keep this simple, so we’ll just set a 90º-degrees rotation and hit Escape to go back to our workspace.

All three instances were updated with their Symbol new settings, but the one in the middle kept its specific stroke color! How cool is that?

Timeout #1

Symbols have an important role in visual communication, checkout this study of 43 Symbols and Meanings in Graphic Design for additional inspiration. 

Saving and Loading Symbol Libraries

Another question you may be asking: “are these Symbols limited to the document I’m working on?” I’m happy to answer that question: no. A set of Symbols can be saved inside a Symbol Library and loaded onto other documents.

Let’s save our Symbols as a Symbol Library and see what we can do with CC Libraries to help us share our design assets.

Inside the Symbols panel, click on the flyout menu button, the one with three horizontal lines, and select the Save Symbol Library command.

Next, save your Symbol Library .ai file to the Symbols folder inside your computer’s Adobe Illustrator Settings path. Give it a name that is easy to identify and click Save.

Now let’s learn how to load a Symbol Library to a new Illustrator Document.

Open a new document and access the Symbols panel. Inside the panel, click on the Symbol Libraries Menu, find the user defined option, and click on the file name of the Library you saved in the previous step.

The Symbols we created for our map of Granada are now available inside the new document, inside their own library panel. We can now click and drag each symbol to place new instances on the artboard or double-click the thumbnails to copy them to that document’s Symbols panel.

There is one more thing we can do. Let’s say we just wanted to use the location marker and text label once. We can place an instance on the artboard and click on Break Link in the Properties Panel to cut any connection with their original Symbol.

Now we can change attributes and shapes as we need and even save these newly edited objects as new symbols, if needed.   

Timeout #2

Get inspired to design with Symbols that you can reuse across different projects. Check out these stellar examples of symbols from designers all over the world. 

Saving Symbols as Graphics Assets in a CC Library

One more tip to finish this blog post:

Symbol Libraries are the “old way” to reuse design graphics multiplied across different artworks. Don’t get me wrong, they still make total sense if you are part of a one-man-team, working as a freelancer to build up your portfolio, and keeping your designs saved locally on any cloud service. Many designers still prefer this approach, there’s nothing wrong with it. However, if you are part of a dynamic design team, you likely need to share your work with other designers or a project manager and the “new way” Creative Cloud option is a true productivity lifesaver.

It's not much different from the “old way”. To create your Granada Symbols library, simply open the Libraries panel, create a folder called Symbols and drag the objects into the panel. One other way to do it is selecting each object we want to save, clicking on the Add Elements button at the bottom of the Libraries panel, and picking the Graphics category. Done!

They’re all set and ready to be shared with our team, manager, and stakeholders. It’s easy! We click on the Invite to Library button at the top of the Libraries panel, add the new user’s email address and decide if this person can edit or simply view the assets saved inside.

And there we have it!

I hope you had as much fun as I did! In this quick read, we learned what Symbols represent in Illustrator, how to create and place them on our art, how to efficiently save them for future projects, and best practices for sharing them with our teams. Apply these skills to your workflow and I have no doubt you will hit every creative deadline! 

What 's Next?

To go deeper with Illustrator, join BYOL and you will gain access to my Illustrator Essentials and Advanced courses as well as my 30+ additional courses on Figma, Photoshop,  Lightroom, Premiere Pro, Webflow, and more. As a BYOL member you will also enjoy personalized support, earn certificates, and tackle exciting community challenges. Get started here. 

See you in class! – Dan