Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Adobe Illustrator Using a layer/vector as a variable

  • Using a layer/vector as a variable

    Posted by Abdul Rahim on May 16, 2019 at 7:59 pm

    Hi community,
    It’s been several times I got into a situation where I made a bunch of identities of a logo (stationary like business cards, letterheads, social media covers, posts etc) and then my client wants me to change the logo a bit. So now I have to go and change the logo everywhere.
    Is there any way I could make a layer/vector/logo a reference (like a variable in a programming language) and use its instances everywhere. So when I change the source logo, it automatically changes all the instance I made of it. I know it sounds like a computer science thing but help me if it’s possible or you have any similar solution.

    Thanks.

    Kalleheikki Kannisto replied 7 years ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • Kalleheikki Kannisto

    May 18, 2019 at 7:17 am

    Sounds like you are doing the designs fully in Illustrator. The more efficient way would be to do the designs in InDesign and import the artwork. That way when you update the original source image, everything linked to it will update automatically.

    It is possible to link a file in Illustrator as well. Not sure that it works if the original is in Illustrator format, but at least if you save as PDF or EPS, you can import the file linked rather than embedded to the same effect.

    https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/importing-artwork-files.html

    Kalleheikki Kannisto
    Senior Graphic Designer

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy