I didn't even know what type of software was capable of producing such awesomeness, let alone that I would one day use it for myself.

He began razzling and dazzling me with his fancy bézier curves and handlebar tweaking techniques. So the guy at the print shop scanned in my sad print out of what I thought was an incredible logotype and pulled it up in Illustrator.

I designed the sticker in MS Paint like a total boss, but of course, the resolution was much too low to be stretched across the windshield of a vehicle. I'm embarrassed to admit that the sticker was designed to stretch across the entire width and read 'Xtreme Customs.' At least I didn't go for the ' customz' spelling, but unfortunately this was the genius slogan that a group of friends and myself agreed upon as the name of our vehicle clique. I was a freshman in college and visited a print shop to get a sticker made for the top of my white Ford Mustang's windshield. 'Black magic!' I thought to myself, as I witnessed for the first time, someone manipulating vector shapes in Adobe Illustrator. RANDOM PRINT SHOP SOMEWHERE IN SOUTHEAST GEORGIA - DAY (2000) I'm starting this post at the beginning, so even if your goal is not to get blazing fast, you'll still get a solid understanding of the basics. If you're new to Illustrator, don't fret. If there aren't quick keys for some frequently performed task, I will often create my own. The simple truth is that I've used Illustrator a lot over the past decade and have learned a quick key for virtually everything I produce, whether it's logos, wireframes, or full-fledged interface designs. When I posted 'Wireframing with Illustrator and InDesign', several people asked about my Illustrator techniques.

Illustrator vector