How to Make a Pattern in Illustrator

In this post we will explore patterns and use Illustrator to create amazing art with them. In doing so, we will create a world of limitless fun with just a few clicks! You don’t need to master geometry to achieve a fantastic result; observation and practice will get you there quick and easy, and I’ll share some pointers in the Timeouts for that extra boost of confidence.

These techniques are based on my Illustrator Essentials Course. When you become a BYOL member, you gain access to this course as well as my 30+ additional courses on Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, Webflow, and more. As a BYOL member you will also enjoy personalized support, earn certificates, and tackle exciting community challenges. Head here to sign-up!

Patterns in Illustrator

We can create patterns using geometric shapes like rectangles, circles, pentagons, stars, among others, but we can also build them out of cool stuff like drawings or icons, pretty much any artwork you can combine in a logical –  or irregular way, works just as well – repetition, depending on what you are aiming for.

Timeout #1

Early timeout, this one, but I’m sure this will help you frame your mind around patterns and how they can influence your work and life all around you! It’s fun. Read it now or save it for later, but don’t skip it!

Here we go, let’s begin with this sort of Y shaped geometric shape and build a pattern from it in just a few simple steps – after this guide, I can also show you how to design the shape itself so you can try it out and share your work with your friends and on BYOL social media. I’d really love that!

 Step 1 – Set the geometric shape that will form a pattern.

Any shape or combination of shapes will do, as long as you can form a flow that feels balanced and consistent, no matter its size or context.

From the top, we begin by creating or importing our shape and scaling it inside our artboard until we’re fine with its size and placement. Keeping it in the center of the artboard will help us as we play with your pattern’s settings. We can style it to fit our brand or to our original idea before moving on, but we can always edit our pattern further down the road.

Step 2 – Make a pattern from a geometric shape.

This is so easy you won’t believe it but, hey, it’s Illustrator! There’s so much you can do with just a few clicks, right?

Let’s move up to “Object” on our top menu bar, hover our mouse over “Pattern” and then click on “Make”.

As soon as we hit “Make”, a world of wonders unfolds and we find three important elements on our screen:

1.       The Pattern Options panel, in which we adjust our pattern’s settings.

2.       The Swatches panel, where our pattern will be stored.

3.       We are now working in Isolation mode.

Step 3 – Pattern Options in Illustrator

This is the fun part and the one with a million different possibilities. We can make our new shape copies join, part, overlap, multiply, until we come up with a fresh new pattern!

Now we style our pattern by adjusting any of the features in the Pattern Options panel. Let’s have a quick tour and see what it has to offer. We won’t dive too deep into it, so feel free to explore it later and share what you designed! Inspire us!

Name: Our pattern’s name when stored in Swatches.

Tile Type: The geometric shape (or artwork) we picked for our pattern is placed inside a tile. Our pattern is composed of tiles and this option defines how they arrange themselves to form our pattern.

Grid – Tiles are aligned both horizontally and vertically to the center of the other tiles to form a symmetrical composition.

Brick by row or Brick by column – Tiles have a rectangular structure, are arranged in rows of columns, with centers aligned.

Hex by row or Hex by column – Tiles have a hexagonal shape, arranged in rows or columns, tiles centered horizontally or vertically. Centers of tiles in alternate rows or columns are vertically or horizontally aligned.

Brick Offset (available when Brick by row or Brick by column option is active): Sets how much width or height the tiles’ centers are out vertical or horizontal alignment, adding some asymmetry to the composition.

Width and Height: They set the tile’s overall dimensions, making them larger or smaller than the artwork inside. Values above the artwork’s size will add empty space to our pattern, lower values will cause tiles to overlap, which can be great in some patterns!

Size Tile to Art – we check it to make sure that tile and artwork are the same size.

Move Tile with Art – We check it to make sure that when we move tile and artwork at the same time.

H Spacing and V Spacing: Sets the horizontal and vertical spacing between tiles.

Overlap: When tiles overlap, this defines which tiles stay on top.

Copies: Sets the number of rows and columns visible in the pattern.

Dim Copies to: Sets the opacity of the artwork’s copies that form the pattern while editing it. I don’t like this option much, I prefer having a clear view, but you may find it useful to do some fine tuning, so it’s fine to use it!

Show Tile Edge: This displays a box around the artwork’s tile.

Show Swatch Bounds: identifies the portion of the created pattern that is repeated to form a full pattern.

When we are creating a new pattern, minding that we are working in isolation mode, we save it or discard it by clicking on “Done” or “Cancel” up in the Control Panel. Our pattern is stored in the Swatches panel.

Step 4 – Applying a pattern from the Swatches Panel

Ladies and gents, the magic is ready to be displayed, so let’s use our new pattern on an artboard and be amazed!

Let’s create a shape the size of our original artboard with the help of the Rectangle tool and, if you don’t see the Swatches panel in your workspace you can go to “Window” on your top menu bar and pick “Swatches” or, with your shape selected, click on “Fill” from the “Appearance” panel, and click on the “Swatches” icon as below.

And you’ll notice there’s a new Swatch inside with the pattern we’ve just made!

All we need to do now is click on the pattern’s swatch and… Presto!

If we want to edit our pattern later on, we can double-click its Swatch or hit the “Pattern Options” button in the Swatches panel. Then we make our adjustments, get up from our chair and take a step back to see if it looks great (ok, this last one is optional) and click on “Done” to update it. We can also choose “Save a Copy” to add a new pattern to Swatches while keeping the original safe or click “Cancel” to ignore any changes.

We can also scale up or down our pattern by adjusting the shape’s dimensions by clicking and dragging with our Selection Tool.

Timeout #2

Want to dive into a whole new world of fun and appealing geometry? Yes, you can use the words “geometry”, “fun”, and “appealing” in the same sentence. Check out this read on geometry and patterns and be surprised. You won’t regret adding this knowledge to your playbook!

Step 5 – Applying a pattern in Text.

Another cool thing to do with patterns? Use them in type! Quick and easy!

Let’s write something and fill it with our pattern. I’ll use my name, you can use yours, or your pet’s name, anything you like is perfect!

With our text selected, we click on “Fill” from the “Appearance” panel, choose “Swatches” if they’re not visible and click on our pattern’s Swatch.

Guess what happens?

Here’s another cool feature. If you have your type selected, you can make some changes, like  scaling it down and the pattern will tag along. But there’s a great trick for type editing when it has a pattern fill.

With our type selected, we click on the “More Options” icon (the three dots) in “Transform” from the Properties Panel.

Now it gets a bit odd, but we must click another icon in the top right corner of the “More Options”. I like to call it “More-more Options” but I’m sure Illustrator has a better name for it!

Now we can tell Illustrator that when we change our type, we want one of three choices:

• transform both type and fill.

• transform the pattern without affecting the text shape.

• transform the text shape without producing any changes on the pattern fill.

Cool, huh?

As an example, if we pick “Transform Object Only”, and scale down our text, you can see the pattern will remain unchanged.

Bonus Step – How to create the Geometric Shape for the Marquetry Pattern

As promised, let's design this Y shaped beauty so you can practice your Marquetry Pattern from zero (to Hero!)

We start with a square, fill it with any color, we’ll change it later. Then we want to twist it into a certain angle, so we go to “Object” on our top menu bar, select “Transform” and then click on “Shear…”.

Let’s change only the “Shear Angle:” field to 30 degrees and click ok.

Next, we duplicate our shape by holding Option on a Mac or Alt on a PC and clicking and dragging it to the side, and then we click on the “Flip Horizontally Icon” in the “Transform” panel.

Now we join them right side with left side, duplicate both shapes and connect them as below. You can use the Outline mode (shortcut Command + Y on a Mac or Control + Y on a PC) for a more accurate view.

 Next, we duplicate the bottom shapes and align them as seen on the next image.

Now we get set to use Shape Builder, another awesome feature in Illustrator! With all these shapes selected, we pick the Shape Builder tool from the left tool bar (or hit Shift + M), hold the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key on a PC and click and drag across both lower right and lower left rectangles to remove them.

Before removing the top rectangles, we must fill that gap at the center of our geometric shape. So easy! Keeping all our shapes selected and Shape Builder active, we go to “Fill”, pick a color, and then simply click on the gap to fill it.

Now we can remove the top rectangles with our Shape Builder tool and we’re almost there!

Finally, let’s add color and gradients for light and shadow effect and we’re done!

 And that’s it!

We have now mastered the art of creating and editing incredible patterns in Illustrator and using them to bring life to many awesome shapes and even editable text objects! Amazing!

What's Next? 

We’ve covered some tools and features that you can further explore in my updated Illustrator Essentials Course and maybe even challenge yourself to reach Pro level by checking out the Illustrator Advanced Course. 

When you become a BYOL member, you gain access to this course as well as my 30+ additional courses on Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, Webflow, and more. As a BYOL member you will also enjoy personalized support, earn certificates, and tackle exciting community challenges. Head here to sign-up!

See you in class! – Dan