illustrator motifs: dresser, series 1

Now available: 40 motifs for Illustrator: from Christopher Dresser, Studies in Design — $11.00 USD Purchase Now

introduction

to install

to use or customize motifs

customizing motifs in Illustrator

introduction

Included are the 40 motifs from Studies in Design by Christopter Dresser (1834-1904). The plates were hand traced in Adobe Illustrator CS3 (as opposed to using Live Trace) that can be used with Illustrator or imported into other vector drawing software. The colors are close to the original, though the plates were faded, thus colors are probably somewhat muted, compared to the original.

These designs are representative of the Aesthetic through the early Art Deco styles. Botanical and fantastical animal forms dominate this collection–many are highly decorative alone or when used in combination with each other or with Dresser linear border brushes.

These motifs are customizable (see below) so experiment with different border and colorways.

For more information concerning installation and use, please see the online version of the “read-me” file.

to install

Unzip the dowloaded file

Copy or move the unzipped folder “dresser_StInDe_motifs” to a working folder/directory

to use or modify motifs

Launch Illustrator

File > Open, navigate to the folder/directory where the motif collection is stored and select any of the .ai files

Note: retain the .zip file to restore original files, as needed

If using other vector drawing software, launch program

Open or Import (navigate to the working directory and locate the “eps” subdirectory) locate desired .eps file within the “eps” directory.

Consult software documentation to edit .eps files.

customizing motifs in Illustrator

Files can be re-sized and re-configured as needed.

To change the color (CS3 and above)

Click on the line segment to make it active

In the Options bar (below the Main Mentu), Open the Live Color panel (A)

Note: An overview of the way this panel works can be found in the video tutorials at Layers magazine:

http://www.layersmagazine.com/illustrator-live-color.html for a basic overview

and

http://www.layersmagazine.com/live-color-in-adobe-illustrator.html for a more detailed tutorial

Visit http://www.AtelierCascadiaGraphics.com/illustrator_editing_colors for additional Illustrator techniques.

Watch for more vintage designs, borders and patterns that have been rendered as scalable, completely customizable vector drawings.

Also, feel free to post questions and/or comments at this website.

Thank you