Creating Gradients & Color Palettes in Illustrator

One of our favorite parts of the brand design process is when it comes time to pull together a cohesive color palette or deliver interesting brand textures as a part of a project’s deliverables.

Thankfully, there are a few helpful tools within Illustrator that make gradient-building and brand color palette exploration easier than ever before, and we’re breaking them down for you step-by-step below.

Keep reading to learn how you can begin creating unique, soft color gradients and cohesive color palettes in Illustrator – and wow your clients in the process.

Step 1: Creating a simple color gradient

Open a new artboard in Illustrator (this particular artboard is sized at 1500 x 1500) and add two color blocks side-by-side, each evenly taking up space on the artboard. To prep to create a smooth gradient, select Object > Blend > Blend Options > Smooth Color. Once set, return to your artboard, drag and select both blocks and Object > Blend > Make to create a seamless gradient of both colors.

Step 2: Creating a complex color gradient

To create a more complex color gradient, add additional color blocks and follow the same steps to blend into a seamless gradient: drag and select all > Object > Blend > Make.

Step 3: Creating simple color steps

To create graduated color steps that can help shape a brand color palette, add two blocks to your artboard that are spaced evenly apart. Select Object > Blend > Blend Options > Specified Steps and specify the number of color steps you’d like to include between the blocks (in this example we’ve specified 5 steps). Once set, return to your artboard, drag and select both blocks and select Object > Blend > Make.

Step 4: Creating color steps from images

Inspired by an image and want to pull from it for a color palette? We’ve got you! Open up your image in Illustrator, use the eyedropper tool to extract two colors from the image and follow the same steps to pull a full palette of graduated colors that are from the image: drag and select both blocks > Object > Blend > Make.

Have any additional questions about creating unique gradients and color palettes in Illustrator for your own design projects? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below to see if we can help. Happy creating!