When starting out on a project I usually have a vague idea of what I’m trying to do but no idea of how. I certainly don’t know how big it should/can be, or what kinds of sight lines and viewpoints will make for a nice experience.
I try to figure some of this out on paper but at a certain point, I need to know with some degree of precision if things will fit into a space or go well together. This is where I find a 2D sketch that can be easily resized extremely useful.
If you have approximate dimensions for your space, you can use them to create an approximate rendition of that space.
In this example, the store have given me a 7’5” x 10’5” window which is 4’5” deep. They have a security gate that cuts the space diagonally in half at night. Using some good old Pythagorean mathematics, we can calculate the footprint of the space both when open and closed.
With that in place, we can start building out the space in Illustrator.
I like to work in inches, using each inch as a proxy for a foot (1:12 scale). This can create some weird decimals but generally the conversion works well. I usually create a letter (11 x 8.5”) print file—if my space is larger, I’ll make the page a little larger.
There’s no real need to keep things in CMYK but because I use a very limited palette, colour doesn’t matter much to me.
You’re going to want to enable rulers so you can quickly drag guides and mark out the important regions of the document like floors and ceilings. View > Rulers > Show Rulers (Ctrl/Cmd + R)
You can right click a ruler to change its (and the document’s) unit—this can be weirdly useful sometimes, like if you want to bring an element in at 100% and scale it down.
I create distinct layers for the various elements in any piece (this just helps when it comes to selecting, enabling or locking those elements). On top, a reference layer for any images or sketches I’m bringing in. You can set that to 25-50% opacity and use it as a guide when drawing things out. I also have a layer for any labels and dimensions.
