Design website layout and web graphics in Adobe Illustrator

Interested in learning the hacks of designing clean website layouts and elements? You're at the right place!

Adobe Illustrator provides you a pixel-perfect design environment to create flexible and free-flowing web elements. It offers you everything you need to create a clean and crisp web layout – vector graphics, responsive media icons, scalable components, CSS generation, SVG export, wireframes, and reusable symbols.

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Adobe XD – Adobe's latest all-in-one vector-based UX/UI solution for designing websites, mobile apps, and more.

5 Principles for effective web layouts

To create a quality web experience, ensure that you pay special attention to the following web design elements:

Easy navigation with fewer clicks
Optimum and balanced use of screen space, device-independent display
Minimal and clean structure - use of grids, tiles, cards
Appealing and engaging visual graphics
Clear yet artistic typography

Before you start

Any artwork you design in Illustrator typically revolves around the following design themes:

Shapes & paths
Colors & patterns
Text & fonts
Images & special effects

Want to learn more? See Essentials components of a website.

Set up a web document

To set up a web document:

Choose File – Open. In the New Document dialog box, click the Web tab. From the list of presets, choose a web document type that suits your requirements.
Preview and download a sample template.

See also:

Design a responsive web page

With the ever-expanding technology, it's important to design a website that responds seamlessly on any OS platform, screen size, and device orientation.

To create a responsive web layout, consider the following elements:

Flexible grids and layouts to design a website layout that can be resized to any screen width, such as desktop, tablet, mobile.
Scalable media, which includes images, videos, and similar formats.
Dynamic media queries to add specific styles for web browsers and devices.

Create a website wireframe or structure

A clean and structured website attracts more visitors. When you design a website layout:

Begin with designing the website wireframe to visualize different screen elements and place them in an organized manner on your web page.
Tip: You can add tiles or cards for easy navigation and modern look.

When the first-level user-interface is created, proceed with populating the content and other artistic elements.

Tips & tricks for an organized web layout

For smoother look and feel, slice the website into relevant sections. Choose Object – Slice.
Use rulers, grids, and guides to check and test reference areas and adjust screen elements.
- Choose View – Guides.
- Choose View – Show Grid.
- Choose View – Rulers.
To create a precise visual outline, place rectangle objects or text components on the web page to divide the screen into relevant sections.
While you focus on the main content of the web page, do not forget to add a creative logo, inspiring hero image, tagline, mission statement, whichever is applicable.
To save the website structure, choose Export – Save for Web (Legacy). You can also choose the slices you want to show in the saved file.

See also:

Slices and image maps

Design a web banner

Running a marketing campaign to promote and advertise the products or services on your website? Create an eye-catching banner within minutes!

To create a web banner, do the following:

Choose the right document size, typically the A4 document works well for banners.
Create a banner outline with the help of the Rectangle tool and specify appropriate dimensions.
Add graphics, text, gradient, and be as creative as you want.