Tutorial #1 - Patterns in Illustrator

For my tutorial, I'll explain how to create a pattern in Illustrator. I've done this multiple times, and, although my way isn't the only way to do it, it has worked for me thus far.

1. First, open up your Illustrator pattern file. I quickly created a round green and blue shape for this tutorial.

2. Select the shape that you want to turn into your pattern.

3. Go to object → pattern → make. It's located at the top of the window.

4. A window will pop up alerting you that your pattern has been added to the swatches panel. Click 'OK.' 

5. Your new pattern will show up, along with a 'pattern options' panel. The panel allows you to change how the shapes are arranged, the size of each shape, etc. You can change these if you want, but I won't go over those options in this tutorial. Once your pattern looks good, click the 'done' button on the top of the window.

6. Move your shape off of the artboard. This step isn't really necessary yet, but you'll have to do it anyway once you apply your pattern.

7. Select the rectangle button, and click on the artboard. A panel will come up with dimensions for the shape. If you want the pattern to stretch across the entire artboard, make sure the dimensions of the rectangle are the same as the artboard. My artboard is 24 x 24 inches, so I created the rectangle with the same dimensions.

8. If your rectangle is not aligned to the artboard, select the shape, go to the align panel, and click 'horizontal align center' and 'vertical align center.' This will center the shape to the artboard.

9. Make sure your shape doesn't have an outline or a fill. You can have an outline if you wish, but it may end up showing along the edges of the artboard. You will end up changing the fill of the shape to the pattern, so selecting no fill isn't completely necessary. I just do it to simplify my process.

10. Next, with your shape still selected, click on the fill, or navigate to your swatches panel. Select your newly-created pattern swatch. It will fill your shape.

11. If your pattern overlaps or doesn't completely cover the artboard evenly, either edit the size of your artboard by going to 'artboards' in the appearance panel, or by going to the swatch in the swatches panel and clicking the 'edit pattern' button. Here, you can change the size of the shape or edit how they line up with each other by using the 'pattern options' panel that pops up. You may recognize this as the panel that popped up when you first created your pattern.

12. You're finished!