The quickest way to create isometric illustrations

Learn how to create amazing isometric illustrations easily

I have always been fascinated with illustration techniques, especially isometric illustrations. They have been around for a while now, but have seemed to gain a huge boost in popularity in recent times.

I made my first isometric illustration 3 years back, starting with Photoshop’s smart objects. I experimented a lot with software like Illustrator, Sketch, and Affinity Designer as well as different techniques, such as isometric grids, Scale-Shear-Rotate, and the bevel and 3D rotate techniques in Illustrator.

Ultimately, I found that the quickest and easiest way to create and edit vector isometric illustrations was by using the readymade grids on Affinity Designer. This is what will be covered in the article as well. You can replicate the same process on Adobe Illustrator as well, for which I’ve left a link at the end. You should be able to make illustrations like this, after this tutorial:

Something I made on Affinity Designer using grids. You can see more of my work on Dribbble

What exactly does isometric mean?

When we look at any real-life object, say a cube, for example, it has a certain depth and distortion to it. If we try and make such an illustration on our software or paper, it would be a perspective illustration. They preserve depth and reproduce what we see in real life.

An isometric drawing preserves scales and dimensions. It has no depth perception, meaning the cube would look the same whether we zoom in or out. This means that all parts of the object, irrespective of whether they are closer or farther from the viewer, are represented in same size.

Perspective vs Isometric

Now that we know what isometric means, let’s create something!

Creating an isometric cube

First, let’s set up our isometric grid

You can download the trial version for free here: Affinity Designer Trial, in case you don’t have it.

1. Open Affinity Desinger up and Create a new Web Document. Then, head over to View > Show Grid to see the current grid.
2. Next, head over to View > Grid & Axis Manager to set up our isometric grid. Deselect Use Automatic Grid, and select Advanced under Mode.
3. You should now see various options at your disposal, don’t worry, it’s fairly simple to set up. Under Grid Type, select Isometric, You can change the spacing and divisions to any number. Lower the spacing, and add more divisions if you are planning on more intricacy in your design. Simply press Close and you’re ready with the grid!
4. Now that the grid is set up, we just have to turn on snapping, so that our designs snap to the grid. We can do this by clicking on the magnet icon on the toolbar to turn it on, clicking on the drop-down next to it, and selecting Snap to Grid.

Setting up our isometric grid in a matter of seconds

Next, let’s create a cube

A cube has 3 faces when viewed as an isometric projection. Namely, in the XY, YZ, and XY planes in a 3D XYZ axis system. We can create faces in all these planes in a matter of clicks without any scaling, skewing, or rotating.

Faces of an isometric cube

Let’s get to creating an isometric cube

1. Select the Pen Tool (P) and let’s get started.
2. Snap to one intersection in the isometric grid we have set up, and move two steps up. Move two steps in the inverse Y-axis along the grid, and then move two steps down. Move in the Y-axis direction along the grid to close the loop, and create our XY face of the cube.
3. Repeat this exercise by moving along the axes in the YZ planes and XZ planes in order to create the other two faces as well, as shown in the short video below.
4. You can then add fill colors to each face of the cube for completion

Make sure to move the same number of steps in whatever direction you are going, so that the dimensions are equal. Also, always make sure you snap to the grid intersections, so that the dimensions are preserved and every isometric object fits in seamlessly.

Creating a cube takes less than a minute

There we have it! Our isometric cube.

We can edit the cube with ease

A major advantage that grids give us is that we can now edit the cube’s dimensions in whatever way we want.

• We can select the Node Tool (A) and select any vertices we would like to move, and move them along the isometric axis. This way, we can create a wider variety of shapes from a single cube.

Editing a cube is simple and leads to many possibilities

It is simple to edit any plane of the cube as everything snaps to our readymade grid, keeping all proportions and dimensions in check. So even in the later stages of creating your design, you can edit your objects and be assured it will only take a few seconds. This way, you have room for a lot of experimentation.

That’s it for making a cube! You can now go ahead and edit cubes and combine them to create more complex shapes. We can mix and match cubes to create objects like a table, sofa, computer, and many other shapes.

Alternative methods

What if I don’t want to use Affinity Designer?

In case you don’t want to download or use Affinity Designer, you can set up an isometric grid in Illustrator and follow the same steps described above. You can also use the scale-shear-rotate technique which is very popular and works on any software of your choice.

In fact, there are many other methods to achieve the same result. Personally, I have found this to be the quickest after experimenting with many methods. By quickest, I mean for creating illustrations as well as editing them. However, there is no “right way” and it is completely a matter of personal choice. You should go with whatever technique you feel comfortable with. All the best!

Thanks for reading! Would love to hear your thoughts on the article and the grid technique vs other methods. If you would like to see more of my illustration work you can find me on Dribbble 🙌