Fundamentals of Building Icons in Adobe Illustrator with Jason Hoppe

Professional icons look clean because they’re built on math, not guesswork. In this hands-on, technical class, Jason Hoppe teaches you the structural discipline behind unified, scalable icon sets in Adobe Illustrator — the kind you can drop into any UI without a single wobbly edge.

Jason breaks down the systems that separate amateur icon work from professional-grade libraries: construction grids, geometric primitives, and Illustrator's boolean operations. You'll move past sloppy path-drawing and start building pixel-perfect vector assets with the kind of precision and consistency that makes an entire icon set feel like one cohesive family, not a pile of mismatched shapes.

This class includes a dedicated 30 minutes of Q&A directly with Jason Hoppe.

What You'll Learn

• How to build pixel-perfect construction grids that keep every icon crisp, not blurry, on screen
• How to combine simple shapes into complex icons using Illustrator's advanced shape-building tools
• How to optically balance geometry so icons look visually centered, not just mathematically centered
• How to apply consistent stroke weights, corner radiuses, and bounding boxes for true proportional unity
• How to use boolean operations and geometric primitives to work faster and cleaner

Who It's For

• UI/UX designers who want to build custom icon systems instead of relying on stock libraries
• Digital illustrators looking to sharpen their vector precision and construction technique
• Graphic designers ready to move from freehand shapes to a structured, repeatable icon workflow
• Anyone who wants their icon sets to look unified, professional, and screen-ready

How to Join

• The class will be delivered via Zoom Webinars. You'll need access to Zoom through a web browser or the Zoom app in order to participate.
• To reserve your spot, register using the Sign Up form and button above. Space is limited.
• A unique Zoom join link will be sent to registered participants, up to the maximum number of participants per class. You'll receive this link one hour before the class start time.

About the Instructor

Jason Hoppe is an Adobe® Certified Expert and Adobe® Certified Instructor with more than 20 years of experience in high-end production training, photo retouching, color correction, and creative workflow management. He's been immersed in electronic production since the earliest days of the industry, and has taught prepress and design fundamentals to hundreds of Seattle-based creative professionals through one-on-one tutoring, classroom instruction, live webcasting, and large group training.

A founding instructor at CreativeLive, Jason currently teaches the Adobe® Creative Suite at The School of Visual Concepts, Luminous Works, and Seattle Central College. He's also an Adobe MAX Master and the author of a book on Illustrator technique, and he keeps an active blog of Illustrator tutorials on his own site.

Jason's teaching style comes from decades spent solving production problems under deadline — he brings that same practical, no-fluff approach to every class, breaking down complex tools into systems anyone can actually use.