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How to Use Vector Art to Create Business Graphics With AI

December 23, 2024

vector art

Whether you’ve always dreamed about being an artist or you’re already working in graphic design, technology has made it possible for anyone to live out their artistic fantasies.

Using AI and digital illustration software, you can transform your business with custom graphics, from logos to social media imagery. With a little help from AI, you can quickly make high-resolution vector art that scales anywhere from a business card to a billboard.

This scalability makes vector art ideal for use in posters, logos, billboards, and other advertising. It can even be used to create 3D graphics and renderings.

Vectors can be used to create digital art or illustrations that businesses use for promotional purposes, such as a visual brand identity and the logos and marketing materials that go along with it.

You can make vector art by hand using digital tools, starting from scratch to design your artwork. But with the increasing prevalence of AI, you can now create fully-formed vector art with a few simple text prompts in an AI image generator. The algorithms within these are designed to mimic the human brain, which means that you can create creative and visually appealing graphics in a few minutes.

Is vector art the same as graphic design?

Yes and no - it’s both! Vector art is a subset of graphic design. While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, vector art specifically refers to images created using mathematical equations within digital illustration tools. On the other hand, graphic design is a broader field encompassing various creative techniques, including but not limited to vector illustration. 

Types of vector art

The sky is really the limit when it comes to the different types of vector art you can create, either from scratch by hand or with the help of AI tools.

Geometric figures

Since vector art is based on lines, curves, and shapes, geometric styles are some of the easiest to create. The combination of shapes and colors can convey very different moods - bright colors evoke fun and excitement, while neutrals can create a darker, moodier tone.

3D graphics

Whether you’re using 3D graphics for branding or to create mockups of three-dimensional objects like new products or a building design, vector art is an ideal way to get this look digitally. Beyond making your brand pop, 3D text can create a lifelike composition of product ideas to help you pitch more effectively to your team or investors.

Photorealism

Creating photorealistic vector art with gradients is one of the best uses of AI image generation in this field. Despite being created within software, these images are tailored to resemble real photos

Line art

A current trending style is line art, which features clean, minimalistic lines to depict identifiable objects in an image. Though not heavily detailed and often in black and white, this style offers a timeless elegance that’s simple and beautiful.

Pop art

An iconic look from the 1970s, this type of design style is ideal for creating vector art thanks to its distinct form using lines and curves. It's bold and bright, so works well for brands looking to make a big statement with their branding and convey a sense of energy and fun.

Vector art file types

Depending on your software, you can save your vector art in several file formats, such as:

  • .ai: This is actually the abbreviation for the files made with Adobe Illustrator. Despite the name, it’s not related to AI tools, although Illustrator does incorporate AI functionalities.
  • .eps: Encapsulated postscript files are one of the most versatile file types available and work across a range of vector art design tools. 
  • .figma: Figma files are browser-based and popular among UI and UX designers. These files are also compatible with the Linearity Curve.
  • .sketch: Widely used on Mac, Sketch can be used for more than vector graphics, with options to create rasters as well as text and layered structures for web page design.
  • .svg: Also known as scalable vector graphics, this file type is mainly used for web design. Images can be scaled while retaining their original quality. All major web browsers like Firefox, Chrome, and Safari support this file type.
  • .pdf: Once your vector art is ready to share, you can export it to a PDF file. This type works across numerous programs, like Adobe Illustrator, Acrobat, and Linearity Curve.

How to make vector art with AI

Every software that allows you to create vector art with AI will work differently, but there are some overlapping features to help you get the most out of your machine learning tools with fewer revisions and prompt follow-ups. 

To get started with your AI vector art, you should:

  • Find the AI prompt section. This may be named “vector maker” or something similar. In Adobe Illustrator, the Generate tool is the AI feature that you’re looking for, with the Text to Vector Graphics function. From here, you can use text-to-graphic features that turn your spoken or written prompt into a visual.
  • Write your description. Whether you have a clear vision or just a general idea, the key is to be as specific as possible. Detailed prompts yield more accurate results, but even a simple three to five-word description can be enough for the AI tools to start generating images. For instance, “college students sitting at a desk with books in a carton style” generates an image that looks like this:

vector art using canva

Image made using Canva

  • Tweak your results. Adjust your settings and start making edits to your graphic. You can suggest new prompts that get more specific or ask to add or remove certain features within the vector art. 
  • Export your design. Once you’re happy with the final product, you can export your image into a PDF or image file, ready for use in your projects.

Benefits of using AI to make vector art

While many have argued that using AI to create art removes the essential human element from creativity, there are so many advantages to using these tools to get you started or to enhance the ideas you already have. 

Finding a balance between automation through AI and your own artistic vision is essential, but once you have this, you’ll find that many of the advantages of using AI for vector artwork are in your favor.

Freedom to explore new styles

Not everyone is a natural-born Picasso or Da Vinci. Maybe you’re particularly good at one particular style of art, but that’s no longer working for you, or you want to try something new. Artificial intelligence is one of the best ways to do this, allowing you to experiment with colors and textures and offering a way to step outside your usual artistic boundaries. 

Automation of non-creative tasks

One of the biggest benefits of AI lies in its automation. It can take up parts of the creative process that you find boring or time-consuming, such as photo editing and rendering, 3D adaptations, or even duplicating different parts of an image. This means that you’ll create your art more quickly and spend more time on the elements of creating that you enjoy most.

Cost savings

Although some AI tools require a subscription, there are plenty of free vector art software that help you create something new at no cost. Even if you’re paying a fee for a more robust program, AI image generators can create high-quality designs for a fraction of the cost of a graphic designer or illustrator.

Best AI image generators

AI image generator enables you to make visually appealing and diverse designs based on the prompt inputs that you’ve given. These text-to-image features allow you to create and edit graphics quickly and easily.

To be included in the AI image generator software category, platforms must:

  • Utilize advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to generate high-quality images that mimic human-like creativity and artistic style using text prompts. 
  • Provide flexible customization options, allowing users to control various aspects of the generated images, such as style, composition, color palette, or specific object attributes. 
  • Enable user interaction with the AI, providing tools to iterate, refine, or fine-tune the output through feedback mechanisms or interactive interfaces.

* Below are the top five leading AI image generator software solutions from G2’s Summer 2024 Grid Report. Some reviews may be edited for clarity.

1. Canva

Canva is an end-to-end AI visual communication and design tool that allows anyone to create graphics, regardless of their design skills. As an online design and publishing platform, Canva provides user-friendly tools for graphic design that work for non-designers and designers alike.

What users like best:

“Canva is one of the software that provides an all-in-one solution to design/edit graphics, videos, and PPTs using a simple and easy-to-use interface. Its AI features and integration of third-party add-ons make it different from others. It is easy to implement without having technical skills.”

- Canva Review, Manoj J.

What users dislike:

“Canva provides a robust design experience while online. It falls short by not offering offline editing capabilities, restricting the flexibility to work on projects at any given time or place.”

- Canva Review, Milly S.

2. Simplified

As a one-stop app to create and collaborate, Simplified provides AI-enhanced, no-code design editors that allow you to create marketing materials, collaborate across your team, and publish to social media or your website. The AI tools can help you remove backgrounds, create animations, or resize images easily.

What users like best:

“Simplified helps us streamline and simplify our design and content development processes so we can create high-quality images, videos, and text quickly and easily and integrate them into our social media campaigns. There are many pre-designed templates that I can customize using different AI technologies.”

- Simplified Review, Carmen M.

What users dislike:

“The AI likely won't provide deeper subjective evaluation or critiques that a seasoned human expert could. Important qualitative insights could be missing.”

- Simplified Review, Jack R.

3. Adobe Firefly

Adobe Firefly is Adobe’s proprietary generative AI tool, helps you create graphics in Photoshop that expand on your natural creativity. A step up from previous AI models, Firefly understands prompts better using natural language processing (NLP) tools, helping you create more realistic vector art and more.

What users like best:

“The integration with Photoshop allows us to replace certain sections only, which is the way to increase the size of a picture and automatically add the fill for that. And if we need a complete image created from scratch, we also have that support.”

- Adobe Firefly Review, Cesar Daniel Z.

What users dislike:

“Sometimes it's difficult to know what prompts to use to get exactly what you want, and sometimes the prompts that I use don't fully follow”

- Adobe Firefly Review, Parisa H.

4. Pareto

As the world’s largest AI network, Pareto has integration options for over 200 artificial intelligence. You can design your own AI or an established workflow from other programs and the Pareto community to design and create your vector graphics.

What users like best:

“How fast it is when generating the images and how accurate it is to most of what I requested. I tried other image-generating AIs, and this one takes the cake, no doubt. Beautiful images and scenery to complete the shot.”

- Pareto Review, Laís A.

What users dislike:

“Some of the templates for creating use too many credits.”

- Pareto Review, Felipe P.

5. AKOOL

AKOOL is a generative AI tool that’s designed for personalized visual marketing and advertising. Create studio-quality videos with AI avatars and commercial-level graphics that elevate your marketing and take your business further.

What users like best:

“AKOOL provides us with AI-enabled content generation functions which allows us to create very creative marketing content. It has not put any limitations on the way we can play around with our content styles, and this has allowed us to create very futuristic content to capture the attention of audiences and, therefore, attract more buyers. We are very much delighted by the avatar creator tool that helps us add very realistic faces to our content.”

- AKOOL Review, Brian T.

What users dislike:

“There are some inconsistencies in prompts, e.g. when I use the same prompt words, I get images in different styles. Also, when using video swap, the background color and speed keep changing.”

- AKOOL Review, Nyambura M.

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Get going with your graphics

With AI image generators, you can create unique vector art that makes your business stand out from the competition. Harness your creativity and let AI do the hard work for you. So what are you waiting for? Start working on some new AI vector art right now!

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