Make a Simple Cell Phone Icon in Illustrator

This is a quick tutorial on how to make a simple cell phone using Adobe Illustrator.

1. The Set Up
Open your version of Illustrator and set up a new document. If you’re creating an actual icon graphic, I suggest using the smallest size (generally 16×16 pixels), otherwise you can create it using any document size you’d like.

2. The Tools
For this tutorial you will need the following tools:

• Rounded Rectangle tool (Window > Tools)
• Pathfinder (Window > Pathfinder)
• Align (Window > Align)
• Blend feature (Object > Blend)

3. The Tutorial
Now that we’re all set up, lets get to it! First grab the Rounded Rectangle tool. Click on your canvas to activate the Options menu. If you’re making an icon use 7×12 pixels for the size and a corner radius of 1 pixel then hit OK. You may need to readjust these numbers based on the size of your document.

For example, if you have a larger document you may need to bump up the size of your rectangle and corner radius to 10 or 20 pixels to achieve the same effect. After hitting OK you should have a rounded rectangle on your canvas (if not, draw one!).

To create the antenna, select the Rounded Rectangle again, click on your canvas to activate the options menu, this time input 1×2 pixels and a corner radius of 0.5px and hit OK.

Place this rectangle in the upper right corner of your big rectangle. You want to place it so that the upper line of the big rectangle intersects the bottom of the small rectangle just before it starts to bend. You’ll see why in the next step!

We need to fuse these two shapes together, so select both of them (Ctrl+A); hold the Alt key while clicking the Add to Shape Area button in the Pathfinder.

To create the screen, select the Rounded Rectangle again and click your canvas. Input 5.525×3.575 px with a corner radius of 0.5px and hit OK. Place this rectangle at the top of your cell phone body so there’s equal space surrounding the top and two sides (you can use Align to help you line it up along the sides, but will need to eye ball the top).

Now for the buttons. Select the Rounded Rectangle and click on the canvas, input 1x1px and 0.25px for the corner radius; hit OK. Select the button and copy it 2 times by hitting Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. You should have 3 buttons of the same size. Line them up in a line underneath the screen so that the edge of the left button lines up with the left edge of the screen, and the right button to the right of the screen with the other in the middle. You can use the Align functions to make this easier (need help? See Notes below).

Notes: Button Alignment

Can’t get your buttons to line up? Here’s a helpful tip. Select all three buttons and your screen rectangle. Using Align hit Horizontal Align Left. It may appear that your 3 buttons disappeared, but they’re all still there, they are now sitting on top of each other! Select a button and your screen rectangle, this time hit Horizontal Align Right. You should now see two buttons. Select the left button and drag it so its roughly in between the two buttons. Now select all three buttons and hit Horizontal Distribute Center.

Select all three buttons and Group them (Ctrl+G) now copy/paste them (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V); drag the new buttons to the bottom of your cell phone body. Make sure they are aligned by selecting both groups and hitting Horizontal Align Left. Now we’re going to use the Blend function to create rows of buttons in between our two sets. Select both sets and go to Object > Blend > Blend Options. In the menu select Specified Steps and enter 2 into the box and hit OK. Now go to Blend > Blend Options > Make; then Object > Blend > Expand.

There’s your cell phone icon!