Ollie Spicer

Ollie Spicer Hi, I’m Ollie, a Graphic Designer and Content Creator specialising in brand identity and Illustration. Hey!
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I share tutorials, tips, and advice to help designers of all levels grow their skills, spark creativity, and elevate their work. I’m Ollie, a self-taught graphic designer and content creator based in London. I’ve spent the last decade getting hands-on in the design world, picking up new skills, learning the ins and outs, and growing as a designer along the way. In 2025, I decided to take a big step and start my own design studio, and it’s already been an incredible journey working with some fantastic clients. For me, design isn’t just about making stuff look good; it’s about getting to know the people I work with and building great relationships. I want to really understand your brand, your vision, and who you want to reach, so the work we create actually means something. I’ve done a bit of everything over the years, from logos and branding to digital content and marketing materials. No matter what I’m working on, I’m all about making sure the result not only looks awesome, but feels right for you and your goals. If you’re after someone genuinely excited to help you succeed, let’s chat and make something cool together!

19/08/2026

3 ways to edit your patterns 🙌
Sometimes, once you've created a pattern, you may be looking for ways that you can edit it without having to constantly go in and alter the original design. So here are 3 quick ways that can help you when dealing with patterns! I hope this helps!!👍
Follow along for more tips and tricks in Adobe Illustrator! 🙌

18/08/2026

Raise of hands who still uses the rectangle method? 👀
This isn't anything new in Illustrator, but hopefully, it's a good reminder the next time you try and align multiple shapes. For yearssss I would grab a rectangle and place them in between each shape just to get consistent spacing.
Then, I found out about aligning to key objects. It's really easy to use. Simply open the alignment panel, select all the shapes you want to align, then select 'align to key object'. From here, you can pick which shape you wish to use as the 'key' object, and then add the value you want to space each shape evenly by.
I hope this helps! Follow for more tips and tricks in Adobe Illustrator 🙌❤️

17/08/2026

Who doesn't love an easy shortcut!? 🙌
Adobe Illustrator has just made some new updates, and one of them is a great little shortcut for adding swatch colours to your gradients. To do this, all you need to do is select your colour group in the swatch panel, then hold down command/control and drag your colours onto the gradient slider! What do you think? 🙌
Check out my new YouTube video where I go over some great new features for Adobe Illustrator 2025!!
Follow for more Illustrator tips! 🙌

16/08/2026

Did you know about this tool? 👀
The global edit tool in Illustrator can be a great way to quickly make an adjustment to a shape that you have duplicated within a design. So instead of having to make individual edits to each shape. You can use the global edit tool, which will select all of the objects that match the one selected. Allowing you to quickly make changes! Give it a try 🙌🙌
Follow for more Illustrator tips! 🙌

14/08/2026

Read caption below ⬇️
A few extra notes about this texture brush effect:
Method 1: Using the ‘draw inside’ method is a great way of adding texture to your illustrations. My recommendation is to use this method only when working with digital designs where expanding your paths isn’t necessary.
Method 2: This method is a bit more time-consuming, but when I am creating illustrations for print design, this is the approach I take. That is because all paths are expanded, and no cases involve masks. This is particularly important when working with large-scale prints, where printers will need to enlarge your design. By having your brush strokes already expanded, this eliminates any scaling issues that can occur with method 1.
A final note: I would advise using this brush sparingly. It can become very labour-intensive on Adobe Illustrator and even cause crashing if overused within a file!
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions 🙌

12/08/2026

A great way to add texture to your designs!

Here is a quick way to add some texture to your designs. This is a destructive effect, so make sure you have a copy of your design to fall back on!

To start, based on my experiments, I have found that this effect doesn’t really work if your initial design is black or white. So here I have changed the shape to grey, but the effect will vary depending on the colour of your design.

Next, head to Effect > Stylise > Inner Glow. Make sure the mode is set to normal, and the colour is black. Then keep the blur to Edge and increase the blur to your liking.

Then head to Effect> Pixelate> Mezzotint. Change the type to grainy dots, then press OK.

Then head to Effect > Sketch > Stamp. Keep the light/Dark ballance at 1, then experiment with the smoothness until you are happy with the effect.

Next, head to Object and select Expand Appearance (you can also use rasterise here).

With the Image trace panel open, tick Ignore colour, then Trace and Expand.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, then drop them below, and I can try to help!

11/08/2026

First time trying a walking animation...
This is my first-ever attempt at making a walking animation for a character, so be kind! 😅

After years of wanting one, I finally got my hands on a tablet and gave a go. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d enjoy it this much! Being able to sketch and illustrate everything in one app is such a game changer. But the biggest surprise? How much fun the motion tools are! 🙌
Follow for more tips & tricks in Adobe Illustrator 🙌

02/08/2026

When the stroke just won't work 😒
Next time you have an issue adding a stroke to your text, try using the appearance panel!🙌
Follow along for more tips and tricks in Adobe Illustrator! 🙌

01/08/2026

Ever tried making arms this way? 👀
Here is a quick way that you can add and experiment with arm gestures for your character designs in Adobe Illustrator! Creating your own arm brushes can be a great way to quickly add arms to your character without all the fiddling around with aligning your hand and arms together with each edit. Give them a try! 🙌
Follow along for more tips and tricks in Adobe Illustrator! 🙌

30/07/2026

Try this if you need colour variations 🙌
Here are a few quick and easy ways to generate colour variations in Adobe Illustrator! This can be really useful for adding colour palettes for clients when putting together brand guidelines.Give it a try 🙌
Follow along for more tips and tricks in Adobe Illustrator! 🙌

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