Infographic Food Poster in Illustrator, Step by Step
This tutorial shows the full process behind a “how to make a perfect sandwich” infographic poster for an organic food company. It covers the thinking before the design, the background, one consistent illustration style for eight ingredients, and the information boxes with calories and prices. The video was sponsored by Visme; the design work starts at about 3:20.
Before you draw anything
Know the final output. This poster is for a vertical 4K screen, so the document is 4K portrait, RGB, not print. The client’s message is simple: healthy food at an affordable price, so the poster shows calories and price for each ingredient and a total at the bottom. The colours and textures carry the organic feeling.
Step 1: Background with grain
Fill the artboard with a beige rectangle. Add black bands top and bottom for text and a slightly darker beige panel in the middle. For texture, copy the middle rectangle twice, make one dark grey and apply Effect > Photoshop Effects > Filter Gallery > Grain. Cut the grain rectangle, select the other copy, open Transparency, make an opacity mask and paste the grain inside it. Set the result to Multiply over the middle panel and round a few of the corners.
Step 2: Set the illustration style with the bread
Draw the bread slice with the Pen Tool, refine it with Direct Selection, and add a side face for depth. Use the Shape Builder Tool to split the top and side, then colour them in warm beige tones with a darker side. The style rule for the whole poster: visible lines with different stroke weights, using a stroke profile so lines taper, somewhere between realistic and flat. Cut shadow areas with Pathfinder, then draw short pencil lines (Pencil Tool with high fidelity) across the crust and in small circular motions on top, apply the stroke profile, and vary the opacity of a few lines.
Step 3: The other ingredients
Every ingredient follows the same routine: base shape with the Pen Tool, a depth face, colours, then lines with the stroke profile and a few lighter shapes for shine. Specific notes from the video:
- Sprouts: Pencil Tool at 100 percent fidelity for curvy strokes, thick stroke with a profile, Expand, then a dark outline stroke. Beans are loose circles drawn with the Pencil Tool set to close paths within 50 px.
- Avocado: two halves, front shape then depth, lines on the depth side, one extra colour layer on top; copy and rotate one half.
- Lettuce: front and back shapes in light and dark green, a stroke-only copy on top cut into pieces with the Scissors Tool so the profile tapers each piece; veins drawn with the Pencil Tool in one direction so one profile fits them all; mirror copies with varied colours.
- Tomato: base shape and depth, a lighter inner shape with Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen, roughened inner segments, partial outlines, and light reflection lines.
- Cheese: two unique slices with holes cut out, copies raised for depth, united with Pathfinder, strokes on selected edges only.
- Ham: base shape split into two pieces, lines cut with Pathfinder and filled lighter, strokes on the top edge, shiny shapes on top.
- Mustard: several overlapping shapes in yellow tones, stroke-only copies trimmed, pencil lines in a darker tone at 40 percent and lighter lines on top.
Step 4: Highlights and drop shadows
Add small white or light shapes at low opacity on the lit edges. For shadows, draw a rectangle with a gradient from about 20 to 30 percent opacity to 0, place one behind each ingredient, and apply Gaussian Blur.
Step 5: Info boxes
On an Info layer, draw eight rounded rectangles as guides, four per side. Design one box: ingredient name, a circle for calories, a small triangle pointer, then mirror it for the other side. Place the boxes, point the arrows at the right ingredient with Direct Selection, and put the lower boxes on a layer above the food. Colour each box close to its ingredient. Add black boxes for the prices, keeping prices on their own layer because they change most often.
Step 6: Text
The headline is split so “Sandwich” is the largest word, with “how to make a perfect” smaller above it. The bottom band uses the company’s black with the total calories and price.
Conclusion
The design decisions come first: output size, colour mode, and the one message the poster must deliver. After that, a single illustration style applied consistently is what makes eight different ingredients look like one poster. Keep changeable data, such as prices, on separate layers.
