Symbols In Affinity Designer Made EASY

[@teresacrawford5651]

I really like that your tutorials are crystal clear and get to the point quickly! Thank you!

[@BrownBearProductions]

Thank you! That's definitely the aim. I'm glad you enjoy them

[@Frozen_Death_Knight]

Good tutorial. Here is another tip for those who want to reuse Symbols in other projects. You can in fact make Symbols into Assets by just selecting the Symbol and then add it to your Assets panel. If you drag that Asset out on the canvas into some other document it will keep the Symbol functionality and you can just keep duplicating it wherever you like. It's also possible to make variants of a Symbol by changing something in one and then add that variant to the Assets panel as well. The two Assets will no longer be linked, but at least that's one way you can have multiple colour variants of a logo or whatever for multiple uses.

[@BrownBearProductions]

Awesome! Wasn't aware of this! Great tip

[@BilliesCraftRoom]

Before I saw your comment I just posted the same idea. 👍

[@Chris-Brown-]

You can also press sync, make a change, then hit sync again

[@andrewpatterson2315]

You could also uncheck sync to change colours in individual instances then reapply sync to make global changes

[@ianwatson3393]

Thanks again for a useful, clear and succinct tutorial. I wish some other presenters would emulate your no-nonsense-no-gimmickry-no-flannelno-ums-no-errs style

[@BrownBearProductions]

Thank you for the kind words! I do try to make them no nonsense and straight to the point

[@tayzart.printuk]

Amazed over your channel man Been using affinity designer for most a year and half I have all The elements locked down but I must say your channel has made my whole operation so much smoother overnight its scary . Keep up the tutorials and amazing content !!!!!!!! This channel Deserves so much more of a following like share and subscribe Thanks brownbear !!!!!!

[@BrownBearProductions]

I'm glad it's helping you out! 🐻👍🏽

[@behramcooper3691]

Very well explained. Thank you.

[@hhauffe]

I'm finding your explanations very clear. Thx :)

[@ArtsyLadyCrafter]

Yeah, in another one of your lessons, I saved my practice document with snapshots in it, thinking that when I reopened it they'd be there. ❌😄 One of my old desktop pub programs would store snaps in a document-specific panel that would save with the doc. Guess I was thinking of that. Thanks for this symbols tute! They are really fascinating.

[@BilliesCraftRoom]

Interesting, so far I've saved items to assests, which also lets me do something similar. Are there any special feature to help decide if you are better creating a symbol instead of an asset? Great video, really well explained 🙏👍

[@BrownBearProductions]

Think of assets like libraries of things you will use on different projects such as a logo or a design element you use on lots of things A symbol is more something that is present on a design multiple times. So you can change one of them and all would change saving time Hope that makes sense 👍🏽

[@vincentsmithers9655]

This is a great explanation of symbols. Is it some how possible to use symbols across projects? Right now my work flow is to create a template project with the symbols that I want to reuse and copy it each time. Obviously, this is less than ideal. It would be great if I could simply import symbols to a new project. Not sure. Seems like a missing feature.

[@BrownBearProductions]

Definitely a missing feature an hopefully something they can add later but at the moment the best way I know is exactly what you're doing with a template that you start the project with. Alternatively you could save it within assets and set up a new symbol each time since assets do work across all projects

[@vincentsmithers9655]

@@BrownBearProductions Thanks for your response. I didn’t know about the assets. I will check that out.

[@BrownBearProductions]

No worries! If you need an explanation on assets then -> kzbin.info/www/bejne/h3_UeXt-i7uUp6c

[@sherikanamunni7508]

Very clear, but still does not work for me. The colours change in each object, but adding a shape or text box only works in the first one. If I detach or de-sync so only one changes, reversing the process does not re-sync them! Have I a bug?

[@FrutejuceHandmade]

Thanks for the great tutorial. I am using symbols in a practice piece using Affinity Designer 2. I am wanting to change the symbol using the node tool but it isn't letting me do that, it just stays as the move tool. I am obviously missing something there :)

[@BrownBearProductions]

If I remember right, I'm not sure using the node tool can effect the symbol if you want to make changes. Or if it can then make sure you have the object selected rather than the symbol group. In the layer panel you see a group called "symbol" if you open that you can select the layer that is actually your object. From there use the node tool and see if you can make changes Let me know how it goes 👍🏽

[@FrutejuceHandmade]

@@BrownBearProductions Thanks so much for your reply, I just realised I hadn't converted to curves, thanks again :)

[@BrownBearProductions]

Ah yes...that's another reason. Glad you found the answer

[@FrutejuceHandmade]

@@BrownBearProductions Cheers :)

[@utopiadweller]

5:30

[@kdeuler]

Useful vid. Thx. While experimenting, I just discovered that symbols apparently can't be saved as an asset, so that they can be reused as symbols across documents. A future feature, perhaps.

[@BrownBearProductions]

That's true however symbols are locked to documents. So if you make a "template document" with all the symbols you need then each time open this template whenever you want to make something new, all the symbols will still be there 👍🏽

[@mercury4372]

Why u wear black glasses man..? Is your eyes not beautiful

[@BrownBearProductions]

My eyes are fantastic actually 😂 I just get a lot of glare from screens and the glasses keep that down as well as even out the colours nicely too. It's now just become a thing that I do that people know me for

[@mercury4372]

@@BrownBearProductions okies

[@ArtsyLadyCrafter]

@@BrownBearProductions 😄 I'm glad to know that your eyes are ok. @mercury4372 asked the question, in a fun way, that I did not want to ask. 😎