How to Easily Make Abstract Spirals in Illustrator

Illustrator Shapes

Creating abstract spirals in Illustrator is not only simple and quick, but it also offers endless possibilities for creativity. With just a few steps and the right tools, you can generate a wide variety of abstract spiral designs to use as eye-catching backgrounds for posters, decorative elements, or even as the main feature in your artwork. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to create your own abstract spirals in Illustrator in less than five minutes using only the default tools and effects. This will allow you to start making captivating spirals and explore the different ways they can enhance your projects.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and make a new file at any size you want. In this case, I will make mine at 1800 x 1200 px.

Step 2

Select the Ellipse Tool (L) and make a circle at any size you want, here I will make mine at 600 px.

Step 3

In the toolbar, set the Fill to "none" and the stroke to black or any other color you wish.

Step 4

Go to Window > Stroke and set the stroke weight to about 20 pt.

Step 5

Go to Effect > Distort and Transform > Twist. Set the angle to 600º and click OK.

Step 6

Click and drag the "pie" anchor point until is very close to the end of your circle as shown.

Step 7

Scale up the object a bit until it looks like this.

Step 8

Go to Object > Expand Appearance and then to Object > Expand.

Step 9

Again, go to Effect > Distort and Transform > Twist. Set the angle to 600º and click OK.

Step 10

Lastly, simply scale the object horizontally or vertically (or both) as you wish to get different abstract spirals shapes.

Some Final Tips

Now that you know how easy it is to make abstract spirals in Illustrator, you can experiment with different stroke weights and twist angles to create an unlimited variety of shapes ready to be used in your next project, as shown in the examples below.