How to Make a Food Highlight Cover for Instagram

What You’ll Be Creating

In the following tutorial, you will learn how to create a food Instagram highlight cover using Adobe Illustrator.

If you don’t have the time to learn how to create an Instagram highlight cover, you can always try Placeit, where you can find some amazing mockups to quickly create Instagram highlight covers. This food highlight cover is just one of the many examples.

What You’ll Learn in This Illustrator Tutorial

How to create food Instagram highlight icons
How to create a food cover for Instagram
How to add a food highlight cover in Instagram

1. How to Create a New Document and Set Up a Grid

Hit Control-N to create a new document. Select Pixels from the Units drop-down menu, set the Width to 1080 px and the Height to 1920 px, and then click that Advanced Options button. Select RGB for the Color Mode and set the Raster Effects to Screen (72 ppi), and then click the Create button.

Enable the Grid (View > Show Grid or Control-“) and Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid or Shift-Control-“). You will need a grid every 10 px, so simply go to Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid, enter 10 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box. Try not to get discouraged by all that grid—it will make your work easier, and keep in mind that you can easily enable or disable it using the Control-“ keyboard shortcut.

You can learn more about Illustrator’s grid system in this short tutorial from Andrei Stefan: Understanding Adobe Illustrator’s Grid System.

You should also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes. Don’t forget to set the unit of measurement to pixels from Edit > Preferences > Units. Now that you’re set, let’s see how you can create food Instagram highlight icons.

2. How to Create a Food Instagram Highlight Icon

Step 1

Focus on your toolbar and pick the Rectangle Tool (L), and then focus on the color settings.

Select the fill and remove the color, and then double-click the stroke and set it to R=227 G=41 B=41. Move to your artboard and simply create a 620 x 140 px shape. You can either click and drag to create the shape, or you can click once on your artboard and manually enter the size settings.

Step 2

Switch to the Direct Selection Tool (A) and keep focusing on your shape.

First, hold down the Shift key and select the top anchor points. Move to the Control panel and set the Corner Radius to 40 px.

Return to your shape, and this time select the bottom anchor points. Head back to the Control panel, and this time set the Corner Radius to 80 px.

Step 3

Reselect the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 620 x 80 px shape and place it as shown in the first image.

Keep this new shape selected and switch to the Direct Selection Tool (A). Move to the Control panel and just set the Corner Radius to 40 px.

Step 4

Reselect the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 620 x 120 px shape and place it as shown in the first image.

Keep this new shape selected and switch to the Direct Selection Tool (A). Move to the Control panel and just set the Corner Radius to 60 px.

Step 5

Continue with the Line Segment Tool (\) and use it to create a 620 px horizontal path. Keep this line selected and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag.

Check the Absolute and Smooth boxes, drag those sliders to 8 px and 7, and then you can click OK to apply the effect.

Step 6

Using the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 620 x 560 px shape and place it as shown in the following image.

Step 7

Switch to the Rectangle Tool (M), use it to create a 720 x 330 px shape and place it as shown below.

Step 8

Pick the Selection Tool (V), hold down the Shift key to select your ellipse along with the rectangle, open the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder) and click the Minus Front button.

Keep the resulting shape selected and focus on the Appearance panel (Window > Appearance). First, remove the fill color and then apply that same 40 px red (R=227 G=41 B=41) stroke.

Step 9

Make sure that the shape made in the previous step is still selected and switch to the Direct Selection Tool (A). Select the bottom anchor points, focus on the Control panel and set the Corner Radius to 50 px.

Step 10

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 200 x 80 px shape, and place it as shown in the first image.

Switch to the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the bottom anchor points, and go to Object > Path > Average. Check the Both box and click OK to easily turn your rectangle into a triangle.

Step 11

Pick the Ellipse Tool (L) and hold down the Shift key as you click and drag to easily create a 40 px circle.

Switch to the Selection Tool (V), hold down the Alt and simply click and drag this new circle to add a copy. Use this technique to add another five copies and then arrange your circles as shown in the following image.