vintage

Hipster Text Effect in Photoshop CS6

abduzeedo — Mon, 07 May 2012 05:05:48 +0000

A few weeks ago we posted a tutorial showing how to create a hipster text effect using Pixelmator. Now we decided to show you the same effect using Photoshop CS6. As we had said, we will be doing that in Fireworks and CSS as well. So stay tuned.

So in this tutorial we will show you how to create a simple text effect with a very trendy hipster look. We will use just basic filters and layer styles to achieve the effect. The whole process won't take you more than 30 minutes.

Step 1

Open Photoshop CS6 and create a new document. The one I created is 2560x1600 pixels. After that fill the background layer with #e4cba9.

Step 2

With the Horizontal Type Tool (T) add a text using the font Sulivan. You can download it at http://www.losttype.com/font/?name=sullivan. Use the same font as the background and use the fill type for the font.

Step 3

Duplicate the font layer and gange the Blend Mode to Overlay. Chage the font type to Sullivan Bevel.

Step 4

Duplicate the layer again and change the Blend Mode to Overlay and use the Sullivan Regular for the font.

Step 5

Select the text layer created on step 2. Duplicat the layer and change the Blend Mode to Multiply. Move it 1px down and 1 pixel left.

Step 6

Keep duplicating the layer and moving down and left to create a nice 3D effect.

Step 7

After you duplicate a few times will have an effect like the one in the image below.

Step 8

Group all layers used to create the 3D effect and then merge them into one layer only. After that go to Layer>Layer Styles>Color Overlay. Use #c66d33 for the Color with Multiply for the Blend Mode.

Step 9

Let's create another 3D effect but now going to the top right.

Step 10

Repeat the same process to merge the layers into one and apply the Color Overlay, then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 7.5 pixels for the Radius.

Step 11

Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Use 45º for the Angle and 50 pixels for the Distance.

Step 12

With the Rectangle Tool (U), create a rectangle in the center of the document, below the texts and just above the background. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Patter Overlay. Use Graphy 80 by 80 pixels patter from Subtlepatterns.com. Change the Blend Mode to Linear Burn.

Step 13

Add a complement text using the font Mensch. You can download it at http://www.losttype.com/font/?name=mensch. Repeat the same process to create the little 3D effect.

Step 14

Add a new layer on top of the others and then fill it with anoter pattern from subtlepatterns.com. I am using Rcocky Wall. For the Blend Mode use Multiply at 50%.

Step 15

Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Photo Filter. Use Sepia at 60%

Conclusion

You can duplicate all layers and merge them into one, then apply the Noise filter to add a nice texture on top of the design. The idea of this tutorial was just to show you how to create a simple vintage look typography effect using photoshop. We did that in Pixelmator before and now in Photoshop. The next one will be in CSS :) I hope you enjoy it and have fun trying to create your own.

Download Photoshop File

Click here to download the Photoshop file used for this tutorial

About the author

Abduzeedo is a blog about design. There are all sorts of articles for those who want to look for inspiration. Also you will find very useful tutorials for the most used applications out there, with a special selection of Photoshop Tutorials and Illustrator Tutorials. You can get in follow us via Twitter at @abduzeedo

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Vintage Typography Inspiration

paul0v2 — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:45:12 +0000

It's funny how big of a roll typography had on the old days when we didn't have computers to create all kinds of crazy graphics as we do today. Most designs relied on nothing but type and the cool mixes they had with the blend of colors was just amazing and very inspiring. So I selected a few pieces to bring us back in time and get some vintage inspiration. Enjoy!

About the author

Hi there! I'm Paulo Canabarro, 26 year old web designer - paulocanabarro.com I'm from Brazil currently living and working out of Providence RI, USA. I'm truly passionate about design of all kinds, finding and sharing inspiration here has become part of my life. If you like to know more about me or get in touch visit my website paulocanabarro.com Stock me at Twitter and Dribbble

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Nice Vintage Badge in Pixelmator

abduzeedo — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:42:40 +0000

Last year we published a tutorial showing how to create a nice badge in Photoshop and Illustrator. Now we decided to do the same, or similar effect using Pixelmator and its new vector tools. The result is very good and there are some nice techniques to overcome the lack of some more complex shapes.

So in this tutorial we will show you how to create complex shapes in Pixelmator and add round corners to it. After that we will show you how to make it look like an old badge using textures and some basic filters and blending.

Step 1

Open Pixelmator and create a new document. I am using 1680x1050 pixels. After that using the new vector tools, select the Rectangle Shape and add a square by holding the shift key.

Step 2

Duplicate the square and rotate it 30º.

Step 3

Duplicate the rotated square, then go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. You will have the base of our badge.

Step 4

Select the 3 squares and merge them into a layer. Layer>Merge Layers. After that go to FIlter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 7 for the radius.

Step 5

Go to Image>Levels. Change the Black to 86%, the grey to 88% and white to 90%. After that you will have a nice shape with rounded corners. If you want it to be more rounded you can use a higher value for the blur in the previous step.

Step 6

Go to Filter>Color>False Color. Use red for the color.

Step 7

Duplicate the shape and rotate it to have more sides on the badge.

Step 8

Change the color of one of the layers to blue and change the Blending to Multiply.

Step 9

Select both layers and merge them. Then with the Magic Wand Tool (W) select the center area. After that use black for the false color.

Step 10

Now let's start adding some text. I used a font called Carnevalee Freakshow for the font. Also used the Rectangle Shape Tool to add some other elements.

Step 11

I added more text using another font, called Birch Std for the words San Francisco and Abduzeedo. Also change the opacity of some text to 30% white.

Step 12

Let's add some texture. The one I used is from Subpatterns.com and can be found here: http://subtlepatterns.com/patterns/paper.png

Use one layer with it for the background and another on top of the other layers. With the one on top go to Image>Levels. Use 95% for Black, 99% for the Grey and 100% for White. Then change the Blending to Screen and the opacity to 60%.

Step 13

Select the badge with the text layers and duplicate them. After that merge the duplicated layers into one and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 5.2px for the Radius.

Step 14

Change the Blending to Hard Light at 60%. You might need to delete a bit of the center area to make the text more visible.

Step 15

Duplicate all layers and merge them again into one. Then go to Image>Desaturate. You can change the opacity of this layer to 60% to make the colors less vibrant or...

Conclusion

You can have the layer in black and white, which is my favorite. So the idea of this tutorial was to show you how to create some more complex shapes using Pixelmator vector tools. You can go much further and add more details, but that now is up to you :)

Conclusion

Download the Pixelmator File

Click here to download the Pixelmator file used for thist tutorial

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Super Easy Vintage Look to Photos in Pixelmator

abduzeedo — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:49:47 +0000

Vintage looking photography is super trendy especially with so many apps for Android and iPhone, apps like Instagram, Hipstmatic and so on. The vintage look is cool and easy to create in Pixelmator especially light leaks. That's why I decided to give it a try.

In this tutorial I will show you how to add a super cool vintage look to your photos in Pixelmator 2.0. The tutorial is very simple, it has 10 steps only and I'm sure you will have a lot of fun playing around with your photos.

Step 1

Open the photo you want to apply the vintage look in Pixelmator. The one I'm using is from ssuaphotos called beauty young woman blowing soap bubbles in summer day and you can find it here: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-57812896/stock-photo-beauty-young-woman-...

Step 2

Duplicate the layer of the photo and go to Image>Colorize. Reduce the Saturation to 25 and keep the Lightness at 0.

Step 3

With the layer you just applied the Colorized adjustment selected go to Layer>Add Layer Mask. After that with the Brush Tool (B) and a very soft brush with grey for the color start painting on the mask over the soap bubble and her face in order to hide that part of the layer. The idea is to let her face and the soap bubble in color while the rest in that sort of sepia tone.

Step 4

Add a new layer and the with the Paint Bucket Tool (N) fill it with black. After that with the Brush Tool (B) and white for the color start painting on the center of the layer. Use the image below for reference, also if you want you can apply a Gaussian Blur to make it more subtle.

Step 5

Change the Blending of the layer to Multiply at 30% in order to create a vignette effect.

Step 6

Add a layer on top of the others and with the Paint Bucket Tool (N) fill it with black, after that with the Brush Tool (B) and red for the color paint some spots that you want to create a light leak effect. Once you have the red spots, still with the Brush Tool, select yellow for the color and then paint some smaller yellow spots over the red ones. Use the image below for reference.

Tip: Use the motion blur with 90º angle to make the effect more realistic.

Step 7

Change the Blending to Screen to create a really nice light leak effect.

Step 8

Repeat the same thing to create the flares effect over her shoulder.

Step 9

Select all layers and duplicate them, after that, with all the duplicated copies selected go to Layer>Merge Layers. You will have one layer with all the effects merged. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 10 for the Radius.

Step 10

Duplicate this layer once, you will have 2 blurry layers. With the one on top change the Blending to Screen at 50% and the one that is beneath, use Soft Light at 50%.

Layers Order

Conclusion

You can add an old paper texture like a did in the final result, I'm using an texture from Shutterstock which you can find it here. For the Blending I used Multiply at 20%. Notice in the previous step that the light leaks layers are on top of the others, even though we have the merged layers. That's because I wanted to increase the strength of the light effect. Now it's up to you trying it with your own images.

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Download the Pixelmator file used for this tutorial

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Insurance Map Cover Remake by Fake Studio

abduzeedo — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:02:47 +0000

Fake Studio worked with a few old maps covers made by The Sanborn Maps Co. edited at the beginning of the twelve century. They found those maps and fell in love with those type compositions so they decided to remake one of this old covers using 3D modern technics.

Fake Studio is a design, illustration and motion graphics production company, located in Barcelona, Spain. Check out more of their work on http://www.fakestudio.tv

Original Composition

Process

Final Composition

Detail

For more information visit http://www.fakestudio.tv/fake/

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Vintage Christmas Ads

AoiroStudio — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:15:24 +0000

Christmas time is a great opportunity to find time and enjoy the holiday with family and friends. Every time, there's Christmas, there's just ads everywhere we look. It got me inspired to look and share this collection of vintage Christmas ads, what really stroked me is the ads were so simple and yet so informative. Also it's also great to see the needs of people really differ from our present time.

Christmas gift suggestions: to your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect. - Oren Arnold

You can find more vintage Christmas ads by visiting this Flickr.

About the author

My name's François Hoang and my alias's Aoiro Studio. I am a self-taught freelance graphic designer from Montreal, Canada. I've been designing for the last 4 years and really have a huge passion for creative work that makes a difference in our world. If you wanna requests some posts; I can be found on Twitter or feel free to contact me.

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The Back to the Future Project by Irina Werning

AoiroStudio — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:10:08 +0000

Did it ever occurred to you at young age and wondered how you would like in 20 years? Well, a photographer from Buenos Aires named Irina Werning builded this wonderful project called Back to the Future series. She's taking different people's old pictures and recreates them in the same space, almost with the same clothes and of course with the same person with an average 20 years older from the original picture. I really admire the attention she took to recreate those pictures with a touchy and hilarious feel at the same time.

I love old photos. I admit being a nosey photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today... A few months ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future.

For more information about Irina Werning, you can visit her website at IrinaWerning.com.

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Book Suggestion: New Vintage Type - Classic Fonts for the Digital Age

abduzeedo — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:10:54 +0000

The book suggestion of this week is about typography and it's a great source of inspiration. The book is called New Vintage Type: Classic Fonts for the Digital Age and we have used it for reference in many tutorials here on Abduzeedo.

Book Description

Choose, use, and understand great vintage type with this authoritative guide. Retro is the new modern. And nowhere is that fact more evident than in typography, which today uses vintage type in ads, book and magazine design, movies, and everywhere words convey meaning. Viewers may not even realize that the type itself conveys mood, information, and a sense of style, but graphic designers know the power of vintage type. Now the world’s foremost historian of graphic design presents New Vintage Type, a remarkable rethinking and rediscovery of old and classic typefaces for today’s modern needs. Hundreds of amazing, astounding, and obscure examples from around the world are gathered here, organized into five historically and stylistically grouped sections: the Victorian Age, the Woodtype Era, Art Deco Style, Modern Movement, and the Eccentric Movement. With hundreds of lively and one-of-a-kind examples, plus informed, intriguing tex, New Vintage Type is the graphic designer's guide to choosing and using vintage type for maximum impact.

Images

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Vintage Typography Experiment in Illustrator and Photoshop

abduzeedo — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:20:17 +0000

We all love typography and especially the vintage/retro ones. There's something on those artworks that catch our eyes and makes us really crazy about them. Despite the fact that some are quite old and done with rudimentary process the quality of the design is amazing and that's why books are the best way to get inspired by those and especially trying to learn how to do that using modern tools like Illustrator and Photoshop.

So in this tutorial I will show you how to create a nice vintage/retro typography based on an artwork from the book New Vintage Type: Classic Fonts for the Digital Age. The whole process will take you 2-3 hours, but it's quite simple. However it requires time. I hope you enjoy it and keep practicing always.

Simple Sketch

Step 1

Open Illustrator and create a new document. The size doesn't even matter because it's vector and we will finalize our work in Photoshop. Type the words "inspiration" and "speaks'". Use uppercase. For the speaks, create 3 different text objects, 2 for the S and one for peaks. Make the Ss bigger than the peaks like the image below.

Step 2

Select the word peaks and go to Object>Envelop Distort>Maker with Warp. Select Ark Lower. Use - 25% for the Horizontal.

Step 3

With the Ellipse Tool (L) create 3 ellipses like the image below. Note that some have thicker strokes than the others.

Step 4

Agai with the Ellipse Tool (L) add 2 circles. One at the top and the other at the bottom of the ellipses.

Step 5

Select the Blend Tool and click on the top circle, then on the botton one to create the blend. Edit the number of steps until you have something like the image below. This values might change depending on your design.

Step 6

Create an ellipse in between the 2 big ones, this new ellipse will be the path for the circles. Delete half of the ellipse then. With the Direct Selection Tool (A) select the line that the blend follows and then select the half of ellipse let. Go to Object>Blend>Place Spine. Now the circles will follow the ellipse spine.

Step 7

Duplicate the blend and flip it vertically using the transform tools via pathfinder (View>Pathfinder).

Step 8

Add more text, in this case I added by ABDUZEEDO. Also add 2 lines one at the top and the other at the bottom.

Step 9

Keed adding more elements, this time I added a rounded rectangle using the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Then I typed ABDUCTED BY DESIGN.

Step 10

With the Rectangle Tool (M) create 2 rectangles, the top one thinner than the bottom and position it next to the big ellispe.

Step 11

With the Spiral Tool create a spiral to use in the end of one of the rectangles.

Step 12

With the Ellipse Tool (L) create a ellipse to fill the end of the spiral.

Step 13

Now with the Star Tool add one star, then duplicate it twice to have 3. Align and ditribute them uniformly.

Step 14

Now just duplicate elements to have the center part as the image below.

Step 15

Again with the Spiral Tool create spirals for the lines of the By Abduzeedo element.

Step 16

Select the elements of the By Abduzeedo part and go to Object>Envelop Distort>Envelop with Warp. Use Arc with the same 25% Horizontal.

Step 17

With the Line Segnent Tool (\) add 2 lines and then with the Blend Tool create a diagonal pattern like the image below.

Step 18

The select the Inspiration Speaks part and group them. Duplicate it once and change the color to white. Move this new copy so it is beneath the black text, and also move a few pixels down and right. After that duplicate this white layer and move it a few more pixels down and left, but then cut it (Edit>Cut). Select the diagonal pattern and go to View>Transparency. You will see 2 thumbs, one with the pattern and another empty. Double click on the empty one to enable the clip mask, then copy the white text in place (Command + F). That will mask the pattern with the text object.

Step 19

This is the final vector object we have. Notice that I also duplicate the By Abduzeedo part. It's up to you here, the idea is try different things :)

Step 20

Open Photoshop and import the vector image. You can do that by copying and pasting or exporting a bitmap from Illustrator. In my case the latter was the fastest one, so it was the one I recommend. Also I added here a image of the Abduzeedo logo I created in Pixelmator a long time ago for testing and place it in the center of the ellipse.

Step 21

Go to Image>Adjustments>Invert. Now we have a black background with white elements.

Step 22

Duplicate the image and with the new layer go to Filter>Sketch>Contê Crayon. Use 13 for the Foreground Level, 10 for the Background Level, Sandstone for the Texture, 150% for the Scaling and 5 for the Relief.

Step 23

With the Brush Tool (B) and some vintage/dirty brushes from Eduardo Recife (http://www.misprintedtype.com/v4/) start painting with black and white over the image. Also add a new layer and start paiting with white only. Tip: Go to Window>Brush (F5) and then create a brush activating the Shape Dynamics, Scattering and Transfer. That way you can paint of the image without looking too uniform.

Conclusion

Here is the final image, you can exaggerate a littel bit because my idea here is use this design on top of an photo, then using Screen for the Blend Mode, all the black will be transparent and only the white will be shown.

As you can see, the design process is quite simple and it's all about trying and practicing. Now we understand a bit on how this vintage elements are creating, therefore we can start creating our own. The typography books were indeed very useful.

Another Version

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Download Illustrator and Photoshop file used for this tutorial

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Create a Zee Vintage Label on Illustrator

marcos333 — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 05:48:43 +0000

It seems that the past 3 years had a boom of retro design, starting with the "cosmic neon lightning" 80's aesthetic that I think most of you are already bored about. Not just because it became a trend, but also because everyone with a photoshop could emulate one. So here's the thing, this new retro wave more focused on 50's and 60's design and illustration seems to be really different, why? Because most of it is hand drawn, and when it to comes to drawing, you wouldn't believe how many designers can't do it.

Let's assume, the last 20 years were pretty revolutionary to design since the computer took a big role on productivity and creation. But he also created patterns and made things more similar, some designers can't even work "old school", since they rely too much on the computer and that's not good. Drawing is a really personal rechnique, you will ever found two persons who will drawn a flower the same way, even with they pratice it. I think that's a thing this trend is rescuing. But, before someone asks, today's tutorial it's not about drawing, it's more about emulating, but sure you should thing about this subject.

Step 1

First of all, let's open Adobe Illustrator and create a new canvas with 21 x 21 cm (8,27 x 8,27 inches).

You probably already know I'm addicted to guides, they're quite useful to get layout orientation, but not exactly a need to. But If you want to use some, just unhide them (command + R/ ctrl +R) and pull from each axys to the position desired.

You should divide your layer like these, use command + L / ctrl + L to create new layers.

Using the rectangle tool (M) make this big square that fits over the canvas.

Make a rectangle inside, using the previous tool.

And another black one inside the white one. You can use the pathfinder option called Minusfront here, but it's not really necessary.

Step 2

Make this thin rectangles around the borders, use the align tool to help you out.

Then go to the pathfinder panel and choose the option called Minus Front.

Uisng the ellipse tool (L) make a circle with the center exactly on the edge of the black square. If you're using guides this will be way easier to posicionate.

Again, using the Minus Front option, get ride of this part on the square.

Repeat the same procedure on the other corners.

Using the ellips tool (L)let's make this circles filling the space the orther one took. Select the cirlce and the frame, then go to the pathfinder panel and choose the option called DIvide.

You're going to get this:

Just repeat the same proceure on the other corners.

Step 3

You probably already kno the hard gradient trick (aka. hachures), he can be really handy when trying to create a stylish frame. Using the polygon tool create a triangle. Then resize it using the selection tool (V) to make it thiner.

Tunr it black and make a group of at least three triangles that fit the white rectangles space on the frame.

Copy and paste on the other spaces.

This is a new trick a learn recently: create a square using the rectangle tool (M), then use the pucker tool on it, just set all the options to be lesse heavier.

You should get these flower shape:

Place it on the corner, then create another one inside of it with a white fill. Also add a circle inside of the last one.

Let's make a circle using the ellipse tool (L), then another one but in the corner.

Also make some leaf shapes using the pen tool (P). Copy and paste all this shapes on the other corners.

Step 4

Let's make the type, you can get this font here. First make a circle using the ellipse tool (L), then use the type on path tool, you can find it on the text type menu, it' pretty easy to use. I just wrote "Design and Web Development", then press command + O / ctrl + O to turn the type into curves.

I just copied the previous flower ornament and changed the colors to give contrast. Paste one on each extremity of the type.

Let make a circle using a white fill and a black stroke on it.

Access the stroke panel and choose to use a stroke inside the path, also add 7,53pt dashed line on it.

Using a black fill, I wrote "by" using the same type.

I dig a lot those old icons used on books and ad's with a more simplified shapes. So, as a way to symbolize the Design and Web development, I decided to use a brush and a eye. Let's start by the eye, make two circles, one with a fill other with just a stroke.

More two circles inside of the white one.

Make this dashes around the iris using the pen tool (P).

Let's make a brush, first draw this pieces using the pen tool (P).

Using the previous tool, let's add this reflexes.

Now duplicate all the shapes and just right-click on it, go to Transform > Reflect, turn the Vertical Axis.

Step 5

You can grab Snake Oil Font at Legacy of Defeat, I must say I'm addicted to this font. First you should write "ZEE", then curve it before anything command + O / ctrl + O.

Make a lot of thin rectangles using the rectangle tool (M), then use the align tools to keep an order on them. Doube-click on the letter of the type (not the shadow areas) and duplicate it.

Make a clipping mask all over the rectangles using the letter shape (command + 7 / ctrl + 7), repeat this procedure on other letters.

Also added a simple detail using the pen tool (P).

Step 6

Let's a make a trapezium using the rectangle tool (M), then adjust it using the direct selection tool (A). Duplicate it and sue the option called Unite.

I made tis folds on the ribbon by simply using the pen tool (P) and space between the shapes.

Add some of the hacures used previously. Just don't forget to add a clipping mask on them and using the direct selection tool (A) leave a space between it and the original shape.

You probably already familiar with the blend tool. In order to get a hard gradient using it, you just need to make two rectangles, one large and one thin. Then click on the tool icon and a panel will pop up, set spacing as Specified Steps and use just 5.

Grab the result and place it on the ribbon letting, duplicate it and reflect it. Then finally add a clipping mask over it.

OLd trick: Write Est. 2004 using this font. Then write agian over using a black fill, just to make a hard shadow.

Step 7

We need to add some grain in order to give that used look. We will need a little help from Photoshop so. Open it and make a squared canvas, place the whole art as a Smart Object.

Get this book texture here, using the magic wand (W), select the texture of it randomly. Back to the Smart Object layer, use this selection and create a mask, if necessary use invert the selection (command + I/ ctrl + I).

Conclusion

Trying to simulate vintage design is more about rethinking how people would create such graphics in a era without computers and, of course, lots of references. Most of the things done on the 50's and 60's were hand made, even If they look really sharp and clean, the methods and techniques were pretty basic. So part of trying to reach this aesthetic is to going back to what i call fundamental: drawing technique. If you don't know how to draw what you do on the computer, you should definitely worry about, because a good designer can't rely only on a tool. That's it. thanks for you time, hope you enjoyed it.

Download the Illustrator File

Click here to download the Illustrator file used for this tutorial.

Download the Photoshop File

Click here to download the Illustrator file used for this tutorial.

About the author

My name is Marcos Torres, I'm Graphic Artist from Porto Alegre, Brasil. You can get to know more about me by acessing my Personal Website or by following me on Twitter: @marcos333. You can also see some of my last projects at my Flickr.

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Funny and Interesting Illustrations by Nigel Buchanan

marcos333 — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:52:30 +0000

Nigel Buchanan is a illustrator working mainly with graphic and editorial areas. His artwork feature some really cool retro style, reminds me a bit those old tale books, with a lot of gradients and grain texture on the characters.

You can find other artworks and some really cool proccess shots on his Blog or you can also see some of these on his Website.

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Vintage 3D Typography in Photoshop with Repoussé

abduzeedo — Mon, 23 May 2011 06:07:08 +0000

Sunday is the day to play with Photoshop and try some new ideas. As usual I went through some books and Web sites to find some inspiration. I am still addicted to the Handy Book of Artistic Printing, it's a must have book for some old style print references. I got some ideas and also found this amazing image from Alex Beltechi on Dribbble called Twisting in the Wind. Then I new the effect I wanted to know how to create in Photoshop.

So in this tutorial I will show you how to create a super cool and very easy effect using Photohosp and the Repoussé tool. The whole process is quite simple, it's less than 10 steps and won't take you more than 30 minutes.

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new document. I am using 2560x1680 with 300 DPI (very important) with black background. With the Horizontal Type Tool (T) add a text. I am using for the font Edwardian Script ITC. Notice that I sort of connect the words "the" with "book" with "of" and with "Abduzeedo". After that merge the texts into a new layer then create a marquee selection of the text area by clicking on the thumbnail of the layer holding Command(MAC)/Control(PC).

Step 2

Go to 3D>Repoussé>Current Selection. The Repoussé dialog box will open then change the Depth to .7 and the Lights to Day Lights. Also you might have to select some areas to change the type to Hole for the Internal Constraints.

Step 3

This is the result after the 3D filter. In order to render the final image you must select the Scene in the 3D dialag box and change the Quality to Ray Traced Final.

Step 4

Merge all layers into one including the black background, then go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Change the Input Levels to 65, 1.35 and 128.

Step 5

Go to Image>Mode>Greyscale. After that go to Image>Mode>Bitmap. Change the Output to 600 pixels/inch and the Method to Halftone Screen.

Step 6

For the Halftone Screen, change the Frequency to 70 lines/inch, the Angle to 45 degrees and the Shape to Line.

Step 7

Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Change the Inputs to 17, 1 and 206. Also change the Output Levels to 42 and 255.

Step 8

Time to add some texture. Import some old paper texture, the one I am using is courtesy from Shutterstock and you can find it at http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-43075990/stock-photo-the-old-shabby-pape.... After that go to Image>Adjustments>Leveles. Change the Input to 142, 1.00 and 255.

Conclusion

Change the texture layer to Multiply and the effect is pretty much done. You can also save the image in the step 5 and reuse it here adding on top of the layer with halftone at 50% Opacity to make the effect a bit more smooth. As you can see the Bitmap mode is perfect to create some old style print effect, especially now that when vintage and this sort of effect is quite trendy.

Click on the image for full preview.

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Click here to download the Photoshop file used for this Tutorial

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Artistic Printing Inspiration in Illustrator and Photoshop

abduzeedo — Mon, 16 May 2011 05:07:04 +0000

This morning I was tidying up my apartment then I decided to organize my books, I didn't bring many books to San Francisco, only the ones I really like, and among them there is The Handy Book of Artistic Printing: Collection of Letterpress Examples with Specimens of Type, Ornament, Corner Fills, Borders, Twisters, Wrinklers, and other Freaks of Fancy. I love this book because it's full of letterpress examples, like type, ornaments, corner fills borders and much more. So after a few minutes checking the book out I decided to design something using Illustrator and Photoshop inspired by some of the artworks I saw.

So in this tutorial I will show you how to create an vintage style letter press effect using Illustrator and Photoshop. The process is quite simple but it's a good exercise and will definitely broad your skill set.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and create a new document, the size is not important we will just create the basic shapes and then in Photoshop we will apply the effects to give it the nice letter press style.

So in Illustrator start off by creating a circle and a rectangle, then with the Direct Selection Tool change the rectangle so the right side is smaller thant the left.

Step 2

Select both objects and go to Object>Path>Offset Path. Use 4mm for the Offset.

Step 3

For the circle use 3pt for the stroke of the inner circle, and for the rectangle use 4pt for the inner object. After that you apply the offset command in both objects but using 2mm. The idea is create another element between them. So for the rectangle one apply a dashed stroke by selecting the option Dashed Line. Use 1pt for the dash and 5pt for the gap. Also make sure the Cap and the Corner are with the Rounded option.

Step 4

Repeat the same thing for the circle but then use the Square option for Cap and Corner.

Step 5

Time to fill out the objects. Illustrator comes with some really nice Swatch Libraries, go to Window>Swatch Library>Patterns>Basic Graphics>Basic LInes. Select the last one that is vertical lines. Fill the circle with that one.

Step 6

For the modified rectangle using the Line Segment Tool (/) create 2 lines like the image below.

Step 7

With the Blend Tool (W) select one then the other line to create the blend effect. After that double click on the blend tool icon to open the Blend Options. Change the Spacing to Specified Steps and use 69 stepts.

Step 8

Duplicate both objects and rotate them. After that add a circle with and repeat the same offset effect we created in the previous steps. In the center add a sqare and rotate it 45º. Repeat the same offset effects but fill the object in te center in black. Also notice that the big circle has a dotted stroke, that one was done by using 7pt for the weight, 1pt for the dash and 10pt for the gap with rounded cap.

Step 9

For the big circle fill let's use the Blend Tool once again. So copy the circle (Command + C) and paste in place (Command +F), then resize it a little bit (1). Copy and paste in place again and make the new copy much smaller (2).

Step 10

Apply the Blend Tool (w) by clicking on the 2 circles. Then double click on the blend object to edit it. Use Specified Steps with 30 Steps. Also I used 2pt for the Stroke weight.

Step 11

Here I just added the Abduzeedo Symbol and the word Abduzeedo using the Type on Path Tool, in which I duplicated the big circle to use as the reference path for the effect.

Step 12

Go to Windown>Swatch Libraries>Patterns>Basic Graphics>Basic Graphics_Textures. After that create a rectangle and then fill it with one of the textures. The Illustrator part is done, now it's time to Photoshop.

Step 13

Open Photoshop and the first thing to do is import a texture, old paper texture. The one I am using is from Shutterstock and you can get it at http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-43075990/stock-photo-the-old-shabby-pape...

Step 14

Copy the rectangle with the texture from Illustrator and paste in Photoshop. Then in Photoshop change the layer's Blend Mode to Color Burn.

Step 15

Now copy the whole symbol without the Abduzeedo word in Illustrator and paste it in Photoshop. Make sure that the background of the symbol is white.

Step 16

Duplicate the symbol 4 times moving it a few pixels up for each copy in order to create a 3D effect.

Step 17

Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue and Saturation. Use 40 for the Hue, 40 for the Saturation and 14 for the Lightness. Also make sure that the adjustment layer is on top of the other layers.

Step 18

Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels. Use 0, 0.55 and 255 for the Input levels, the change the black output to 73.

Step 19

Here is an example of the final colors you have to have in this point. Notice I also added another text at the bottom.

Step 20

With the Magic Wand Tool (W) change the tolerance to 3 then select a part of the old paper texture. After that go to Select>Similar

Conclusion

Group all objects (text, and shapes) into a folder then with the marquee selection still active go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide Selection. This mask will make your effect looks much more realistic. Also you can change the blend modes to linear color burn or even color burn to make it look like super old and burned, however you would have to duplicate it a few times to make it dark enough.

Anyway, this tutorial was just an exercise I decided to do while checking an amazing book called The Handy Book of Artistic Printing. I love finding inspiration from books and trying to recreate images I see and like in order to improve my skills.

Download the Photoshop File

Click here to download the Photoshop file used for this tutorial

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Vintage Label Designs

paul0v2 — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:45:05 +0000

When I first saw these designs, I thought they were truly from the 50s. Just to find out they were recently done by Wallace Design House, a one-man design that create amazing and very inspiring designs. Check out for yourself and get that vintage feeling back in the air.

For more from Wallace Design House visit their website wallacedesignhouse.com

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Mixed Vintage Memories

paul0v2 — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:47:14 +0000

It's impossible not to get inspired by vintage design, photography, architecture and more. So I decided to mix things up on this post and get you that fresh inspiration you need, whether you looking to be inspired by shapes, colors, textures or overall design, you will find a memory that will touch you.