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In this tutorial, we will go through the steps to create a retro 1960s psychedelic concert poster. This tutorial relies heavily on the use of the Warp Tool, but includes a few other techniques as well. Let’s get started.
Step 1
Create a new document with a poster-like size ratio. Visualize how you want the document to be laid out and draw some rough guides with the Brush Tool (B) on a new layer called “guides”. I drew several different compartments that will each contain a different piece of text and one that will contain an image.
Step 2
Make a solid color adjustment layer and fill it with a deep purple. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool(U). Set the radius so that you get a nice rounded edge that you like. Make sure that you set Make Work Path As Checked on the property bar. Now click and drag to make your border. Grab the Pen Tool (P), and while holding Command, click and drag to select the path. Then click in the Subtract Path button on the property bar. Then make a solid color adjustment layer and fill it with an orange color.
Step 3
Now to set the first bit of text. I used a font called Hobo Std for mine. Grab the Text Tool (T) and click anywhere in the canvas. Then type your text. Hit Command+T and scale the text up so that it fits the first compartment. Hit enter to set the transform. On the Layers Palette, right click on the text layer and select Convert to Shape. This turns the text into paths.
Step 4
Go Edit>Transform>Warp and warp the text to fit the compartment. I find it’s easiest to start with the corner handles and then adjust the others afterwards. The Warp Tool can take some getting used to, though it’s fairly intuitive. Play around with it until you get a good result. Repeat this step for all the text compartments.
Step 5
Now let’s go back in and change the color on some of this text. First, I want some of the text to have a stroke. Make the fill color on the ‘with special guests’ layer white. Then set the layer’s blending mode to Multiply. Double-click on the layer to the right of the layer’s name to open the Layer Styles Palette. Give the layer a stroke with the settings below. Go ahead and change the colors on the other text to whatever you like. Also, apply a stroke to some of the other text.
Step 6
Many of these old posters were screen printed. Lets give ours a little of that effect. Load the selection of the ‘Lumedia’ layer by Command+Clicking on its vector thumbnail. Hit (M) for the Marquee Tool. Then hit the arrow keys to move the selection down and to the right. Now hit Alt+Command+Click on the same layer thumbnail to subtract from the selection. Make a new solid color adjustment layer just above the original text and fill it with your secondary color. Set the Opacity to 75% and give it a nudge so it doesn’t line up correctly. That way it will look more handmade.
Step 7
The thing that is really going to make this look good and realistic is some texture. I have a paper texture that I got from BittBox that will do nicely. Copy the texture into the document. Then put it at the top in the Layers Palette. Set the blending mode to Linear Light and set the Fill to 25%.
Step 8
Now let’s move on to our image that will fill the rest of the poster. I got an image of a female singer from iStockphoto. Duplicate the blue channel by dragging it to the New Channel button at the bottom of the Channels Palette. Apply a harsh curve to it that looks something like below. Do the same to the red channel. Now invert each of the two new channels you made by selecting them and hitting Command+I.
Step 9
Make a new Solid Color adjustment layer and fill it with the lightest color that you used in the poster. Load the selection of one of the channels you made by holding Command-clicking on its thumbnail in the Channels Palette. Make a new Solid Color adjustment layer above the previous one and fill it with one of the other colors from the poster. Do the same with the remaining channel that you created and fill it with the remaining color from the poster.
Now on each of the masks on the solid color adjustment layers, apply a threshold. Go Image>Adjustments>Threshold and drag the slider until you get the detail that looks good to you. Do the same for the other mask on the other color.
Step 10
Now, let’s get back to the poster. With the Pen Tool (P), draw a path around the blank area of the poster. Make a new group by clicking on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. With the path highlighted, hit the Add Layer Mask button twice to apply the path as a vector mask.
Conclusion
Now drag the three color fill layers from the singer image over to the poster document and put them into the group that you just created. Scale the image to fill the space as you see fit. I flipped mine horizontally to make it fit better.
Our final 1960s psychedelic-style concert poster is below. Have fun with these techniques and this style of design.
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By Kyle Pero
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very nice, thx !
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2396/poster1ok7.jpg
nowhere near as good as the model, but still fun to look at, right?
I agree with Dave when he said the tut was poorly written.
The writer leaves to much information.
He needs to explain where and how hes going something
for people like myself trying to learn Photoshop and when
Photoshop users like Simen Sorthe who are more experience using
Photoshop have trouble following your steps a light should go off…
Nice. I did my dissertation on the evolution of the psychadelic poster earlier this year. Had to create something similar, but used Illustrator to give me more control over the type. Should’ve used your technique though!
When you explain it, it seems so simple, so evident
I’m glad I could find such a brilliant tutorial! I’m looking forward to putting my own printed poster on the wall.
Thanks!!
To those that complete this project. I write the blog entitled ” The Way Back Machine” and I have posted a link to this tutorial and have asked my readers to create psychedelic posters. If I get enough of a response I will set up a gallery online to display these posters. If you are interested stop by The Way Back Machine for more information.
Thanks for a great tutorial.
Very nice man dude!
But how am i goning to do dis in ps 0,7 ? Its like totally diffrent man!
peace
I absolutely love this tutorial! Reminds me of the classic Scooby-Doo cartoon. Ah, good times. =D
Hey,
For step 10, when using the pen, make sure to select “exclude overlapping path areas”, otherwise you’ll get a mask opposite of what you want.
Oh My Freaking GOD, thank you!
I’m so confused by this tutorial, each step is not very well described.
Absoulutely Fantastic! excactly what iv’e been looking for! Great, keep it up!
:O Great!!!!
this is awesome looking and seemingly easy. however, i tried it, and i found it very difficult and pretty much failed entirely, because you don’t explain how to use the warp tool. help!
How do you make a solid color adjustment layer?????
http://i42.tinypic.com/2zz50u9.jpg
translation: happy holidays – love, fortune & health – 2009
too much LSD I’m afraid, sorry!
Thank you so much for this. I did almost an exact replica for the first one, then built off of it, and I love these posters so much. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and this post was so perfect for what I wanted.
Great starting point. For a more authentic result, look to pieces from the art nouveau movement (decorative elements and fonts). The concert posters borrowed heavily from this style.
here’s a good example:
http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/sixties/gifindex.php?line=170
Very Bad Tutorial NOT CLEAT AT ALL!!!!
but seriously you suck at it im relly frustrated that you add like 3-4 steps in each step
on step 5 you dont explain how to make the white FILL??
Step 8 How the hell do you apply a ” HARSH CURVE??”
Step 9 and 10 W**?
If your going to make a Tutorial do it right, take your time w/ it
Tutorials are so that even BEGGINERS can understand
what program was used for this
?
Dearest of all,
I must be a real nuttah (I’m new ’round here), but can anyone tell me which programma one should use to create such an marvellous poster (A)?
yeah, thank you for sharing!
thanks alot
It’s really nice!
Thank you, I’m gonne make one for my birhtday!
I get the grunge papaer and the warp terxt, but none of the colour effects work on the picture i am trying to use. How do you create the colour adjustment layers?
I found how do to do it now, also someone else having problem with solid colour adjustment layers – solution is to click the circle that is half white and half black on the bottom of the layers palette then choose solid colour. I am glad I worked this out, thank you,
very helpful, i learned somethin’. thanks!
I love its cool looking to me
Mine turned out well. Nice tutorial
Great! Been looking for somthing like that to make scene party posters.
Thanks a lot!
Very Nice..
One thing I think that would really complete this would be to use the paper texture – grab one of the channels save as alpha channa, then reapply to the text and pic via Displace..
nice design but the girl doesn’t look much like in th 60’s her hair is too clean
YOU TOTALLY SAVED MY ASS- thanks so much!! I needed to design a poster for the BBQ my Dad is having and had no idea how to. I’m extremely grateful. Very easy to understand, even for a photoshop virgin such as myself. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!
HOW DO YOU DO STEP 6?? I’ve read it through so many times and I still don’t get it? I didn’t think I was THAT stupid and I am pretty good with ps, so can someone explain?
What is a ‘new solid colour adjustment’?
Got tutorial, but I’m SO CONFUSED.
Hey Elle, It took me a bit to. Sorry this is such a delayed response! Your going to want to go to Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color.
It’s confusing.
very nice tutorial, so many techniques can be used to create similar posters and flyers.
Hey, I love pshychedelic art… Can anyone tell me which program was used to create this?
Thankw…
I disagree with everyone who’s advocating the use of the pen tool to get a smoother image. Look at actual posters of the time and you will see lots of “posterized” images like the one in this poster. The only real difference is that back in the day the shades were separated photographically. You folks who are advocating use of the pen tool are missing the point and have probably not seen many actual 60’s fillmore-era posters.
I have to agree, however, with those folks who are critical of the typography. I think you got the point across well with this — it’s a quick, easy way to acheive something similar to a 60’s style, but to get the full effect, you would want to either hand render the text, or use a less “computery” font.
overall, it’s a good way to get in the ballpark quickly — so good job!
OK, I’m trying to do steps 8-9, but they make NO SENSE. Please make a clearer version, one that is more detailed and includes pictures showing each step.
I´m agree with Mac, i´m trying to do steps 8 and 9 and i didn´t understand, it´s not clear, please do something because photo is the last step of my poster!
this is great thnx
great tut, thanks
I can’t understand step 9 as well. I’ve broken my brains with that stupid channels but still nothing…Can someone explain us those manipulations at last???
“Now on each of the masks on the solid color adjustment layers, apply a threshold.” — which masks? was there any word about masks?
Threshold is not active with that adjustment layers I’ve created..
How the hell do you do the photo part, you need to put more detail into your tuts, its to hard to follow, you suck dude
that’s cool!
guys, really frustrating: in the last step I can’t fill the space I marked with the pentool. The ‘three layers’ just disappear underneath the selected area in stead of in the selected area. Does any one know how i can solve this??
Very cool picture but the tutorial is not clear. I’d love to make it by myself but following the steps is hard because it’s not clear. Especially the part where you make the border and you change the color of the girl. It’s really confusing. Hope you make the tutorial better and easy to follow. We’re not experts so we don’t know sometimes what you’re referring to specifically.
i don’t understand how to get the girl photo cropped to the poster? i did all the steps but it is unclear. the pen tool just sits on the page and when i bring the girl over it just covers up the whole poster
thanks for sharing here is my two work ( http://s574.photobucket.com/albums/ss184/byroncnapier2134/?action=view¤t=tanyastephensoldpostereffect.jpg )
( http://s574.photobucket.com/albums/ss184/byroncnapier2134/?action=view¤t=jaqueendancehall.jpg )
this was one of the better tutorial on PSD tuts!1 I am new to photoshop and editing but could finish this one in one go, so that’s saying a lot!
and yeah, here’s my tribute to hendrix using this tut – http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6424/hendrixposter.jpg