In this tutorial I will take you through a few steps that will show you how I created a poster design. This illustration was created for a contest started by UPrinting Design over at You The Designer. I was one of the lucky winners. Also, because of the requests to write a tutorial on this design, I made some changes to it, and I decided to show you the design process behind this piece.

Final Image Preview

Let’s take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psdtuts+ PLUS for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Video Tutorial

Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Step 1

The first thing that came into my head when I heard about the typography contest was a typing machine, so I started from that. I have provided each link for all the stock I used. Then, after a few days of trying to figure out how to continue, I started adding letters to the document. As I continued experimenting with the letters, I decided to add them into the design to construct a quote out of them (see the red text in the design).

First of all, you need to open up a new document. The size I chose for the tutorial is 768 pixels by 1024 pixels. The poster I did for the contest is a little bit different from the one in this tutorial, but both have similar concepts and techniques used.

Step 2

Now I will use two vintage textures. I would like to thank the author of these textures Princess-of-Shadows for putting these together. They are amazing! You can experiment with other textures or backgrounds if you like.

Step 3

In this step, you will need to move both textures into your document and fit them. You can scale them if need be. Next, finish positioning them one on top of another. You will need to select the one you placed above and set it to Multiply. This will blend the two textures together.

Step 4

Next, I will import another stock image. You can find this image at wilddoug. Simply use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to remove the white around the typewriter or use the Pen Tool (P). Lastly, name the layer "Typewriter."

Step 5

Set the "Typewriter" layer to Multiply and Opacity to 90%.

Step 6

Now, duplicate the "Typewriter" layer and set it to Soft Light and Opacity of 30%.

Step 7

Next you need to create some text. The font I used is Arial. Just write your text with white and also make it all caps, then transform the text as you wish. Also, set the layer to Soft Light and Opacity to 50%.

Step 8

The next step is the hardest or maybe I should say it takes a lot of time to get this to look just right. You will have to write a lot of words and move each word into each letter of the "ALPHABET" word. You are free to position and transform the words as you wish. Also, the font used here is called American Typewriter and I moved all the words into a folder called "ALPHABET."

As you can see, I have colored some of the letters with red. I did this to highlight the quote I told you about. Also, to give a greater impact to the effect, if you look in the lower side of the letters, they seem to be falling down. This adds more movement to the composition.

Step 9

The final result so far should look like the image below.

Step 10

Now you need to add some more text. This time you will make it look like it jumps right out from the typewriter. Don’t create full words, but only letters. For example, I start with the letter "a", and duplicated it a couple of times, then transformed each until it fit right. Next, I went to the next letter "b" and so forth. In the end move all the letters to a folder called "Text."

The red lines represent the area where you should place the letters for maximum impact, so it looks like the letters are jumping out of the machine. This unifies the typewriter image with the lettering in the sky.

Step 11

You will need to repeat Step 10, but this time add less letters and make them smaller. Now, rasterize all of them , then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and use a Radius of 1.0 pixels. This will give the illusion that the letters are further away.

Step 12

Create six more letters. This time make them larger then the rest. Next, transform them using the Transform Tool (T). Now Rasterize them all. Also, you will need to select three of them (or as many you like) and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and use different Radius for each. This will give the illusion that these letters are closer.

Step 13

To make the letters look like they are high in altitude, I create a new layer and brush some clouds over the text. Here is a link for some fine cloud brushes on DeviantArt.

Conclusion

Add more letters in the lower part of the image, as this makes a nice border. Also, paint some more brushes (fly, crack on the upper left part of the image and a splat). You will need to paint these with black and set them to Multiply. Visit the User Link Feed for free resources. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

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