Download Source Files
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
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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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Wow you make this look so easy.. will have a go at this tonight..
Congratulations on winning BTW
Owain
http://www.icomcreative.co.uk
looking good;)thanks for the tuts
Ronald
Nice ending result. I like the floating letters that are in focus and out. It takes the poster to another level of cool =)
Thanks for sharing.
Nice, Thanks for the tut.
I think you should turn off the letters tracing layer (the big translucent type layer)
Good tutorial, but the typewriter looks a bit fake though.
You should have added a bit of shadow to make it more realistic.
But it looks really nice with the red highlights in the “ALPHABETH” text.
thanks for writing the tut. However this is just not good design at all, the alphabet looks weak and boring, it doesn’t stand out from the background. The focus lies on the typewriter and not the typography, I didn’t even see the alphabet at first glance. This is a nice aestetic piece, but not a poster or typography piece.
My suggestion is take the random letters and the typewriter out and make it a landscape format, with just the word alphabet made up from the individual words. Keep the background and make the type really pop.
Forget the poster, the background tip is great! xd
Now this what i am talking about more tuts on jobs u more likely get , poster, flyer, billboards , and more Typography tuts plzz. thx GJ..
btw anybody got any books on tyopgraphy? on poster designs , or any tuts or sites about the use of typography?
this isn’t so much of a “tutorial”, its more like a “my process” writeup…
this is thebomb.com/awesomest
Not bad, but nothing amazing.
Thanks for this, quite interesting.
And for the guys above – what more can he give?
“How to download an image of a typewriter?”
“What words to write inside the letters?”
lol
Nice. Thanks a lot for tutor.
great job man
you could make some brushes from letters, and scatter and shape dynamics would do the typing for ya…..
nice thingie though!
Inspiring! Thank you for sharing how to do it!
Typewriter my favorite one…
going to try with in a week (i hope)
:D LAWRENCE :D
Very cool result. I like the overall look of this piece. Great job on the tutorial.
A deep low tutorial my friend.I see you are using the same thing over and over and guess what, over again!UPrinting Design, PS ROMANIA, and now PSDTuts…keep up the ….. work
Nice tut, and a nice looking poster.
But I’ve always wondered if there was an easier way to randomize text across a certain area.
Wow this tut couldn’t have come at a better time. Was just looking up some examples for typographic posters.
Wow, looks like this took a very long time but the end result is very nice and appealing. Thanks for sharing :)
Wow, very nice tutorial! Always wanted to make a Typographic poster and this is just right. Thank you.
Great job!
Diesel, the point is – people should look for the fastest solution to achieve some effects. And this was just done as we see this. I mean: letter by letter, word by word etc. I mostly like tutorials for technics, the result is on second place.
Final effect looks good, but tutorial does not amaze me. Remmac had a good point, why didnt author use brush options for letters? It would be much, much easier.
Agree with greg. Bad design. Looks cool but definitely not a typographic poster.
You can barely tell there is type in there.
Great !!!! well done
looks great!
Very intriguing effect. A small criticism though, the word “alphabet” could really benefit from being much more dominant. Nevertheless, it looks nice.
Oh I know how “hard” step 8 can be.. I made a poster like this, too some time ago.
You can watch it on my web site ;)
Great tutorial! I love the typewriter!!
Now imagine if the type section was done in Illustrator!
Vectors are the future.
Really nice!
Thanks heaps this is nice!
Conrad Gorny
Freelance Graphic Designer
http://www.conradgorny.com
very nice grunge! thanks for the great work
I agree its a very intriguing effect. I was trying it but then I stuck with step 8. eventually I made it work but I am not really sure if I had done some quality work anywhere near this final output.
Photoshop is a lot of practice, I guess.
Thank you for nice tutorial.
Roshan
Freelance Developer
http://www.instantshift.com
Amazing challenge.
Little brother, you can do better! :p :D
i realy like this kind of effects.
One more (hopefully constructive) criticism. Please don’t use Arial in a typographic poster. I don’t mean to sound condescending, but it’s like trying to play the piano with boxing gloves on.
Thanks for the tut. I like it
huh, I think for the time consuming text part brushes could be used as well, just changing brush settings and getting nice results pretty fast. Just for an idea!
Thanks, nice tutorial!
This is indeed time consuming, especially on Step 8. But I guess most typography arts are tedious to perform but will often end up with great results.
Thanks for sharing your techniques!
Very nice. Just wanted to let you know that I was brainstorming for my next CD cover and after reading your tut I got inspired. I willl work on similar approach to the one you used. Thank you for the inspiration and sharing your knowledge.
This is really awesome :) tx !
The “Alphabet” with the letters in them in done really good, but I think you overdid it with the clouds and the larger scattered letters a little.
Still a lovely tutorial though, thanks.
Looks pretty sharp! Thanks for the tutorial!
http://www.mcgstudio.com
Is it possible to translate the tutorial in Italian and post it on an italian forum?
Obviously i will put credits and a link to the site.
glad to see a mate from Romania so tallented
Idea is very good!! Thank you for this tuts.
Han Myo