Design a Cartoon Grunge Web site Layout

Apr 19th in Interface by Chan Kai Loon

Learn how to add a worn look that works well with cartoon-style graphics. Different flavors of grunge styles are popular all over the Web right now. Learn a unique approach to wear and tear that you can incorporate into your next Web site design.

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Author: Chan Kai Loon

Hi! I am Kai Loon. A Web Designer from Malaysia. I mainly focus on CSS, Web Design, Graphic Design, and recently Wordpress Themes Development. Thanks!

Final Image Preview

Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. Click the screenshot below to view the full-size image. As always, the full Photoshop file is available via our PSDTUTS Plus membership.

Final Click

Step 1

Create a new Web document at 1024px by 768px. Fill the background with a color similar to the image below. Grab the Rectangle Tool and draw a rectangle. The rectangle should fill about half of the page with the color given below. Then Rasterize it. Go to Layer>Rasterize>Shape.

Rename this as "top layer." Using the Lasso Tool, draw shapes across the bottom of the rectangle, like in the image below. Then press Delete. This will cut out the shapes from the rectangle. This is a quick way to create this. Of course, you could use a mask, if you prefer.

Step 2

Create a new layer below the "top layer." Grab the Brush Tool. Set it to Soft Mechanical, 100px Diameter, and (#484536) color. Use the Brush to create the shape of the shadow for the "top-shadow" layer. You may need to zoom in and smudge it to get a better result.

Next we apply some layer styles. Apply a 1px outside white stroke to the top layer. Then apply Pattern Overlay, with Soft Light Blend Mode, and use Rust Flakes for the pattern.

Tips: It's best to draw the shadow yourself. Try to make the shadow not fixed, as it may make it look unnatural. You may need to spend some time to draw this part to make it look good.

Step 3

Create a layer above the "top layer." Then Option/Alt-click between the layers to create a mask. With the same Brush, set the color to (#d8ce9d). Then brush along the edge of the "top layer" to create a highlight.

Step 4

Create a rectangle by going to Edit>Free Transform or Cmd/Ctrl+T. Then Rotate to the angle shown below. Use Cmd/Ctrl+T again and this time select Warp. Drag the bottom right corner as shown below.

Step 5

Using the Pen Tool, draw out the shadow below the rectangle shape. Apply Gaussian Blur at 5px. Then set the layer blend mode to Multiply.

Tips: Brush out the little shadow at the top to enhance the effect.

Step 6

First, Cmd/Ctrl-click on the rectangle to bring out the selection. Go to Select>Modify>Contract>10px. Create a new layer above it and fill it with a white color. Next place any photo you like. Then create a mask with the new layer we just created.

Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to draw the tape. Then create a new layer above and fill it with a white color. Then set the Fill to 47%. Apply a 1px Inside Stroke, (#e4dec3) color, and set the Opacity to 66%. Then duplicate it. Move the duplicate to the left, then rotate the left tape, as in the image below.

Step 7

Use the Brush Tool (B) to create the shadow for both pieces of tape. See the settings below.

Step 8

Type the site title. I am using Bernard MT Condensed, with (#7a745e) color, and 72px size. Type out the primary navigation titles next. Then Rasterize the type. Grab the Erase Tool(E), and with the TB_Grunge Brush, randomly erase the letters to make a worn effect. Or if you prefer a nondestructive method, then use a mask to create these effects.

Step 9

Using the Pencil Tool(B), zoom in, and draw an arrow shape. Then erase it, as we did with the titles we made in the previous step.

Step 10

Using the same technique, create the Search Input field, then the RSS icon. I also added some text next to our main navigation titles.

Step 11

Our "header" is done. We already have our "main body" area colored in as our background, so let's make our "footer" next.

Grab the Rectangle Tool and draw a rectangle at the bottom of the screen about 40px high. Give it a color of (#302e26). Then Rasterize it. Go to Layer>Rasterize>Shape. Then use the same cutting technique that we used to create the "top layer." Only this time, we'll be doing this to the top of the rectangle. Go ahead and cut some shapes out of the top of the rectangle. Then apply the layer styles below. Your end result for this step should look like the last image below.

Final Image

We are almost done now. For the final image, simply add in three white rectangles. Then apply a Drop Shadow layer-style effect. Add in three images of your choice. Mask them to fit within the boundaries of the white rectangles. Our final image is below.


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User Comments

( ADD YOURS )
  1. PG

    Mister Brito April 19th

    Muy bueno el tutorial…

    ( Reply )
  2. PG

    Sadar April 19th

    Nice :)

    ( Reply )
  3. PG

    Paulo Sales April 19th

    cool..!

    ( Reply )
  4. PG

    Timmy April 19th

    Nice work

    ( Reply )
  5. PG

    godonholiday April 19th

    cool…would love top see how you guys get these into dreamweaver and add content without messing up the design and layout

    ( Reply )
  6. PG

    james April 19th

    nice baby

    ( Reply )
  7. PG

    Ben Griffiths April 19th

    Looks cool, thanks :D

    ( Reply )
  8. PG

    Lamin Barrow April 19th

    WOW.. very nice interface you have made there Chan. I see everyone is into this grunge thing now. By the way the design looks absolutely fantastic. Thanks very much. :)

    ( Reply )
  9. PG

    Nick April 19th

    I agree, very nice! I would also love to see how you make the transition from an image to a website.

    ( Reply )
  10. PG

    giackop April 19th

    cool!! thanx Chan..

    ( Reply )
  11. PG

    D.A.T. April 19th

    nice! I reaaly like the cartoon feel. I’d like to seee how you take this and make it into a webpage. Thanks!

    ( Reply )
  12. PG

    goldenthunder April 19th

    Very cool, there are a lot of different grunge styles now, and I like how you incorporate a unique type (not just the typical alleyway street look). Thank you!

    ( Reply )
  13. PG

    ifindtrends April 19th

    Great Tutorial. Would love to see more of these about web design. Maybe in the pay section? Anyone esle agree?

    ( Reply )
  14. PG

    Ewan April 19th

    Wow! I’ve been wondering how to do something like this for a while. Thanks for sharing.

    ( Reply )
  15. PG

    Jesús April 19th

    Very nice

    ( Reply )
  16. PG

    Daniel April 19th

    Good work…

    Daniel

    ( Reply )
  17. PG

    Eduardomatica April 19th

    buenisimo, esta pagina es la mejor que conozco sobre photoshop… sigan asi y voy a unirme a la “membresia plus” :mrgreen:

    ( Reply )
  18. PG

    Andrew D April 19th

    Yay web design tutorials! My favorite!

    ( Reply )
  19. PG

    Harry April 19th

    Wow nice il like the tape effect

    ( Reply )
  20. PG

    HamBoneZ April 19th

    That gives me some ideas thanks alot man :)

    - BoneZ

    ( Reply )
  21. PG

    Stanley April 19th

    looks good and it’s quick and easy

    ( Reply )
  22. PG

    Zach April 19th

    first off…

    very nice tutorial. it is a definately grunge look, but a little more friendly, and imo appealing than some i’ve seen. love it. and thanks.

    second…

    i would be happy to show how you would transform an image in to a website. i could even use this example if Chan Kai Loon would be okay with it. i am not the greatest CSS/XHTML coder, but I definatley could handle this homepage. i don’t know if it would be possible to post it here on PSD Tuts, but if it is Collis, please post here and let me know how to get in touch.

    thanks,

    -Zach

    ( Reply )
  23. PG

    D. Carreira April 19th

    WOW! Another fantastic tutorial! Thanks

    David Carreira

    ( Reply )
  24. PG

    Vampvess April 19th

    Fantastic tutorial, although it step is easy.
    But I found it is useful.
    Thanks you.

    ( Reply )
  25. PG

    jws1 April 19th

    very nice use of the lasso and warp, these simple technques can really be useful in modern apps.. although in the final image the text next to “about” etc, look oddly out of proportion. All in all i found inspiration from this. thank you.

    ( Reply )
  26. PG

    Snorri3D April 19th

    well it is time to give somthing back to this awsome comunity.

    I took this design and made it into a webpage or at least i coded it i did not have the psd file so i only used this jpg and made it as a tableless page so css only no tables :) you can see the result at -simpleeffect.com/kailoon and if you want the code here it is at - simpleeffect.com/kailoon/kailoon.rar
    it is as .rar file with all of the files the pictures the html and the css file feel free to use it as you wish just hope you guys can use this of any kind :)

    Thank you :D

    ( Reply )
  27. PG

    lextertoz April 19th

    nice men.. keep on uploading..

    ( Reply )
  28. PG

    Gimper April 19th

    not bad at all… thanks

    ( Reply )
  29. PG

    Joefrey Mahusay April 19th

    Cool, thanks guys.

    ( Reply )
  30. PG

    fleox April 19th

    so funny~

    ( Reply )
  31. PG

    Katalog Stron April 19th

    I like this kind of design. Thanks.

    ( Reply )
  32. PG

    Saswata April 19th

    Best way to rasterize a shape is to select the paint bucket tool (G) and click on the shape. Press yes when the pop up appears, and lo! your shape is rasterized!

    ( Reply )
  33. PG

    ESD April 19th

    Great, great, great job !!!! Thx so much ….

    ( Reply )
  34. PG

    Arnaud April 19th

    Really cool

    Here a cool list of beige design and grunge http://splitdadiz.com/2008/02/27/beige-couleurs-et-web-designs/

    ( Reply )
  35. PG

    Shane April 19th

    Great to see a website-related tutorial. At the moment, 100% of my graphics work ends up on the web.

    Nicely done, and many thanks!

    ( Reply )
  36. PG

    nkhat April 20th

    coool coool my friend very nice tutorial

    my friend why don’t use the video to learn photoshop it’s better of put the photos (( hard work ))

    good luck :) and thank you

    ( Reply )
  37. PG

    Snorri3D April 20th

    if you are having problems with the code i wrote around this tutorial feel free to ask

    ( Reply )
  38. PG

    samuel April 20th

    muy buena ojala yo lo pudiera hacer

    ( Reply )
  39. PG

    Daniel April 20th

    very nice webdesign ! great ! and thanks a lot Chan kai Loon!

    Thanks for the link Arnaud! a very a nice source of inspiration too.

    Thanks for coding it Snorri3D.

    ( Reply )
  40. PG

    Johan April 20th

    I like web design tuts. Thanks!

    ( Reply )
  41. PG

    James April 20th

    Thanks a lot Snorri. That’s really helpful

    ( Reply )
  42. PG

    Ali April 21st

    Great tutorial, we want more Web Layout Tutorials!!!!

    MORE WEB LAYOUT TUTS

    ( Reply )
  43. PG

    Tom April 21st

    Nice work. I’ll try it right awway!

    ( Reply )
  44. very nice, within the current trend. would love to see more website related tuts.

    ( Reply )
  45. PG

    skut April 21st

    finally web layout tutorials, nice tutorial :)

    i hope got more web layout tutorials from psdtuts :)

    :)

    ( Reply )
  46. PG

    180degree April 21st

    wonderful tutorials :) thanks !

    ( Reply )
  47. PG

    rob April 22nd

    That’s cool. Thanks for the tips…

    ( Reply )
  48. PG

    Sean Farrell April 23rd

    Awesome tutorial, love the effect, now to make one teaching how to draw the little punk kid. haha awesome!

    ( Reply )
  49. PG

    Mchilly April 23rd

    Great! I was inspired probably make mine too :-)

    ( Reply )
  50. PG

    liu wu yang April 24th

    I come from China,very pleasure

    ( Reply )
  51. PG

    FlashRipper April 25th

    very nice. I like this work and psdtuts!

    ( Reply )
  52. PG

    ZaFaR April 25th

    great, I like it.

    ( Reply )
  53. Great tutorial! Check out my site I am sure you will like the effects.

    ( Reply )
  54. PG

    Cometh April 29th

    Good to know your tutorial is published here man… Keep it up…

    Two thumbs up..

    =p

    ( Reply )
  55. PG

    JONxBLAZE April 30th

    Awesome tutorial….great job!

    ( Reply )
  56. PG

    Patrick May 1st

    Great tut! You pay attention to detail which is very important with these.

    ( Reply )
  57. PG

    Abhisek May 5th

    Awesome! I am falling in love with this site. Thanks!

    ( Reply )
  58. PG

    Donovan May 9th

    Nice Chan!

    ( Reply )
  59. PG

    PhotoshopHome May 17th

    nice tutorial.

    ( Reply )
  60. PG

    Michael D. May 22nd

    Yes it’s good tuto.
    I like the design style manga

    ( Reply )
  61. PG

    JoaoJunior May 25th

    Interesting……very nice

    ( Reply )
  62. PG

    Steph June 7th

    In step #2, you say you want the pattern to be on top layer, but the pattern is shown in the background?

    ( Reply )
  63. PG

    yoyo June 17th

    Cool….

    ( Reply )
  64. PG

    Bob June 21st

    Very nice job in photoshop but am I the only one that notices that if you were to make this a web page it would be way to big of a document size? The guy who put it together above ended up with a page size of 902kb… that’s not practical or good practice.

    ( Reply )
  65. PG

    abz June 26th

    aii really like this 1 its cool lmfaoooooio hahahaha i love richard

    ( Reply )
  66. PG

    ke_giau_mat88 July 1st

    nice

    ( Reply )
  67. PG

    classifiedsoft July 6th

    this is just awesome!!!!!!

    ( Reply )
  68. PG

    DJ July 7th

    I would love too see this as a blogger template.

    ( Reply )
  69. PG

    StuckS July 30th

    it looks so stylish
    very nice :D

    ( Reply )
  70. PG

    Nalu August 6th

    yay =D really love it, design & anime cartoon. thanks 4 sharing

    ( Reply )
  71. really interesting………………

    Regards,
    GRAPHICS@SBL

    ( Reply )
  72. PG

    Joe August 28th

    The cartoon style combined with different grunge styles really makes one unique eye catching combo.

    ( Reply )
  73. PG

    Manoj September 11th

    Oh My God.. this is too good and cute. Such a easy way and it looks Awesome!

    ( Reply )
  74. PG

    mauritius September 14th

    Thnx for the nice tutorial…

    ( Reply )
  75. PG

    Mabuc October 29th

    Very nice tut like to see this one here

    ( Reply )
  76. PG

    chyasa October 30th

    Its looks good and it’s quick and easy to create new Styles

    ( Reply )
  77. PG

    why November 19th

    Thanks for the tut.

    ( Reply )
  78. Nice tutorial

    ( Reply )
  79. PG

    محمود December 4th

    thanks aloooot man very nice
    شكرا

    ( Reply )
  80. PG

    PureBrit January 5th

    It would be great to get some of these web design tuts in video format because theye look fantastic..

    ( Reply )
  81. PG

    Dhane January 13th

    What a nice tut!

    ( Reply )
  82. PG

    cooooooooooooooooooooooooool January 13th

    coooooooooooooooooooooooool

    ( Reply )
  83. PG

    Jamie Allsop April 8th

    This is one nice grunge style web design, I would also like to see how you would take this design from Photoshop and make it into a website using CSS. Thanks for the nice tut.

    ( Reply )
  84. PG

    maya April 11th

    lucu… ^_^

    ( Reply )
  85. PG

    Paul April 15th

    bad tut. it’s sometimes not explained as clearly as another tut found on this site.

    didn’t like it, sorry.

    ( Reply )
  86. PG

    CgBaran Tuts April 17th

    Great layout thanks

    ( Reply )
  87. PG

    faisal April 29th

    wow,great.i try to make layout like them.huhu

    ( Reply )
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    darek May 2nd

    this tut was very helpfull for me. I am just trying to desing some grungy auction template for my wife. I did sfg similar to this for her and she liked it very much…

    ( Reply )
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    raz May 6th

    nice

    ( Reply )
  90. PG

    Williams May 14th

    Wow, So classic, I learned…Thanks Very Much, and I like the site style too.

    ( Reply )
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    sergey June 5th

    Your Message…very very good work!

    ( Reply )
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    Dioney June 5th

    Cool

    ( Reply )
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