Design a Retro Typography Poster in Photoshop

In this tutorial you will learn to create a cool poster using Photoshop & Illustrator. This tutorial demonstrates some useful techniques combining Illustrator and Photoshop to get the job done.

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Preview of Final Results

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Design a Retro Typography Poster Photoshop Tutorial

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Resources

• Metal Texture - CGTextures
• Skyscraper - SXC
• Paper Texture - Bashcorpo
• Paint texture - Mediamilitia

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Step 1 : Creating the Type

For this particular tutorial we have to work interchangeably with Photoshop and Illustrator. So we have to switch back and forth between these programs. It is better to have these two applications opened side by side to improve efficiency. Our first step is to create 3D text. Type some text using the "Type Tool". I used a font calledBifurk.

Next step is to apply 3D effect to the text. Go to Effect > 3d > Extrude & Bevel.

Use the below settings.

Your text should look like this.

We can't use the text as it is, we need to expand it. Go to Object > Expand Appearance. This will expand the 3d text into paths. Ungroup the text. Press Ctrl+Shift+G couple of times to ungroup the object. Or right click and select Ungroup. Often times when you expand an object it will contain a clipping mask, in that case you need to release the clipping mask by pressing Alt+Ctrl+7 or by right clicking and choosing Release clipping mask.

Press Ctrl+Y to enter the outline mode. Notice the circled areas in the picture. They are divided into multiple pieces. We need to combine them into compound pieces.

To combine the pieces select them and then load the Pathfinder palette. Go to Window > Pathfinder. Click on the Unite button.

Repeat the process on remaining pieces.

Look at the final image wireframe.

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Step 2 : Creating document in Photoshop

Create a new A3 document in Photoshop at 300ppi. I generally prefer to work at high resolution so please keep in mind that the directions and values you find in this tutorial are based on a 300ppi document. If you are not designing at 300ppi change the values according to your resolution.

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Step 3 : Bringing in the Text

First is first, let's copy the 3D text from Illustrator and paste it into Photoshop as "Path" because We don't need the color information. We will add our own colors here in Photoshop. Make sure the path is pasted center to the document or press Crl+0 then paste. This is our main path that we are going to use often. Just for safety duplicate the path a couple of times in the paths palette.

Our Text has three multiple faces front, side, top and bottom. We will deal with each side separately. First select all the font side paths holding "Shift" key.

Right click and select "Make Selection"

Create a new Group and call it "Characters". This group contains our 3D text layers. Create a new layer and fill the selection with #f25a38. Rename the layer to "text-front"

This time select all the bottom and top side faces. Then turn them into selection.

Create a new layer and fill the selection with #e64d2a. Now pick #feaa97 and apply to the pieces belong to the word "AM". Rename the layer to "text-bottom"

Repeat the process to finish the side pieces as well. Use the below values. Rename this layer to "text-side".

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Step 4 : Adding colors to the text

Text is very flat now but we will change this, Ctrl+click on the "text-front" layer to load selection. Create a new layer above the "text-front" layer. With the selection active click on the "Add layer mask" button. This adds mask to the layer that reveals only the areas where we want so that We can paint freely.

Paint some nice and saturated colors with a soft brush.

Load selection for the top side faces of "GEEK" using our main path. Add highlight.

Add highlights to the side faces of the text.