Creating a Grunge Retro Text Graphic

1. First we will begin with a blank document. Mine was about 657 by 574. Start off with a nice white background, then go ahead and paste this texture into the image, making it the new background. Resize it (ctrl + t) accordingly so it fits nicely on the page.
   
2. Now let’s begin adding our text! Geist Knt is the name of the font and you can find it at the fonts page if you scroll all the way down. Click and drag the text tool from the top to the bottom of the page so you can make a text box to insert the text easily. This way, you have more control over the text.
   
3. Type out “Type is not that nice” in all caps as shown in the picture using size 142.32 pt and line height 154.01 pt. If your text is not fitting, then you can make it smaller and accommodate it so it fits accordingly. Use the color #b9ee00 as your filler color for your text.
   
4. Now we’re going to make a duplicate of this layer just to be safe, and because we will be duplicating the base quite a bit. Press CTRL + J to make a duplicate. Hide the original base. Set the new copied layer we just duplicated to Overlay at 70%.
   
5. Double click the layer to get the effects window afterwards. Select the gradient tab and pick out a nice gradient. I’ve used the gradient transition (#101010) to (#ff3d5d).
   
   
6. Duplicate the base text layer and drag it to the top. Re-do the gradient process, instead this time pick another gradient. It really does not matter what gradient colors you pick, because you will be varying them.
   
7. Now once you’re done with that, select your text and move it slightly to the right, offsetting it. Then set the layer to Soft Light at 33%.
   
8. Duplicate the base once again, drag it to the top and instead of changing the gradient on it, change the text color to a bright blue (#04ecef). Offset the text to the right once again.
   
9. Set the layer to Soft Light.
   
10. Duplicate the base layer again, drag it to the top, and while keeping the neon green color we first worked with, offset the text to the bottom left.
    
11. Set the layer to Soft Light.
    
12. Now we’re going to start adding the outline of the text. Duplicate the base (I told you we’d be doing this a lot!) and drag it to the top. Double click the layer to get the effects window. Then go to Stroke. Set this color to anything bright and fun, I’m using (#ff007e). Set the stroke to 1px and the layer style to Soft Light. Press okay.
    
13. You’ll notice everything looks kind of weird because of the green, so we’ll have to get rid of that! Select the layer and lower the FILL completely, this will leave behind only the stroke.
    
14. Offset the stroke and repeat this process about two or three more times with new colors. You can also duplicate the stroke if you’d like it to show more. After doing so mine now looks like this:
    
15. Duplicate the base one last time and drag it to the top. Double click to get the effects and go to the Gradient tab. Change the layer blend mode to Hard Light and select a purple to blue gradient. Offset the text to the lower left and set it to Screen at 35%.
    
16. Make a new raster layer and name it “triangles”. Now you’ll be on your own with this, as you’ll have to use your own creativity to achieve this look. Select the pen tool and create a freeform triangle. Then right click and choose “make selection”
    
17. I normally use the round brush tool if I want to fill in one color, or you can use the gradient tool to add in a nice gradient. I then set this layer to Linear Burn.
    
18. You need to experiment with colors and different layer styles. Normally for this look I use Darken, Multiply, Lighten (on some occasions) and Overlay. But test out different colors and gradients to see what looks nice to you. Remember to make a new raster layer for every triangle you make and make sure to vary your triangle size, opacity and style.
    
    
    
    
19. So now that I have something I like, I’m going to add the final touches to it!
    
20. Now take this texture, resize it to 50% and paste it on your graphic. Then set the texture layer to Multiply at 29%.
    
21. Duplicate the same texture layer and change its layer blending mode from Multiply to Overlay at 40%.
    
22. And voila! We’re all done. Check out the final piece.

Posted 09/30/2009 - Photoshop Tutorials | 11 comments