In this tutorial, we’re going to create a cool texture effect using the wave filter in Photoshop. Open a new document. I have created a 800 pixel by 300 pixel image.
Again, starting off with a gradient (we keep the same colors in this instance as well), draw from the top of the document to the bottom. Now go to Filter -> Distort -> Wave.
We change the number of generators to 777. We’ll make the wavelength minimum 1 and the max up to 20. Now we keep the amplitude at 1 minimum and 999 at the maximum. For the undefined areas, we will select wrap around. This will give you a cool soundwave look with some sharp edges.
Now we select a photo to use to place this as a texture over. In this case, we use a free image from Dreamstime of a beach sunset.
Place the texture over the image, and set the blending mode of the texture to soft light. This will give you the final result you are looking for. Simple, yet effective.

In this tutorial, we’re going to create a classic, elegant clothing ad. First we start out with an image. We’ve selected an iStockphoto.com image.
Now, we will crop the image to be 8.5 inches wide and 11 inches tall. Now that we’ve cropped the image, we want to change it to a grayscale image. Once the image is black and white, we go to Image – Adjustments – Levels (Command + L). We adjust it to where it is slightly overexposed.
We want to give it a lens blur, so using the Quick Mask tool (Q) we use a brush to draw an oval around the image, leaving the edges exposed. Now by hitting the Q key again, you should see a selection marquee going around the area you selected. To give it a lens blur, go to Filter – Blur – Lens Blur. Once the dialog box comes up, adjust the setting to your liking. Once the lens blur is done rendering, we go back to our image. As you can see, the top left and bottom right corners are blurred.
Now it’s time to add some other art elements and our text. First, draw a black rectangle. Duplicate the layer and do that consecutively to create a pattern. Once you have a pattern you like, you can duplicate the layer and stack it below.
Between the two layers, you can add your text. Make sure it is to the right of the man’s face in the blank area on the photograph. In this instance, we have selected to use a font called Kontrapunkt. We just type in a random name for effect.
Now the two pattern layers are a little too dark for our advertisement. So we keep the blending mode on normal, but change the opacity to 20%.
And finally we have a fake advertisement ready for publication.

Instead of purchasing pre-made stock vector images all the time, I decided to create my own. In this tutorial I will show you an easy way to create a single tree vector image using Photoshop and exporting the paths to Illustrator to manipulate to your liking.
I found a very nice photo from Dreamstime, and it was a free download. Opening it in Photoshop, you can see it’s already a silhouetted image, which helps out cause even more. Using the Magic Wand Tool, select the black portion of the photograph. As shown in Step 1, go to Select and choose Similar. This will grab the rest of the black near the selected portion of the photo, grabbing those small bits and pieces.
As in Step 2, go to select -> Inverse. Now hit the delete button. The background should disappear. If it doesn’t, then you need to check your layers palette and ensure the lock graphic is not on the right side of the background layer. Again, go to Select -> Inverse, so that the black tree outline is selected once again.
Once that is ready, we can move on to Step 3. Right click somewhere within the selection. Click Make Work Path. When the prompt comes to select the tolerance, make sure it is set to 0.5. With the path created, go to your path palette. Double-click on the work path and call it Path 1.
Now you can begin to export your paths to Illustrator. Go to File -> Export -> Paths to Illustrator. Name the file at your discretion.
Find the file, and open it in Illustrator. The file will appear blank. Using the mouse, click and drag to select the path. Blue dots will appear at this point. Now you can fill it with your selected color and resize.

In this tutorial, I will show you a quick and simple way to create a starburst using Photoshop.
First, start off with a new document. I’m beginning with a perfect square, 3 inches by 3 inches. Now select the gradient tool. Select your different colors. I have chosen a dark red and a brighter red for nice contrast.
Now holding the shift key, click and drag from the top to the bottom of the document. This will create a nice, even looking gradient going from the top to the bottom of the document. Now, we begin creating it into a starburst.
Select Filter -> Distort -> Wave. We will begin adjusting these particular values to get a good result in a line pattern.
For the number of generators, we have selected 69. This number can vary depending on your preference. We change our wavelength to a minimum of 17 with a max of 18. For the amplitude, we go with a minimum of 5 and a max of 999 (the biggest value). Make sure you have Repeat Edge Pixels selected along with the type Sine.
Click OK, and you should get a nice line pattern. Now we will use the Filter menu again. Go to Distort and select Polar Coordinates.
Select Rectangular to Polar. And it will give you the final result of a simple and beautiful starburst.
We will use this starburst in a future tutorial.

This might not be what you think. We’re creating Photoshop buttons, like the ones you would pin on your shirt or create for a political campaign. In this tutorial, we will create a basic button using different layers and some different effects.
PSDtuts.com has this tutorial on their site, however, they don’t give out specifics on the effects and how to make it work. So I figured I would expand and give you some actual values to use.
First, create a new document. Now using the gradient tool, we have selected to create a radial gradient that goes from dark gray to black. This gives a nice lighting effect to the background of the file.
Using the shape tool, draw a circle. The easiest way to get a perfect circle is to hold shift while you click and drag the shape on the page. The color of this doesn’t matter for the tutorial. In this case, we have selected red. In the layers palette, change the fill to 0%. Leave the opacity at 100%. The fill will take out the color the circle. But it will leave the effects we will be doing to the circle.
By double-clicking on the layer in the layers palette, we bring up the layer styles. We will be using drop shadow, inner shadow, inner glow, satin and gradient overlay.
Starting with drop shadow, make sure it’s set at multiply for the blend mode. Change the opacity to 45%. Keep the rest of the values at their default.
For the inner shadow, make it set to overlay. Keep the values at the same.
The inner glow is very important. Change the blend mode to screen, and the color of the glow to white. Make sure the opacity is 25%. With the layer style window still open, use the cursor tool to move the inner glow to the upper right corner of circle.
Keep the satin blending mode to the default values. The gradient overlay is very important. Change the blend mode to soft light. Make the opacity set to 75%. Make it a radial gradient, and again, using the cursor, shift the gradient to the upper right corner of the circle.
Now, we will create white glows on the upper right and bottom left corners. Using the elliptical marquee selection tool, make a oval at the top of the circle. Now create a white to transparent gradient that will fill the inside of the selection. Change the blending mode in the layers palette on this particular object to overlay, and change the opacity to 55%. Now make a copy of it and place it at the bottom left corner. Change the blending mode to lighten, and set the opacity to 35%.
Now we are ready to add our photo to the button.
Select an image to use. Be sure to place it above the background layer, but underneath the button layers. Be sure to merge the layers for the button layers. Right click of the button layer, and select pixels. Now go to select -> inverse. Click back on the photo layer, and delete the outside edges of the button.
And the end result is a nicely done button. Thanks to PSDtuts for giving the foundation for this tutorial.

This is the first of two tutorials. We are creating a business card for a teacher who will become a tutor on the side. We want to give her a unique business card, and figure the best way to accomplish this is to make her a chalkboard style front.

 In this case, we are going to make her photo in a drawing on the chalkboard. 

First, we start off with a photo of her. Now, in Photoshop, we go up to Filter, and select Sketch – Graphic Pen. We want to make sure the stroke length is at 15 and the light/dark balance at 100. Once the photo becomes a drawing style, we open our chalkboard photo, which can be found at iStock Photo. Now drag the graphic pen drawing onto the chalkboard. 

In the layer palette, make sure the layer of the drawing is changed to the blending mode Screen. Now, using the eraser tool, begin erasing the outside white portions of the photo. Select different brushes to give it a rough feel.

 Now that we have our chalkboard background, we can begin working on the business card design. You can adjust to make it fit the way you want. This is a rough example. In the next tutorial, we will clean it up for amazing print quality.

In this tutorial, we’re going to create an old-fashioned billboard sign. We want to advertise Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawaii, only because it’s a nice area, and we have found some nice stock art to use for it.

First, we start with an old billboard sign, which can be found at iStockphoto.com.

Now, we will draw a box around the inside portion of the billboard using the pen tool. We’re going to create a path we will use in the near future. Now we download and open a photo of an old beach scene located at Photos.com.

We place this photo on top of billboard, and size it to the inside of billboard. Now to ensure we have a clean edge, we select our work path, and right-click – Make Selection from the paths palette. Now Select the inverse, and delete the exterior portion of the photo.

To get a nice old-fashion effect on this photo, we go to the layers palette, and change the blending mode to multiply. Now we want to add some text on this billboard.

For this billboard, I have selected the font “Pricedown.” Typing in Waikiki, Hawaii for the title. With the text as black, we change the blending mode to Overlay and then duplicate the text. From there, we add more text. Again, we change the blending mode to Overlay to give it an old-fashion feel.

To give it that island feel, I add a hibiscus flower and also change it to Overlay mode. Now we have an old-fashioned billboard for a beach resort.

While a logo defines the identity of a business, a direct mailer can help or hurt a company when trying to gather new clients.

This project deals with re-vamping a direct mailer (postcard) that will be sent to customers of a business called Buildwish.

As a home improvement magazine, Buildwish must send out postcards to different companies in order to try and get advertising within their publication. To garner attention from these businesses, we decided to redo the look of their postcards to give it a modern look, and to match their other packets, rate cards and such.

Having done some of their previous work, we already have all the proper images on board to get started. First we will create the document. In our particular case, we will be using InDesign to develop it. However, any image editing programs, such as Photoshop can create the exact same things.

They have called for a 6 inch x 4 inch postcard with a bleed on the edges of 0.1". Once we create the new document, we can see what we started with, and then build on top of it.

First, they want their logo. Using Command + D, we can place the logo on the postcard. Once we adjust it to the specific area where we want it, we can then place other photos around it.

For the background, we have gone with a blue to light blue radial gradient. If you take a look at the image to the right, you can see the particular values of the gradient.

We have chosen to place four images from the other pamphlets on the postcard. We create an upside L-shape. We want to add an image of a house as well. We choose to place that in the bottom left corner, with the logo going above along with the phrase "Everything for your home."

Now we also must take into consideration the back of the card too. So we add the text to it. Because we used a white box behind the phrase on the front, we decide to carry that touch over to the back. We also have added the image of the cover of the magazine.

Because the text is saved within a Word document, you can place and edit the text just as you place a photo (Command + D). From there, we carry the same fonts over to the back of the postcard. In this case, we have branded Buildwish with Gotham Bold for their website name, and Georgia for their body copy (text).

While this is simple and easy to do, it does help a lot when trying to gather new business. The better your branding looks and the higher quality product you send out, the more business you can potential gain. A simple redesign of your marketing materials can work wonders for your growth.

Now, we need space to place the name. We want to create a polygon that connects to a rectangle. So we copy the polygon and then draw a rectangle that is exactly the same height as the polygon.

Now to connect the two and make the radial gradient smooth and work perfect, you have to open up the Pathfinder window from the window menu at the top of the application. By selecting both the rectangle and the polygon, you click on the “Add to shape area.” This joins the two shapes, and makes the radial gradient spread throughout the design.

We decided to change the color of the top polygon just for aesthetic reasons to a black-gray radial gradient, which gives it a different feel. Now we come to adding the text and name for the logo in the rectangle to the right. In this case, we have selected Bank Gothic font. In this case, we have tracked out the type to 100 and made the two words different colors. Instead of using a space in between the two words, by coloring them separately, it creates a division between the two.

With the logo finished in Illustrator, we select it all, group it and copy it for placing into Photoshop. We open a new document in Photoshop and create a radial gradient from a light gray to white in the center. This gives the logo a Web 2.0 feel and prepares it for proofing for the particular client. Now you paste the file you copied in Illustrator. It will come over as a Vector Smart Object, which will allow you to resize the image without pixelating it. Once the image is centered in the middle of the document, you can save to a particular setting, and send away.