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Members Area Tutorial: Create a Music Event Poster by Following a Professional’s Workflow

Hey design students!

Today’s design lesson is a great opportunity to follow along with the workflow of a respected design professional. Eric Vasquez is one of our most popular teachers, and has worked with some huge companies throughout his illustrious design career.

Over to Eric…

“In this tutorial I will be walking you through the steps to create your own print ready poster. In this particular case it will feature a singer but the same techniques and rules apply to just about any type of poster that you would like to create.

I will be explaining some print terminology as well as showing you how to get the most out of your photos even if they’re under exposed to start with. We’ll also use seemingly ordinary typefaces combined with some cool typography tips to create something unique and different. If you are all ready to get started then fire up Photoshop and let’s get down to business.”

- Eric Vasquez

Final Image

Let’s take a look at a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:

Step 1

The first thing we are going to do is open up the image of our singer from Dreamstime.

Press Command/Ctrl + Alt/Option + I on your keyboard to bring up the Image Size Dialog Box. Once the window appears, make sure that you Document Size is set to inches as shown here:

Change the width of your image to 11 inches and press OK.

Once your image is scaled up, select the ‘Background’ layer in your Layers Palette and press Command/Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer. After doing that you can turn the visibility of your original layer off.

Depending on the size and resolution of the original image that you decided to use, you may not want to scale it up too much, especially if it has a lot of detail in it. In this particular case it works out because the image is mostly a silhouette with a few areas of detail.

Step 2

The original color mode of this image is set to grayscale, so go to the Image Menu and choose Mode>RGB to change it. Normally if you were working on something for print you would generally want to use CMYK instead, but if you are going to be printing your file out at the end you can always flatten your image and convert it at the end. Just make sure not to save over your layered RGB file in case you need to go back and make any changes or tweaks.

You will then be prompted with a pop-up box asking if you would like to merge the document, we want to say ‘Don’t Merge’ for this part.

Step 3

From here, make sure that you have your newly duplicated layer selected in your Layers Palette and then go to the Image Menu once again. This time we are going to select an option called Calculations.

When the dialog box appears, go to the Channels option and choose the color has the most contrast – generally this will be the red channel. After that hit OK your press the Enter Key on your keyboard.

Next, go to the Channels Palette over where your layers are and you will notice a new Alpha 1 Channel has been created.

Step 4

Press the ‘O’ key on your keyboard, which is the shortcut for the Dodge and Burn Tools. Make sure that you have your Burn Tool selected and target the Midtones with an Exposure setting of around 50%.

Use the Burn Tool to fill in the singer so that you eventually have a solid black silhouette on a white background. You may have to make a couple of passes over the figure but keep at it until it’s completely black.

When you are happy with your silhouette, hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon indicated below by the red bounding box.
This will activate your selection and you should now see marching ants around your image.

Return to your Layers Palette while your selection is still active and press Command/Ctrl + Shift + I to invert your selection. Alternatively you could just go to the Image Menu and choose Adjustments>Invert.

Once you have done that, click on the Layer Mask Icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette to mask out the background.

This method of silhouetting an image works particularly well for hair, most often when you have an image with a good amount of contrast between the figure and the background. If you are lacking contrast however, you could apply a Levels Adjustment to your Alpha Channel in order to bump up the darks or lights.

Hold down the Control Key and click on your masked layer. When the dropdown menu appears choose ‘Convert to Smart Object’ as shown below:

There are many benefits of using Smart Objects as opposed to normal Raster Layers and one of those benefits is that when you resize an image a couple of times with Raster Layers it will result in a noticeable loss in quality. If you use a Smart Object instead, it will retain the quality of the image so you can scale it up or down as many times as needed.

Step 5

Next we are going to create a New Document. Make your file 18.5” x 24.5” and set the Resolution to 300dpi. This is going to serve as our main poster file.

Create another New Document and make this one 18” x 24” with the same Resolution Setting.

Fill your 18” x 24” document with solid black using your Paint Bucket Tool (G). From here, hold down the Shift and Command/Ctrl Keys simultaneously and drag the layer over to your main poster file.

By holding down these keys while dragging your layer over, it should drop it right in the middle of your poster file. Just in case it lands off to one side or the other, select the black fill layer and your background at the same time and then use the Align Tools at the top of the screen to ensure that everything is centered nicely.

Press Command/Ctrl + R to show your Rulers in case they aren’t yet visible. Drag a couple of guides around the edges of the black box. This will let us know where our bleed area is. Once your guides are in place you can turn off or throw away the black layer all together.

For those who are not familiar with the term ‘Bleed’ this is something you generally do in print to leave a bit of extra room for whoever is trimming your pages so you don’t end up with a white border around your poster. Some files will also require that you stay within a certain area, which would be commonly referred to as Safety or Live Area. This is only usually if you have important logos or copy that you want to make sure you don’t lose when your file is trimmed.

Now that we have set up our main poster file with guides to indicate our Bleed Area, we can bring over our silhouetted singer Smart Object that we created earlier on. If you need to, scale him up a bit further using a Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) and dragging any of the four corners outwards while holding down the Shift Key. Use the image below as a rough guide for sizing and placement.

Step 6

Create a new layer below your Smart Object and use your Paint Bucket Tool (G) to fill the layer with #EA00FF.

Your layers should look like this:

Hold down your Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon indicated below by the black bounding box around the small picture.

Once you have an active selection around the guy, switch to your Brush Tool (B) and use a soft round brush at about 20% opacity.

Create a new layer just above the layer with the singer and using a dark color that was sampled from the darker parts of the image, paint over the area shown here:

This will darken the back of the head so we have better separation from the background color.

Step 7

Select your Singer Layer and press Command/Ctrl + J to make a copy of it on the layer above. After you have done that, go to the Image Menu and choose Adjustments>Shadows/Highlights as shown here:

Use the following settings when prompted with the dialog box.

Step 8

Next, select the layer that we just applied the Shadows/Highlights Adjustment to. Press Command/Ctrl + J to make a copy of the layer.

Go to the Filter Menu and choose Other>High Pass.

Apply a setting of about 14.4 pixels as shown below:

After doing that, press OK to apply the changes. Switch the Blending Mode of this layer to Overlay and reduce the opacity to 50% so you have something like this:

Step 9

Hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon of the singer. You can click on any of the three layers that we have copies of. Doing this should activate the marching ants to indicate your active selection area.

Make sure your top-most layer is selected in your Layers Palette and then click on the Adjustment Layers Icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette. From this menu we want to choose Levels.

Bring the white handle inwards from the right until its set to about 195 as shown here:

Step 10

Activate the selection once again and add a new layer just below the Levels Adjustment we created in the previous step.

Next, select the color #FFD978.

On your new layer, press Alt/Option + Delete on your keyboard to fill the layer with your foreground color.

Once you have done that, double click on the layer to bring up the Layer Styles Dialog Box. Pay attention to the Blending Options here, specifically the two sliders located at the bottom.

Move both of the black sliders inwards so that they match the image below and press OK to apply the changes.

Step 11

With your new color layer selected, add a mask by clicking the Layer Mask Icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

After adding your mask, go to the Image Menu and choose Adjustments>Invert.

Change over to your Brush Tool (B) and using a hard white round brush, paint over the skin to reveal the color. This is essentially the opposite of what we would typically do with a mask where we paint into the areas we want to hide. Instead, by inverting the mask and using a white brush we are painting over the areas we want to reveal.

After you have painted over the face and hands, change the Blending Mode of the layer to Overlay and reduce the opacity of the layer to 50%.

Step 12

To help us keep track of things let’s put our similar layers into Group Folders. Select all of the singer layers along with the Levels Adjustment and Skintone Layer by clicking on one, then holding down the Shift Key and selecting the others. With all of your layers selected, press Command/Ctrl + G to place them into a folder.

With your new Group Folder selected in your Layers Palette, click on the Adjustment Layers Icon at the bottom and choose ‘Black & White’ from the menu.

Change the Blending Mode of the Black & White Adjustment Layer to Overlay and reduce the opacity to about 30% as shown below:

Step 13

With your Black & White Adjustment Layer selected, return to the Adjustment Layers Icon and this time choose Color Fill.

For the fill color, simply use your Eye Dropper Tool (I) to sample the pink color from the background. Change the Blending Mode of the layer to Soft Light and reduce its opacity to around 30%.

Step 14

Open one of the dust textures from the resources and bring it into your poster document. Scale the texture up and position it so that it covers the entire canvas.

Once you have made sure that the texture is covering your document, change the Blending Mode to Screen.

Open up another of the dust textures and feel free to transform, flip, and rotate the image to see what looks best. Place this layer on top of the previous dust texture.

We will now go ahead and change the Blending Mode of this layer to Screen as well.

Step 15

Create a new layer above the Pink BG layer and switch over to your Gradient Tool (G). Make sure that you have a solid black color and that you are using a Linear Gradient that fades from solid black to transparent.

Click your mouse outside of the image area on the bottom right and drag it up and to the left. Then, click outside of the image area on the upper left and drag it down and to the right. You should now have something like this:

The idea here is to bring in some shadows from the opposite corners in order to add more contrast and depth to the background so we don’t just have a flat color. Feel free to lower the opacity of this layer to see what looks best.

With the gradient layer selected in your Layers Palette, go to the Adjustment Layers Icon at the bottom and add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. Use the same settings for your Hue/Saturation Adjustment that I am using here:

Doing this will give the background a more intense and vibrant color.

Now we will go ahead and group our other layers into folders by selecting the ones we want, pressing Command/Ctrl + G to put them in folders, and then naming them appropriately. In the image above you can see that I have chosen to put both of the dust textures into a folder of their own, the Adjustment Layers, the singer layers and then the background layers are also in a separate Group Folder of their own.

Step 16

Open the grunge paper texture and bring it into your document. Make sure that it covers the entire canvas with a bit of the white border going around the image. Place the layer at the top of your Layers Palette as shown here:

Use the Magic Wand Tool (W) and select the white area around the paper. Once your selection is active press Command/Ctrl + Shift + I to invert the selection. After that, click on the Layer Mask Icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

With the paper layer selected, click on the Adjustment Layer Icon and choose Hue/Saturation from the list.

After you have added the Adjustment Layer, hold down the Control Key and click on the layer and then choose ‘Create Clipping Mask’ from the list.

Move the Saturation slider all the way to the left to desaturate the paper.

Change the Blending Mode of the paper to Multiply.

Step 17

Move the paper texture and the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer below the singer. Hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon indicated below:

You should now have an active selection around the border of your paper. With your selection still active, click on the Singer Group Folder and then on the Layer Mask Icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

Step 18

Next, hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon to once again activate a selection around the border of the paper.

Select the Background Group Folder and then add a Layer Mask.

Create a new layer below the Background Group Folder and fill the layer with solid black by selecting your Paint Bucket Tool (G) and then pressing Alt/Option + Delete on your keyboard.

Step 19

With your paper layer selected in the Layers Palette, add a Curves Adjustment Layer. This Adjustment Layer should automatically have a Clipping Mask attached to it since it is between the paper texture and the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer.

Use the following settings for your Curves Adjustment Layer:

Step 20

Open up the image of the city skyline.

Scale the image up and rotate it about 45 degrees clockwise and place it below the Singer Group Folder.

Add a Layer Mask to the image and then use either a soft round black brush or your Gradient Tool (G) to mask out the top and bottom of the skyline by going in the direction of the arrows.

Hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon of the Layer Mask to activate a selection around the paper like we did in our previous steps.

With the skyline selected, click on the Layer Mask Icon from the bottom of your Layers Palette so that the skyline will only remain visible within the boundaries of the paper.

Step 21

Make a copy of the skyline layer by pressing Command/Ctrl + J. Once you have done that, change the Blending Mode of the layer to Overlay and reduce its opacity to about 50%.

Go to the Filter Menu and choose Blur>Gaussian Blur.

Apply a Blur Radius of approximately 15.4 pixels as shown here:

You should now have something like this:

I have been placing some of these layers into Group Folder as I go. I find that it’s good practice and a great way for me to keep track of similar layers as things start to build up. Remember, to do this all you need to do is select the layers you want to put into a folder by clicking, holding down the Shift Key, and then clicking on the additional layers you want before pressing Command/Ctrl + G.

Step 22

Create a new layer and then type out something large using plain white lettering.

Here I am just typing out ‘Unchained Melody’ using a free typeface called Butch & Sundance.

Switch to your Magic Wand Tool (W) and click on the sky background of the skyline image to select the sky.

Return to your type layer and while the selection is still active, press Command/Ctrl + Shift + I to invert the area and then add a Layer Mask by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. Doing this should make it look like the letters are behind the skyline.

Step 23

Hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon for the Singer Layer Mask to activate a selection around the paper border.

Invert your selection and add a Layer Mask so you remove the letters from the black area in the background.

Step 24

Next, press Command/Ctrl + J to make a duplicate of your type layer just above the original. Hold down the Control Key and click on the Layer Mask and delete it.

Use a Free Transform to flip the type so that you have a reflection of the letters and change the Blending Mode to Overlay.

Add a Layer Mask to your layer and then switch over to your Gradient Tool (G) making sure that you are using a black to transparent Linear Gradient.

Click and drag your mouse from the lower left of the type upwards and to the right, so you are moving across it like this:

You will notice that the letters now fade out as they get further from the buildings in the distance. This really helps to add perspective and give a more subtle approach.

While we’re at it, let’s change the Blending Mode of the original type layer to Soft Light.

Step 25

Select both of your type layers together and place them into a Group Folder as shown here:

Step 26

Hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon of the singer layer mask to activate a selection around the paper.

Select your Dusty Texture Group Folder and apply a Layer Mask to it so that we no longer see it on the black background.

Step 27

Open the folded paper texture and place it just above the singer in your document. I have scaled the texture up a bit and stretched it slightly to fill the entire canvas.

Change the Blending Mode of the layer to Multiply. I decided that this layer looks better just above the Background Group Folder rather than being on top of the image.

Step 28

Select a vibrant magenta color such as #FF378C that I am using here:

Switch over to your Gradient Tool (G) and make sure that you have a Radial Gradient that fades from solid to transparent.

Create a Radial Gradient on a new layer just below the Singer Group Folder.

Change the Blending Mode of the gradient to Linear Dodge and reduce the opacity to about 50%. Duplicate the layer a few times and place them over the type in the background.

This will help to brighten up the middle of the canvas a bit more and also add more value to the colors we are using.

Step 29

Select your first Radial Gradient and then hold down the Shift Key and click on the bottom gradient layer.

Press Command/Ctrl + G to put all of these gradients into a new Group Folder.

Lower the opacity of the entire Group Folder to about 60% as shown below:

Step 30

Hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the thumbnail layer icon of the Background Group Folder. At this point you could also click on the thumbnail icon for the Singer Group Folder or any of the other folders that include the shape of the paper.

Any one of these you click on, you should see the marching ants indicating your active selection area around the paper.

Select the Group Folder with the Linear Dodge Radial Gradients and while your selection is still active, click on the Layer Mask Icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

This will ensure that the lights don’t spill over into the black background area.

Step 31

This next step is optional but I have decided to insert some type into the design. This basically just serves as a placeholder for whatever title you would like to use. I have decided to go with the ‘Unchained Melody’ type that we used earlier to go behind the buildings as well as the reflection on the water.

Here I am using a different typeface – Univers. Play around with the different styles of the typefaces and kern your letters individually. This is an important aspect of designing with type that many people forget. You never really want to type something out and just use the default letter spacing and kerning because there will usually be inconsistencies.

By adding some type to the piece it also makes it feel more like a poster that could be promoting an artist, band, or an event of your choice depending on the theme of your poster.

Step 32

Create a new layer and fill it with a solid black color as shown below:

Go to the Filter Menu and choose Noise>Add Noise.

For the Noise Settings use Gaussian and check off Monochromatic. For the amount we want it set to around 90%.

Apply the Noise Settings and then change the Blending Mode of the layer to Soft Light and reduce its opacity to 40%.

Step 33

Select a slightly muted cyan such as #099F8F as shown here:

Create a new layer and then use your Marquee Tool (M) to draw a circle behind the singer and the type. Make sure your layer is placed just below the singer.

Next, hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon to activate a selection around the paper like we were doing earlier in the tutorial.

While your selection is active, click on the Layer Mask found at the bottom of your Layers Palette.

After making that adjustment it just adds a strong secondary color to the composition with our geometric shape, but it also serves as an effective way to help the type stand out more.

Step 34

You can now save your work and check out the end result!

Member File Download

Download the original .psd file for this tutorial here:

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