WHAT WE’RE CREATING:

Hello designers! Renee here with a rockin’ hot rod poster tutorial. We’ll be using a lot of Illustrator basics, so this is a great tutorial for Illustrator beginners. After we finish our Illustrator layout, we’ll pop into Photoshop for final texturing.

You can also enjoy a huge freebies pack, giving you a sample of the awesome vectors available in our current Complete Vector Design Toolkit Bundle.

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Here’s a look at what we’ll be creating:

Rat Rod Poster

Follow along with this tutorial: Download the freebie files

The freebie pack includes loads of illustrations, logo elements, patterns and textures from Azmari Digitals, Every Tuesday, Gearwright, Milka, Ghostly Pixels, Pen and Brush, Tom Chalky, Vintage Design Co., Wing’s Art and Design, and Zeppelin Graphics. This might be our biggest freebie pack yet!

This huge freebie pack is just a tiny sample of the resources available in The Complete Vector Design Toolkit for just $29 (that’s a whopping 99% off). This bundle features a vast collection of high quality vectors that will save you time and open up a whole new world of design possibilities.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

In addition to all of the amazing freebies in the freebie pack, we’ll use a couple of fonts. Our main title will use Qkila’s Bombing (available for personal use for free), Nicky Laatz’s Hello Lucky and Cultivated Mind’s True North Textures (both from previous bundles), and Walter Velez’s True Crimes (100% free). You can easily substitute other fonts – just make sure to stick with fonts that have a hand-drawn feel to match our poster style.

Step 1: Background

Open Illustrator and go to File > New. In the New Document dialog box, enter a width of 18 inches, a height of 24 inches and a resolution of 300 ppi. Under Advanced, select a Color Mode of RGB.

Click OK to create the document.

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Save your file.

Select your Rectangle tool (m) and draw a rectangle covering the entire background.

Open your Color palette (Window > Color) and enter RGB values of 239/65/54 for the fill color. Make sure to choose None for the Stroke color.

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Open your Swatches palette (Window > Swatches) and click the New Swatch icon to add the new color. Name it Rat Rod Red.

Open the Wings Art and Design file in the freebies folder. Use your Selection tool (v) to select the tiger pattern and press cmd + c to copy it.

Back in the layout file, press cmd + v to paste. Use your Selection tool (v) to drag it to the top left corner of the poster.

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Now we’ll duplicate the pattern several times to fill the background. We’re going to be loose and inexact since we’re going for a hand-drawn style.

With the pattern still selected, press opt + shift while clicking and dragging to the right. This will create a copy.

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To repeat the duplication process for one more tiger pattern, all we have to do is press cmd + d to Duplicate the last action. This is one of my most used shortcuts in Illustrator.

Now we’ll add two more rows of tiger pattern. Select the three sections by holding shift as you click on each. With all three selected, hold opt + shift while clicking and dragging down. Don’t be afraid to overlap a little with the previous section.

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Press cmd + d to Duplicate the last action and add a final row of tiger pattern.

Now we’ll change the color of the pattern. Press cmd + a to Select All. Since this also selects the background, hold shift and click once on the edge of the red background area (you may need to zoom in) to Deselect it.

With all tiger pattern sections selected, press cmd + g to Group them together. Then, open your Color palette and change the RGB values to 251/176/64.

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In your Swatches palette, click the New Swatch icon to add the new color. Name it Rat Rod Yellow.

Next, we’ll mask the tiger pattern. Select the red background rectangle and press cmd + d to Copy. Press cmd + f to Paste in Front. Hold shift and click on the tiger pattern to add it to the selection. With both selected, press cmd +7 to Create a Clipping Mask.

Note: Whichever shape is on top will be used as the clipping mask. Any selected items under it will be contained inside the top clipping mask shape.

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Now we’ll add a framed white area for our main content.

Select your Rectangular Marquee tool (m) and click once on the artboard. In the popup dialog box, enter a width of 16 inches and a height of 22 inches, then press OK.

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In your Swatches palette, change the fill color to White and the stroke color to Black.

Open your Align palette and under Align To, make sure you’re set to Align to Artboard. Then click the icons for Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center under Align Objects. Hovering over the icons will bring up the tooltip that tells you the icon names.

Open your Stroke palette (Window > Stroke) and increase the Weight to 12 pt.

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We’ll give the rectangle a more hand drawn look by pinching it slightly. With the rectangle still selected, go to Effect > Distort > Pucker & Bloat and enter -2% in the popup dialog box.

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Our last bit of background decoration will be decorative corners on our white rectangle. Open the freebie file from The Pen and Brush. Copy the corner by selecting it and pressing cmd + c.

Paste the corner shape into the layout file by pressing cmd + v.

Open your Swatches palette and change the fill color of the corner to Black.

Position the corner shape in the top left corner of the white box.

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Let’s reduce the size just a bit. Go to Object > Transform > Scale. In the popup dialog box, enter a Uniform scale of 80% and press OK.

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Reposition so that the edges of the corner shape overlap the black stroke of the white box, but don’t go outside of it.

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As you can see, some of the black stroke on the white box is showing through the holes in the corner shape. We’ll fill those in with white.

Select your Group Selection tool (white arrow with a plus sign that’s accessible by holding down on the Direct Selection tool in the toolbar until the flyout menu is visible). Use the Group Selection tool to click on edge of one of the holes in the corner shape.

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Hold shift and select the edges of the other two holes. With all three paths selected, press cmd + c to Copy. Then press cmd + f to Paste in Front. In your Swatches palette, change the fill color to White. Finally, press cmd + g to Group them together.

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Switch to your regular Selection tool (v) and hold shift to also select the corner shape. Press cmd + g again to Group the white circles with the black corner piece.

With the corner group selected, go to Object > Transform > Reflect. In the popup dialog box, select Vertical and click Copy (instead of OK).

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Position the duplicate on the top right corner of the white box.

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Use your Selection tool and hold shift to select both top corner groups. Go to Object > Transform > Reflect. In the popup dialog box, select Horizontal and click Copy.

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Position the reflected copies at the bottom corners of the white box.

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Open your Layers palette (Window > Layers). Double click on the name of Layer 1 and change the name to Background.

Click the empty square directly to the right of the eye icon to Lock the layer.

Step 2: Car

In your Layers palette, click the Create New Layer icon. Double click the name, Layer 2, and change it to Main Content.

In the freebie Wings Art file, select the Hot Rod car and press cmd + c to Copy. In your main layout file, press cmd + v to Paste.

With the car still selected, go to Object > Transform > Scale and enter a Uniform scale of 77%, then click OK.

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To give the car an even more exaggerated take-off effect, we’ll add a warp. Go to Effect > Warp > Arc. In the popup dialog box, enter a Horizontal Bend of 10% and press OK.

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Now go to Object > Transform > Rotate. In the dialog box, enter an angle of 8 degrees and press OK.

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Let’s add some shadowing under the car. Go back to the Wings Art freebie file and copy the fat, squiggly line by selecting it and pressing cmd + c.

Paste it into the layout file using cmd + v. Hover over the corner handle until you see the double-sided rotation arrow. Hold shift and drag to the right and down to rotate 90 degrees.

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At the top of the artboard, change the Width to 7.9 inches and the Height to .83 inches, then position the squiggle on the far left side of the car. Once in position, press cmd + [ to arrange the squiggle below the car.

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Next up, open the Gearwright freebies file and copy the American flag. Paste into the layout file. We’ll add it to the back of our hot rod.

Go to Object > Transform > Reflect. In the dialog box, select Vertical and click OK.

Now go to Object > Transform > Rotate. Enter 25 degrees and press OK.

Position the flag at the back left of the car.

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Open the Tom Chalky freebie file and copy the skull. Paste it into the layout file.

We’re going to have this guy inside our car, so we’ll need to reduce his size and change his angle.

Go to Object > Transform > Scale and enter a Uniform scale of 65%.

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Go to Object > Transform > Scale and enter a rotation of 12 degrees. Position the skull so he’s sitting inside the car window. Click on a blank area of the artboard to deselect.

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He’s pretty hard to see, so we’re going to give him a splash of color. Select the Blob Brush Tool (shift + b or click on the paintbrush to access the flyout menu). In your Swatches palette, select Rat Rod Yellow for your fill color.

Note: Use [ and ] to increase or decrease your brush size as you work.

Click and drag around the inside of the skull area. Don’t worry about staying inside the lines or filling it in perfectly. We’re going for a loose style and we can do clean-up when we’re done.

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Press cmd + [ to send the yellow blob behind the skull outline. Now is our chance to do a little clean-up if needed. Keep the yellow blob selected and choose your Eraser tool (shift + e). Drag over any areas that you want to delete.

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He looks just a little too clean and precise compared to the rest of our poster, so open your Swatches palette and add a black Stroke. Open your Stroke palette and change the width to .5 and the Profile to Width Profile 2.

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We’ll use the same coloring technique to add a little color to the car body. Select your Blob Brush tool again. Change your fill color to Rat Rod Yellow (no stroke color) and start dragging around the inside of the car body. As you can see, I kept it pretty loose and imprecise.

When you’re done, press cmd + [ several times until the yellow blob is behind the car.

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And repeat the same again for the bird hood ornament, only you’ll use a much smaller brush size.

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The last bit of coloring on the car will be a light gray. Open your Color palette and enter RGB values of 210/210/210. Use your Blob Brush tool to color inside the engine and the hub caps.

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Hold shift and select all three sections (engine and 2 hub caps), then press cmd + g to Group them. Open your Transparency palette (Window > Transparency) and change the Blend Mode from Normal to Multiply.

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Step 3: Event Name

Select your Type tool (t) and click once on the artboard. Type Rat Rod.

Open your Character palette (Window > Type > Character). Change the font to Bombing at 300 pt.

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Go to Effect > Warp > Arc and enter a Horizontal bend of 22%.

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Position the words along the top right area of the car and manually rotate using the corner handles. We want to roughly match the shape of the car.

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Now we’ll add some color to the letters. Press cmd + c to Copy Rat Rod. Click on an empty spot on the artboard to deselect. Press cmd + f to Paste in Front.

Go to Object > Expand Appearance to outline the copy.

Zoom in and use your Group Selection tool while holding shift to select the inner paths of the letters.

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Press cmd + c to Copy. Switch to your regular Selection tool. Select the outlined Rat Rod text and delete it.

Now press cmd + f to Paste in Front. Then open your Swatches palette and change the fill color to Rat Rod Red. Finally, press cmd + [ to send the red fill behind the black text.

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Select your Type tool (t) and click to the left of Rat Rod. Type Papa Floyd’s. Change the font to Hello Lucky Ink at 77 pt.

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Hold opt while clicking and dragging down to duplicate that line. Select the duplicate line with your Type tool and change the copy to 8th Annual.

With your Type tool, select just the “th” after 8. In your Character palette, click on the top right to access the flyout menu and choose Superscript.

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Use the corner handles to manually rotate each line of text until it mimics the shape of the car – about 20 degrees rotation.

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Use your Selection tool (v) to select Papa Floyd’s. Go to Effect > Warp > Arc and enter a Horizontal bend of 10% and press OK.

Repeat for 8th Annual. Select it and go to Effect > Warp > Arc. Enter a Horizontal bend of 10% and press OK.

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The rest of the event name will go below the car on a path.

Select your Pen tool (p). Click once on the artboard below the left side of the car door and right at the top of the shadow. Click again just a little higher and to the right of the front of the car.

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We’ll add one last point, but this time we’ll add a curve. Click in about the middle of the path, but instead of letting go, drag to the right and down to create a curve.

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In the toolbar, click and hold down on the Type tool until you see the flyout menu. Select the Type on a Path tool and click once on the new path. Type Rumble in the USA.

In your Character palette, change the font to True Crimes at about 90 pt.

Use your Direct Selection tool (a) to select the brackets at the beginning or ending of the text and move them if needed. For example, I needed to move the beginning bracket left to the start of my path.

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Open your Swatches palette and change the fill color of the text to Rat Rod Red.

Use your Type tool (t) and select “rumble in”. Change the font size to 85 pt.

Select just “rumble” and change the font to 80 pt.

Now select only the “ru” at the beginning of rumble and change the font size to 75 pt.

Lastly, select the entire line of text and change the Tracking (the space between letters) to -20.

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Step 4: Sponsor Logos

One of the best things about this week’s bundle is the vast quantity of logo-makers. We’re going to use a few pieces to create three sponsor logos for our hot rod event.

Open the Gearwright freebie file and copy the eagle, then paste it into the layout file.

Use your Group Selection tool (the white arrow with plus sign) to select the outermost path on the eagle.

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Press cmd + c to copy it, then cmd + f to Paste in Front. Open your Swatches palette and change the color to Rat Rod Red, then press cmd + [ to send the red fill behind the eagle illustration.

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Select your Type tool and click once below the eagle. Type Eagle Motors. I’m using Globa at 65 pt.

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Use your Selection tool (v) and drag across the eagle and Eagle Motors to select all three pieces (eagle, fill color, type). Press cmd + g to Group. Go to Object > Transform > Scale and enter a Uniform scale of 50%, then press OK.

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Position the Eagle Motors logo in the bottom left of the white box.

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Next we’ll create a logo for King Oil. Open the Zeppelin Graphics freebie file. Copy both the triangle and the starburst, then paste both into the layout file.

Let’s start by changing the color of both to Black.

Select the triangle and go to Object > Transform > Scale and uniformly increase the size 500%.

Select the starburst and center it inside the triangle. Go to Object > Transform > Scale. This time, we’ll scale non-uniformly to better compliment our triangular shape. Enter a Horizontal scale of 450% and a Vertical scale of 350%. Press OK.

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Use your Group Selection tool to select the innermost path of the triangle.

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Press cmd + c to Copy, then cmd + f to Paste in Front. Change the fill color to Rat Rod Red, then press cmd + [ to send the red fill behind the starburst.

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Press cmd + f again to paste another copy in front. Go to Object > Transform > Scale and uniformly scale down 75%.

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Grab your Type tool and click once inside the triangle. Type KING oil. Change the fill color to white. I’m using the font MB Empire Bold at 20 pt with Tracking at -50, but this would also be a great place to use Futura. Center inside the black triangle.

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Go back to the Zeppelin Graphics freebie file and copy the crown. Paste it into the layout file and change the fill color to White.

Go to Object > Transform > Scale and Uniformly scale down 40%. Position over the o in oil, then use the corner handles to manually rotate the crown to the left to give it a jaunty angle.

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Use your Selection tool (v) to drag across the entire King Oil logo, then press cmd + g to Group all of the pieces together. Position on the right bottom side of the white box, even with the Eagle Motors logo.

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Our last sponsor logo will be for Papa Floyd’s. Open the Vintage Type Co. freebie file. Copy the circular frame, wing and crossbones, then paste into the layout file.

Select the circular frame. Go to Object > Transform > Scale and uniformly scale to 65%.

Select the crossbones. Drag them into the middle of the circle. Use the corner handles while holding shift to manually scale them down to fit inside the circle.

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Select the wing. Go to Object > Transform > Scale and enter a Uniform scale of 50%. Position it on the left side of the circle with no gaps showing between the circle and the wing, and vertically centered.

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With the wing still selected, go to Object > Transform > Reflect. Select Vertical and hit Copy. Drag the reflected copy to the right side of the circle.

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Use your Group Selection tool to select the first circle path inside the circular frame. Press cmd + c to Copy, then cmd + f to Paste in Front.

Change the color to Rat Rod Red, then press cmd + [ until the red circle falls behind the rest of the logo.

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Open the Milka freebie file and copy the skully apple, then paste it into the layout file.

Go to Object > Transform > Scale and enter a Uniform scale of 80%. Center inside the circular frame.

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In order to see our little skull guy, we’ll need to give him a white background. Use your Group Selection tool to select the outermost path of the skull.

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Press cmd + c to Copy, then cmd + f to Paste in Front. Change the fill color to White. Press cmd + [ to send the white fill behind the apple.

Grab your Type tool and click once under the left wing. Type EST. I’m using Bloomsbury Sans at 10 pt. Center under the left wing.

Hold opt + shift and drag to the right to copy EST. Center the copy under the right wing. Use your Type tool to select the text and change it to 1949.

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Use your Selection tool to select the red fill circle and copy it. Press cmd + f to Paste in Front. Hold opt + shift and use the corner handles to manually increase the size until it’s just a little larger than the circular frame.

Select your Type on a Path tool and click at the bottom of the circle. Type Papa Floyd’s. Your font should still be the same as it was for EST and 1949 – just increase the size to 14 pt.

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Drag your Selection tool across all of the Papa Floyd’s logo elements, then press cmd + g to Group. Position at the bottom center of the white box, even with the other two sponsor logos.

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Now let’s just add a little divider above the sponsor logos to separate them from the rest of the poster.

Open the Azmari Digitals freebie file and copy the flag divider, then paste it into the layout file. Change the fill color to black and position above the Eagle Motors logo.

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Hold opt, then click and drag a copy of the flags to the right. Line up the “string” that holds the flags so they look connected.

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Continue copying until you pass the right side of the King Oil logo – it should be a total of 5 sections.

Drag your Selection tool across all 5 to select. Press cmd + g to Group. Open your Align palette and choose Horizontal Align Center.

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Lastly for this section, we’ll change the white flags to red. Use your Group Selection tool to select the inside path on each of the white flags.

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Copy by hitting cmd + c, then Paste in Front with cmd + f. Press cmd + g to create a Group, then change the fill color to Rat Rod Red.

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Step 5: Event Info

Select your Type tool and click just above the flag divider. Type: Register at designcuts.com by April 5 • $20 Entry Fee.

In your Character palette, change the font to True North Textures Two Regular at 36 pt. In your Paragraph palette, select Align Center.

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With your Type tool, click again on the artboard above the last line of text. Type April 25, 2016 • 8 am – 3 pm in True North Textures Two Regular at 50 pt. Press enter to create a line break and type at Melvin Lake Bed. Set the second line in the same font, but reduce the size to 42 pt.

Center on the artboard and change the fill color to Rat Rod Red.

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Select your Pen tool (p). We’re going to create another path with a curved center point. Click once on the left of the white box in the big empty area, then click again on the right side, just a little lower than the first point.

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Give the path a stroke color of Black. In your Strokes palette, change the Weight to 100 pt.

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Now add a point to the middle of the path, but drag up and to the right to create a curve.

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Use your Selection tool to select the path we just created. Press cmd + c to Copy, then cmd + f to Paste in Place.

Select your Type on a Path tool. Click on the duplicate path and type Live Music Barbecue Giveaways. I’ve added double spaces between the items to leave room for an ornament in place of a bullet point.

Change the fill color to Rat Rod Yellow. In the Character palette, change the font to True North Textures Bold at 58 pt.

Note: Don’t forget that you can adjust the width of your type area on the path by using your Direct Selection tool and dragging out the brackets on either side of the text.

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Step 6: Flourishes

Now we’ll fill in our white areas with flourishes and ornaments.

First, let’s copy the big black banner path we just created. If you’re having trouble selecting it (instead of the yellow copy on top of it), you can always select the yellow copy on top and press cmd + 2 to lock it. Then you can freely access the black banner underneath. Once selected, press cmd + c to copy.

In the Layers palette, lock the Main Content layer. Create a new layer and name it Flourishes.

Press cmd + f to Paste the duplicate black banner path. Change the Stroke color to Rat Rod Red. Open your Stroke palette. Change the Weight to 12 pt and the Profile to Width Profile 1.

Hold shift and use your Selection tool to drag the red flourish below the original black banner.

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Select the red flourish we just made and hold shift + opt while dragging down to duplicate it. Change the Stroke color to Rat Rod Yellow. In your Stroke palette, change the Weight to 8 pt.

Select your Direct Selection tool (a) and select the far left point of the yellow flourish. Press delete.

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Hold opt + shift and drag out another copy of the red flourish. Position this one above the black banner. Change the Stroke color to Rat Rod Yellow and the Stroke Weight to 10 pt.

Grab your Direct Selection tool (a) and this time, select the far right point, then press delete.

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Duplicate the yellow flourish we just made and position the copy just above it. Change the Stroke color to Rat Rod Red and the Stroke Weight to 6 pt.

Select your Pen tool (p). Add two points to the line, one on each side of the center. Click once for each point.

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Switch to your Direct Selection tool (a) and select the far left point. Press delete. Then select the far right point and press delete.

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The rest of our flourishes will come from the freebie files.

Open the Wings Art freebie file and copy the Short Curved Stroke, then paste it into the layout file. Change the color to Rat Rod Red.

We’re going to use this stroke to underline USA. Manually rotate the stroke using the corner handles until it’s at the same angle as USA, about -75 degrees. Reduce the size until it’s the same width as USA.

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Go back to the Wings Art freebie file and copy the 4 Fast Strokes. We’ll use these to give our hot rod a feeling of more movement while filling in a little space between it and the event name.

Position two of the strokes above the car engine and windshield area and the other two strokes below the car engine. Manually scale and rotate as needed by using the corner handles.

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Back in the Wings Art file, copy the Little Stroke.

Paste into the layout file and change the color to Rat Rod Yellow. Rotate very slightly to make it a little more horizontal. Position to the left of “at Melvin Lake Bed”.

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Go to Object > Transform > Reflect. In the popup dialog box, choose Vertical, then press Copy. Drag the copy to the right side of “at Melvin Lake Bed”.

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Next up, open the Every Tuesday freebie file. Copy the round swirly ornament, then paste it into the layout file.

Hold shift and use the corner handle to rotate to the right until the ornament is vertical, about -135 degrees. Next, go to Object > Transform > Scale and uniformly scale up 300%. Change the fill color to Rat Rod Yellow and position in the bottom right corner of the white box.

Go to Object > Transform > Reflect and choose Vertical, then press Copy. Drag the duplicate to the bottom left corner.

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Go back to the Every Tuesday file and copy the larger ornament. Paste it into the layout file.

Change the fill color to Rat Rod Yellow. Increase the scale uniformly by 350%, then add a slight rotation of about -10 degrees. Position above the top right of the black banner.

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Press cmd + c to Copy the ornament, then press cmd + v to Paste. Drag the copy to the lower left side of the black banner. Hold shift and use the corner handles to rotate 180 degrees. Scale down about 80%.

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Now copy the asterisk from the Every Tuesday file. Paste it into the layout and change the fill color to Rat Rod Red. Increase the scale about 150%. Position on the black banner between Live Music and Barbecue.

Hold opt, then click the asterisk and drag out a copy. Place the copy between Barbecue and Giveaways.

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Our remaining flourishes will come from the Vintage Type Co. file and the Zeppelin Graphics file.

Open the Vintage Type Co freebie file – copy all unused flourishes and paste them onto the layout file. Change the fill color of all four flourishes to Rat Rod Yellow.

Position and sizing is really a matter of feel. We’re going for a balanced feel without being too symmetrical. Here’s where I put mine:

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Now open the Zeppelin Graphics freebie file and copy the three flourishes. Paste them into the layout file.

With all three selected, change the stroke color to Rat Rod Yellow. In your Stroke palette, change the Stroke Weight to 3 pt and the Profile to Width Profile 1 so they match our other flourishes.

Again, this is about balance without falling into anything too symmetrical. Here’s where mine ended up:

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Lastly for our flourishes and ornaments, I’m going to copy one of our red asterisks by selecting it and pressing cmd + c. Paste by pressing cmd + v, then change the fill color to Rat Rod Yellow. Sprinkle a few of the yellow asterisks of varying sizes around the car and event name.

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Save your Illustrator file and close it. We’ll do the rest in Photoshop!

Step 7: Texture

Open Photoshop. Go to File > Open and navigate to the Illustrator file we just made. Click Open.

In the dialog box, choose Crop To Trim and make sure your resolution is set to 300 ppi.

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Go to File > Place Linked and navigate to Ghostly Pixels’ Gradient Halftone 1. Press Place.

Hold shift and use the corner handle to rotate 90 degrees. Then, use the corner handles while holding shift to increase the size to fill the artboard.

At the top of your Layers palette (Window > Layers), change the Blend Mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 50%.

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Go to File > Place Linked and select Ghostly Pixels’ Cement 9. Press Place.

Hold shift and use the corner handle to rotate 90 degrees. Then, use the corner handles while holding shift to increase the size to fill the artboard.

Click the FX icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Color Overlay. In the popup dialog box, click on the color swatch and change it to White. Change the Blend Mode to Normal.

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In the menu on the left side of the dialog box, click on Blending Options. Under Advanced Blending, turn on Blend Interior Effects as Group, then press OK.

At the top of the Layers palette, change the Opacity to 60%.

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Now we’ll load the brushes from Vintage Type Co. Select your Brush tool (b). At the top left of the artboard, click the arrow to the right of the brush icon. In the Brush Preset Picker that opens, click the gear icon at the top right to access the flyout menu. Choose Load Brushes.

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Navigate to the Vintage Type Co. brushes file and hit Load.

Choose the Recycled Paper brush.

In your Layers palette, click the Create a New Layer icon. Double click the layer name and change the name to Recycled Paper.

Press d to set your foreground color to black. Now click once on the top left of the artboard. Then click again on the right side. Continue clicking (without dragging) until the artboard is filled, but try not to overlap too much.

In the Layers palette, change the layer Opacity to 65%.

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Now select the Worn Paper brush. In your Layers palette, click the Create a New Layer icon and rename it Worn Paper. Go ahead and change the Blend Mode to Multiply.

Click on your foreground color swatch at the bottom of the toolbar. In the Color Picker popup, change your RGB values to 240/230/218.

Repeat the same process we used with the other brush. Click on the artboard until it’s covered with the texture.

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Our very last effect will be to add some darkened edges.

In the Layers palette, create a new layer and name it Dark Edges. Set the Blend Mode to Multiply.

Select your Brush tool (b). In the Brush Preset Picker, choose the Soft Round brush (usually the first brush). Set the size to about 3000 (using [ to decrease size or ] to increase size).

Click on your foreground color swatch and change the RGB values to 76/57/40.

Drag the brush along the edges and corners.

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Switch to the Eraser tool (e). Use the Soft Round brush, but reduce the Opacity to about 25% (at the top of the artboard).

Drag the eraser over important areas that we don’t want too dark like sponsor logos and the event title.

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In the Layers palette, change the Opacity to 35%.

And that’s it! We have a killer, rockabilly, rat rod poster. I can almost smell the burning rubber.

Rat Rod Poster

Remember that whether it’s your outcome for this tutorial or something new you’ve made, we’d love to see your designs on our Facebook page.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions. I always look forward to hearing from you!

And there’s still time to check out The Complete Vector Design Toolkit to super size your vector library!