Design a Jazzy, Art Deco Poster in Illustrator and Photoshop

WHAT WE’RE CREATING:

Hello Design Cutters! Renee here with a tutorial for a jazzy, art deco poster for a Valentine’s Day dance. We’ll use both Photoshop and Illustrator in this one. In Illustrator, we’ll utilize pattern swatches and pathfinder tricks to create an intricate-looking layout. After that, we’ll move everything into Photoshop to build a unique background texture and overlay everything with a vintage gold shine.

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

Additional Resources

We’ll be using several vintage-style fonts that are freely available online. We’ll use New Year 2017 by Faraz Ahmad, Birmingham Titling by Paul Lloyd and Omnibus/Busorama by Alan Carr.

Step 1: Art Deco Patterns

Open Illustrator and go to File > New. In the New Document dialog box, enter a document name, a width of 18 inches and a height of 24 inches.

Click OK to create the document.

Save your file.

In the freebies folder from The Paper Town, open Art-Deco-Seamless-Patterns in Illustrator.

Use the Selection Tool (v) to drag across both patterns on the file and press Cmd + C to Copy. Close the file.

In the main layout file, press Cmd + V to Paste.

If you look in your Swatches palette (Windows > Swatches), you’ll see that both patterns are now included as swatches.

Press delete – we’ll apply the patterns from the Swatches palette, so we no longer need the pasted-in shapes.

Select the Rectangle Tool (m) and draw a rectangle that covers the entire artboard.

In the Swatches palette, select one of the new swatches, 15, for the Fill Color. Select None for the Stroke Color.

Next, we’ll edit the pattern so it has a transparent background – it’s currently off white. In the Swatches palette, double click the pattern swatch, 15, to open the Pattern Editor.

When the Pattern Editor opens, select the Group Selection Tool. To select the Group Selection Tool, click and hold on the Direct Selection Tool (the white arrow) until you see the flyout menu, then select the white arrow with a plus sign.

You may have to hunt-and-peck a little on the pattern to find a square with an off white Fill Color. They’re offset from the main pattern pieces (outlined in blue).

I’ve selected one (outlined in red) on the left side of the pattern.

With the white box selected, go to Select > Same > Fill Color. This will result in the selection of four off white boxes.

With all four selected, open the Swatches palette and change the Fill Color to None.

At the top left of the artboard, you’ll see options for Save a Copy, Done or Cancel. Select Done. The updated swatch will automatically be applied to the rectangle on the artboard.

With the Rectangle Tool still selected, click once on the artboard. In the popup, enter a Width of 15 inches and a Height of 21 inches, then press OK.

In the Swatches palette, select the other new pattern swatch, 3, for the Fill Color.

To center the smaller rectangle on the artboard, open your Align palette (Window > Align) and under Align Objects, select the icons for Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center.

Note: If nothing happens when you click the align icons, you may need to change your Align To settings. Click on the arrow just below Align To at the bottom right of the Align palette and select Align to Artboard.

Next, we’ll make the same adjustment to this pattern as we did with the last – change the off white background to transparent.

In the Swatches palette, double click the pattern swatch, 3, to open the Pattern Editor. In the Pattern Editor, select the Group Selection Tool.

On this pattern, the off white Fill Color can be found in one of the fan shapes (outlined in red).

With the off white fan shape selected, go to Select > Same > Fill Color. In the Swatches palette, select None for the Fill Color.

At the top left of the artboard, click Done.

This will give us something that looks like a complete mess, but we’re about to fix that!

Switch to your main Selection Tool (v).

With the smaller rectangle still selected, press Cmd + C to Copy. We won’t paste the copy back in until we’ve made a clean space for it.

Hold Shift and also select the larger rectangle in the background.

Open the Pathfinder palette (Windows > Pathfinder). Under Shape Modes, select the icon for Minus Front – this will punch out the shape of the front object from the object behind it.

Now press Cmd + F to Paste in Place.

Let’s add a stroke to give some separation to the two patterns. Open the Swatches palette and click on the Stroke Color icon, then choose black.

Next, open the Stroke palette (Window > Stroke). Increase the Weight to 4 pt.

Step 2: Frame Details

Select the Rectangle Tool. Click once on the artboard and in the popup, enter a Width of 13 inches and Height of 19 inches. Press OK.

In the Swatches palette, change the Fill Color to White and we’ll keep the thick black Stroke.

In the Align palette, select the Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center icons.

Now we’ll dig a little deeper into the Pathfinder functionality. It’s an invaluable tool, but can sometimes lead to frustration if you don’t know the ins and outs of when you can do what!

Select the Ellipse Tool (L). Click once on the artboard and enter a Width and Height of 6 inches. Press OK.

Position the circle so the center of it intersects the top left corner of the inner patterned rectangle.

Select your main Selection Tool. Click once on the inner patterned rectangle and press Cmd + C to Copy it. Click off the artboard on the gray area so nothing is selected. Press Cmd + F to Paste in Place – you’ll now have a copy of the patterned rectangle on top of everything else.

Hold Shift and also select the white circle.

In the Pathfinder palette under Shape Modes, select the icon for Intersect.

In the Swatches palette, change the Fill Color back to White (it will take on the color of the top object). We’ll make this transparent later, but for now it will help us see what we’re doing if we leave it white.

Press Cmd + C to Copy the new shape. Click off the artboard to deselect, then press Cmd + F to Paste in Place.

In the Swatches palette, change the Fill Color to Black.

Lastly, we’ll make this copy a little smaller. Hover over the bottom right corner until you see the double-sided arrow for scaling. Hold Shift, then click on the bottom right corner handle and drag up and to the left to reduce the size of the black copy until it’s about 2.25 inches x 2.25 inches.

Note: Holding Shift while changing scale will make sure your object scales proportionally.

Press Cmd + F to Paste another Copy of the partial white circle in Place.

Again, hold Shift and use the bottom right corner handle to reduce the size to about .5 inches x .5 inches.

Next, we’ll create a simple ornament for our corner.

Select the Pen Tool (p).

Click once inside the black circular shape, just below the smallest white shape and centered. Then click again about 1.25 inches diagonally down and to the right (in the direction of the bottom right corner of the artboard).

In the Swatches palette, change the Fill Color to None and the Stroke Color to white.

Open the Strokes palette and increase the Weight to 10 pt and next to Profile, select Width Profile 5.

Switch to the main Selection Tool and click off the artboard to deselect. Then, select the Pen Tool again.

Click once above the first point on the previous path we created. Make a second point radiating out from the corner, but not quite as long as the first line – only about .75 inches.

In the Swatches palette, increase the Weight to 10 pt and next to Profile, select Width Profile 5.

Switch to the main Selection Tool. Click off the artboard to deselect. Now use the Selection tool to select the short line. Press Cmd + C to Copy, then Cmd + V to Paste.

Drag the copy below the long line, then hover over the corner handle until you see the curved, double sided rotation arrow. Rotate the line until it’s radiating out in the same relative direction.

A little imperfection in placement will add to the authentic vintage feel of the art deco design, so don’t stress about getting the ornamental lines perfect.

With your main Selection Tool, hold Shift and select each object in the top left corner – the quarter white circle, the quarter black circle, the tiny white circle shape and the three lines.

At the top of the artboard, go to Object > Transform > Reflect.

In the popup dialog box, choose an Axis of Vertical, then press Copy.

Hold Shift and use the main Selection Tool to drag the reflected items to the right side of the artboard until they line up with the right side of the inner patterned rectangle.

Now we’ll select the objects in both top corners. This time, let’s use an alternate technique to select our objects. Drag the main Selection Tool across the top of the artboard – this will select everything we need plus a few extra things we don’t want to copy.

To Deselect the objects we don’t need, hold Shift and click on each to remove it from the selection. So, hold Shift and click once on the outside patterned rectangle, then the inner patterned rectangle, then the smallest, inner white rectangle.

Go to Object > Transform > Reflect. This time, choose an Axis of Horizontal and press Copy.

Drag the copies down to the bottom corners of the inner patterned rectangle.

This is where we’ll get tricky with the Pathfinder. We want to make sure that everything white is transparent because we’ll need to isolate the black areas when we apply our gold texture in Photoshop later.

Select all four of the large white quarter circles. Press Cmd + C to Copy.

Now go to Object > Compound Path > Make. It will change their order and look a little funny, but it’s nothing to worry about.

Note: When you create a Compound Path, Pathfinder will treat the multiple objects as one single item. Skipping this step is a source of frequent frustration for Illustrator beginners!

Hold Shift and also select the inner white rectangle.

Open the Pathfinder palette and under Shape Modes, select Minus Front.

Press Cmd + F to Paste the quarter circles in Place. Hold Shift and also select the inner white rectangle.

Press Cmd + C to Copy.

In the Pathfinder palette, select Unite.

Hold Shift and also select the inner patterned rectangle.

In the Pathfinder palette, select Minus Front.

Press Cmd + F to Paste both the inner rectangle and quarter circles in Place. In the Swatches palette, change the Fill Color to None.

The last pieces we’ll need to punch out will be the corner ornaments.

Select any one of the white lines. Go to Select > Same > Stroke Color. This will select all of the white lines.

At the top of the artboard, go to Object > Path > Outline Stroke.

Hold Shift and also select the smallest white quarter circles in each corner.

Go to Object > Compound Path > Make (or use the shortcut Cmd + 8).

We’ll be punching these shapes out of the black quarter circles. To do it all at the same time, we’ll also need to turn all four black quarter circles into one Compound Path.

Click off the artboard to deselect the white ornamental pieces. Hold Shift and click each of the four black quarter circles to select them. Then go to Object > Compound Path > Make.

Hold Shift and click on any piece of the white ornamental pieces to add them to the selection.

In the Pathfinder palette, select Minus Front.

Note: A good way to test if you’ve actually made everything transparent is to draw a rectangle across the artboard and fill it with a bright color. Send it behind everything else by going to Object > Arrange > Send to Back. Don’t forget to delete it when you’re done.

In the Swatches palette, change the Stroke Color to None so we’ll get a little more definition back on our ornaments.

Select the innermost rectangle shape – since it no longer has a Fill Color, you’ll have to select it along one of the edges.

Go to Object > Path > Offset Path. In the dialog box, enter an Offset of -.5 inches and click OK.

And that’s it for the frame build! Now we’ll move on to our content.

Step 3: Logo

Select the Type Tool (t) and click once in the top middle of the artboard. Type: Applesauce Club 10th & Pine

Switch to the Selection Tool.

Open the Character palette (Window > Type > Character). Change the font to Omnibus/Busorama at 34 pt.

Open the Paragraph palette (Window > Type > Paragraph) and select Align Center.

Center the type on the artboard by clicking on the Horizontal Align Center icon in the Align palette.

Select your Type Tool (t). Click once on the bottom middle of the artboard and type:
February 14, 20179pm til sunup

Switch to the Selection Tool.

In the Character palette, change the font to Busorama at 60 pt. And in the Paragraph palette, choose Align Center.

Position about 3 inches from the bottom of the inner rectangle. Again, use the Horizontal Align Center icon in the Align palette to center to text on the artboard.

Next up is our logo. We’re going to type each element separately, then assemble them together.

Select the Type Tool and type: The

Switch to the Selection Tool and click off the artboard to deselect the type.

Select the Type Tool again and type a capital C.

Switch to the Selection Tool and click off the artboard.

Select the Type Tool and type: at’s

Continue alternating between the Type Tool and Selection Tool to create each of these remaining pieces as independent objects:

M
eow
Valentine Dance

With the main Selection Tool, hold Shift and select both “The” and “Valentine Dance”.

In the Character palette, change the font to New Year 2017 at 52 pt.

Select the capital C and capital M. In the Character palette, change the font to Birmingham Titling Regular at 255 pt.

Now select “at’s” and “eow”. In the Character palette, change the font to Birmingham Titling Regular at 225 pt.

Use your Selection Tool to position “The” above the A in “at’s” and position the C before “at’s”, but at a lower level.

Position the M to the right of the C and below “at’s”. Position “eow” after the M, aligned with the top of M.

Move “Valentine Dance” under Meow so it’s aligned with the right bottom of the W.

Drag across all of the logo elements to select them and press Cmd + G to Group them together.

In the Align palette, select Horizontal Align Center to center the logo on the artboard.

Now we’ll just add a few elements to make the content a bit more decorative.

Select the Line Segment Tool (\).

Draw a line under the C in Cat’s – hold Shift to draw a straight line.

In the Swatches palette, change the Stroke Color to black.

In the Strokes palette, increase the Weight to 3 pt.

Switch to your Selection Tool. Hold Opt + Shift, then click on the line and drag down about .25 inches to create a copy.

Press Cmd + D to Duplicate the action, creating a third line.

Select all three lines and press Cmd + C to Copy.

Press Cmd + V to Paste.

Position the copies to the right of the S in Cat’s, aligned with the bottom of the letter.

With all three of the copied lines still selected, drag the right handle out until the lines reach almost to the end of the W in Meow.

Now we’ll add some decoration to the date and time area.

Select the Rectangle Tool. Click once on the artboard and enter a Width of 8 inches and a Height of 2.75 inches.

In the Swatches palette, change the Fill Color to None and the Stroke to black.

In the Strokes palette, increase the Weight to 3 pt.

Center the rectangle on the date and time.

Click again on the artboard with the Rectangle Tool. This time, enter a Width of 12 inches and Height of 1 inch.

In the Swatches palette, change the Fill Color to black and the Stroke Color to None.

Center with the date/time and the last rectangle.

Go to Object > Arrange > Send Backward to position it behind the last rectangle – this will be important for our next step.

We’ll use Pathfinder again to knock out the middle portion of the black rectangle so we can see the date and time.

Select the stroked rectangle around the date and time. Press Cmd + C to Copy.

Hold Shift and also select the long, black rectangle.

In the Pathfinder palette, choose Minus Front – this is why it was important for the stroked rectangle to be in front of the black rectangle.

Press Cmd + F to Paste the stroked rectangle in Place.

Let’s sgroup a few things together to make our job easier later.

Select the text of the logo – The Cat’s Meow Valentine Dance. Press Cmd + G to Group them together.

Select just the 6 straight lines from the logo and press Cmd + G to Group them.

Select the location at the top of the artboard and the date/time plus the ornamentation around it. Press Cmd + G to Group those in a separate group.

Press Cmd + A to Select All. Hold Shift and click on the logo, then the location to deselect those groups – leaving only the frame selected. Press Cmd + G to Group.

Step 4: Texture

Now we’ll move into Photoshop.

Open Photoshop and go to File > New. In the New Document dialog box, enter a width of 18 inches and a height of 24 inches. Set your Resolution to 300 ppi and your Color Mode to RGB.

Click OK to create the document, then save your file.

Press D to make the Foreground Color black. Press Opt + Backspace to fill the Background layer with black.

Go back into Illustrator. Use the main Selection Tool to select the Frame group. Press Cmd + C to Copy.

Go into Photoshop and press Cmd + V to Paste. In the Paste dialog box, choose Smart Object and press OK. The frame will fill the artboard. Press Enter to complete the placement.

Go to File > Place Linked and navigate to 35.jpg in the Artist Mef freebies folder. Press Place.

Hold Shift and use the corner handle to rotate the image 90 degrees.

Release Shift and use the corner handles to make the image the same size as the artboard. Press Enter when you’re done.

Open the Layers palette (Window > Layers).

Double click the name of the layer, Vector Smart Object, and rename it Frame.

Hold Cmd and click on the thumbnail to the left of the Frame layer to create a selection around it.

Click once on the 35 layer to make it active. At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the Add Layer Mask icon.

In the Layers palette, click the eye icon to the left of the Frame layer to hide it.

Go into Illustrator and select the group with the location and date/time plus the group of lines in the logo. Press Cmd + C to Copy.

Back in Photoshop, press Cmd + V to Paste. Select Smart Object and press OK.

This one might paste in a little low, so you may need to manually move it up. Hold Shift and press the Up Arrow on the keyboard a few times until the placement in Photoshop matches the placement in Illustrator.

Shown below in white so it’s easier to see – yours will still be black.

In the Layers palette, double click the layer name, Vector Smart Object, and change it to Location Date.

Go to File > Place Linked and select 77.jpg from Artist Mef. Press Place.

Hold Shift and use the corner handle to rotate 90 degrees, then press OK.

In the Layers palette, hold Cmd and click on the thumbnail to the left of the Location Date layer.

Click on the 77 layer to make it active. At the bottom of the Layers palette, select Add Layer Mask.

In the Layers palette, click the eye icon to the left of the Location Date layer to hide it.

Go to File > Place Linked and navigate to Speckled 10 in the 2 Lil Owls freebie folder. Press Place.

Hold Shift and use the corner handles to increase the size until it is large enough to cover the artboard. Press enter when done.

In the Layers palette, drag the Speckled 10 layer down until it’s just above the Background layer.

At the top of the Layers palette, change the Opacity to 15%.

Go to File > Place Linked and navigate to 6.jpg in the Mix Pix Box freebies folder. Press Place.

Use the corner handles to increase the size until it fits the artboard. Press enter when done.

At the top of the Layers palette, change the Opacity to 8%.

Go to File > Place Linked and navigate to abstract-pastel-19.jpg in the NKate freebies folder. Press Place.

Use the corner handles to increase the size until it fits the artboard. Press enter when done.

At the top of the Layers palette, change the Blend Mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 70%.

In the Layers palette, the abstract-pastel-19 layer will be selected. Hold Shift and select Speckled 10. This will also select the layer between the two, layer 6.

At the bottom of the Layers palette, select the Create A New Group icon.

Double click the group name, Group 1, and rename it Background Textures.

At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the Add Layer Mask icon.

Select the Brush Tool (b).

At the top left of the artboard, click the brush preview thumbnail to access the Brush Preset Picker. Select the Soft Round brush. Set the size to 700 px. To the right of the brush preview thumbnail, set the Opacity to 15%.

On the artboard, brush over the location and the date/time areas. As you brush, the background textures will fade in those areas. This will help our information to pop a little more. Try not to overdo it – we want it to be a subtle difference that won’t consciously register with the viewer.

Go back into Illustrator and copy the logo group, then paste it into the Photoshop file. As with the last group we pasted in, you’ll have to manually move the logo up until it is in the correct location in relation to the 6 straight lines.

In the Layers palette, double click the name of the layer and change it to Logo.

Go to File > Place Linked and navigate to PinkGoldenTexture-04 in the LuOtero freebies folder.

Make sure the image is covering the logo entirely and press Enter.

In the Layers palette, hold Cmd and click on the thumbnail to the left of the Logo layer.

Click on the PinkGoldenTexture-04 layer to make it active. At the bottom of the Layers palette, select Add Layer Mask.

In the Layers palette, click the eye icon to the left of the Logo layer to hide it.

For our last step, we’ll add a little hint of paper texture to give the poster a realistic feel.

Go to File > Place Linked and navigate to 11.jpg in the Unember freebies folder.

Use the corner handles to increase the size to the same as the artboard and press Enter.

In the Layers palette, drag the 11 layer to the very top.

Open the Adjustments palette (Window > Adjustments). Click on the icon for Black & White. In the Properties box that opens, click the icon at the bottom left of the palette to clip the adjustment to the layer below it.

In the Adjustments palette, click the icon for Levels. At the bottom of the properties palette, click the far left icon again to clip to the 11 layer.

Select the black slider on the far left of the histogram and move it to the right until the Shadow Input Level is about 54.

Select the white slider on the far right of the histogram and move it to the left until the Highlight Input Level is about 223.

Finally, select the middle slider and move it until the Midtone Input Level is 0.60.

In the Layers palette, click the 11 layer to make it active.

At the top of the Layers palette, change the Blend Mode to Multiply.

And we’re done! We’ve created a super cool art deco poster while mastering Pathfinder in Illustrator and having fun with textures in Photoshop.

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!

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