WHAT WE’RE CREATING:

Aloha DesignCutters! Simon here today for a fun retro poster design tutorial. I’ll be showing you how to combine some of the resources of the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle to build a neat print.

PLEASE NOTE: This is quite an advanced tutorial, and isn’t aimed at beginners. We have lots of beginner tutorials in our tutorial archive if that is more your level. However, if you’re familiar with Photoshop, then this tutorial should teach you some great new techniques.
Here’s a look and what we’ll be creating:

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

We’ll make use of these three stock images, that are available for free.

Train tracks via Unsplash

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Sea scene via Unsplash

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

A shot from the Uncompahgre National Forest via the U.S. National Archives

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

You should note that the process below has been cleaned-up, and doesn’t include a lot of the back-and-forth of the trial and error process I’ve followed. I’ve been using both Photoshop and Illustrator to manipulate the elements of the bundle, but I’m pretty sure that you could get away with using only Photoshop. Finally, get yourself a cup of coffee, put on some music, and let’s dive in!

STEP 1: RESEARCH AND CONCEPTUALIZING

If you’ve read some of my other tutorials for Design Cuts (the owl, the typographic poster, the fake tube advertising poster), you know that I like to make some research before jumping into Photoshop and Illustrator.

For this specific tutorial, my goal was to demonstrate the possibilities offered by the resources of the bundle. I spent quite a little bit of time looking at the various promo shots for the resources, and it’s when I saw this image, used to showcase Offset Designs’ maps and charts, that it came together:

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

From there, the rest of the piece came together rather quickly: combining the two images as the background, editing them to blend together with post-processing and textures, adding and editing the centerpiece, blending all the elements together with textures, and that was it.

Let me walk you through it.

STEP 2: DOCUMENT SETUP

I’m working with an 18″x24″ RGB document, at 300 dpi.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

I added a series of guides to form a grid, that will help me later to correctly position my elements. I have put guides at the 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 16, and 17 inches marks vertically. I’ve then added guides at the 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, 22, and 23 inches marks horizontally. It might be a bit much, but oh well.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

STEP 3: THE BACKGROUND

Placing the images

The first step for building our poster is to place our images. Let’s start by adding the train track image into our canvas. I’m positioning it at the bottom of my canvas, and centering it so the train track lines up with the middle of the frame.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Next, let’s place the sea scene image into the canvas. Make sure the image’s layer is below the train track image’s layer. I’ve placed it upside down, to give a strange vibe to the composition.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

I’ve put the train track layer on multiply, so you can see how I’ve aligned the layers compared to each other.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

The next step is to mask the blue sky part of the train track image. I’ve simply used the magic wand (W) to select the blue pixels.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Once you’ve made your selection, just hit the Add a layer mask button at the bottom of your layer palette…

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

… And you’ll get yourself this weird looking result:

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Simply invert the layer mask’s content to go achieve our original intent. To do so, you can either highlight the layer by clicking on it, and using the invert shortcut (CTRL/CMD+I), or you could ALT/OPTION+CLICK to access the mask’s content, and repeat the inverting process there.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Finally, you could also finalize things by painting over the top part of the layer mask, to make sure that things don’t show.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Finally, let’s have a look at the junction of our two pictures.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

As you can see, the edge of our mask is so sharp that it creates some artifacts. The trick I use here is to simply blur the mask to soften the edges a bit. I’ve used Gaussian blur to do it, so I can control the amount of blur I’m generating.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

And our images are placed:

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Now, a little bit of house cleaning. I’ve created a bg layer group to include all of my background layers. I have also given our two background images their own layer groups. It will come in handy in a bit, when we start adding some adjustment layers and textures to the background.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Sharpening using the high pass filter

Before we can move on to post processing, let’s sharpen our images a bit. I’ll show you the process on the train track image, but do it on both.

Start by duplicating the image’s layer, and clip it (CTRL/CMD+ALT/OPTION+G) to the original layer.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Then, go to Filter > Other > High pass. I’m using a 50 pixels radius.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

After that, simply put the layer’s blending mode to Soft light @ 50% opacity, and we have a sharpened layer.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Repeat the process for the sea scene, and we’re good to move on to the next steps.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Some post-processing to blend the two images together

At this point, our two images aren’t really blending well together. Part of the problem comes from the fact that they’ve been processed into a different approach: the train track is a very vivid and saturated images, while the sea scene is a soft, faded image, a little bit like a VSCO Cam filter.

The solution I chose is to manipulate the train track image to give it that vibe. Luckily for everybody, I already wrote a tutorial on how to accomplish that VSCO Cam vibe in Photoshop back in October 2013. Since all the stuff is in that tutorial, I won’t go too much in details of the whys and hows of my process.

Keep in mind that all the adjustment layers we’ll be adding need to be clipped to the original train track image’s layer, just like the high pass filter layer.

First, we’ll add a Vibrance adjustment layer. I’ve set the value at 35.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Second, and that’s the core of the effect, comes a Selective color adjustment layer. We’ll be touching up the yellows, the greens, the blues, and the blacks. See the values below:

  • Yellow: magenta +75, yellow +25
  • Greens: yellow +50, black +100,
  • Blues: black +25,
  • Blacks: black +10

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Next is the layer that creates the “faded” quality to the image. It’s a solid color adjustment layer, set to #4e4e4e. The blending mode is set to Lighten @ 75% opacity.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

The next step is to add a curves adjustment layer. Its preset is set to Cross process, and its opacity to 10%.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

After that, we’ll lower the saturation with a hue/saturation adjustment layer. I’ve set the value at -25.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Finally, we’ll lower the temperature of the image with a photo filter adjustment layer. I’m using the Cooling filter (80) at 25% density.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

And we’ve got our background ready for texture work.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Textures to tie the background images further together

Applying a series of textures to the both images at the same time will help us to visually link them together.

I’m starting with background-20.jpg from Ian Barnard’s backgrounds series of his texture armoury.

Place it into your canvas, rotate it 90° counter-clock wise, and resize it so it covers your canvas. I chose to actually crop out the black stain at the bottom left.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Rasterize the layer if needed, and desaturate it (CTRL/CMD+SHIFT+U). You can also sharpen it a few times to keep it crisp (Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen). We’ll then use the levels palette (CTRL/CMD+L) to make the texture’s characteristics more preeminent. See my values below (150, 0.75, and 200)

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Once you’ve manipulated the levels to your satisfaction, simply change the texture’s blending mode to Soft light @ 10% opacity.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

The second texture I’m adding to the background is texture26.jpg. It’s from Cruzine’s flyer’s photo overlay 1 collection. Following the same workflow (resizing, rasterizing, desaturating it, sharpening it, and playing with its contrast through levels), I added a little bit of its paper grain to the piece.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

The blending mode I chose is Soft light @ 50% opacity.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Note also that I’ve given both textures their own layer group. And this concludes the work on the background. Next up, the center piece.

STEP FOUR: THE CENTERPIECE

Placing and masking the image

The centerpiece of the design is this beautiful image of vegetation from the U.S. National archives.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

On top of that, there’s one of the sweet old charts compiled by Offset Designs, the octagon-shaped badge shape from Ghostly Pixels, and one of Make Design Co’s burst in the background. Most of these elements have some texture magic happening in the layer masks, and we’ll get to that part soon.

First, place the plant image in your canvas, and make it at least 17″ wide. This will allow us to frame it in a circle without its black film border to show.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Second step, let’s sharpen it using the high pass filter, just like we did for the background. Also, give the center piece layers their own layer group, for better organization.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Next, we’re going to create the circular mask around the image. Use your elliptical marquee tool (M) (do a long click on the marquee tool to access it if necessary) to draw a 16″ wide circle.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Once your selection is made, nudge it at the center of your piece, and make sure to highlight the original plant image layer.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Next, simple create a layer mask with that selection. It’s the same process than when we created a layer mask for the background train track image.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Make sure that the image and its layer mask can move independently from each other, by disabling the chainlink that links the layers’ thumbnails.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Adding the ornaments

The first element we’ll add to the piece is the 03.eps chart from Offset Design’s pack. I personally open my EPS files in Ai, and paste them in Ps as smart objects to retain their vector properties if needed.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Size the chart to fit the circle of the center image. Zoom in if necessary.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Once the chart is properly sized, switch its color to white. You can either add a color overlay through the layer style panel, or double click on the layer’s thumbnail to be able to edit the original vector element in Ai. I chose the later, because often times editing smart object in Ai makes much more sense.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

The next piece of the puzzle is Ghostly Pixels’ octagon.eps. I’m using the double thin outline version.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

This one is also to be pasted in as a smart object, and to be sized so the inner outline lines up with the edge of the circle. Once sized appropriately, switch its color to white as well.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Finally, we’ll be adding one of Make Design Co.’s star burst to the mix. I found it in the Totally Texture Creation Kit collection (CreativeMarket_TotallyTextureCreationKit_Shapes&Brushes_CS4.ai).

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

I’ve changed the burst’s color to white as well. Note that I’ve sized it so it extends a bit beyond the edge of the canvas.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Here’s my layer stack so far for the center piece. The star burst is behind everything else.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Now that we’ve got our center piece design in place, let’s grunge things out a bit, shall we?

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Pasting textures in the layer masks to weather things out

Let’s start by impacting the chart. Add a layer mask to it, and paste photocopy-noise-textures-sbh-006.jpg from The Shop’s Photocopy noise texture pack.

Here’s a preview of what the mask looks like. I placed the texture so the very heavy dark bottom wouldn’t impact the chart too much. Once pasted, remember that you can play with the levels to intensify or mute the impact of the mask on the element.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Here’s a close up to show you the subtle effect the texture brings.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Next, we’ll take care of the badge outline. Let’s locate and paste Cruzine’s screentexture26.jpg in the mask, from their flyer photo overlay pack.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Here’s what the texture looks like.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

And here’s a close-up of its effect.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

The last element we have to weather is the star burst. I used photocopy-noise-textures-sbh-005.jpg from The Shop’s photocopy noise texture pack. I’ve sized the texture to cover the whole mask, and inverted it before playing with levels just a bit.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

The effect of this one is a more visible, especially from up close.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

STEP 5: FRAMING THE PIECE

After looking through some of the other Make Design Co. resources, I spotted this simple ornament in the CreativeMarket_Curls&Banners4_Master.ai file.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

After pasting it four times in my document, change the elements’ color to white, and flipped it around a few times, I made a rudimentary frame with it. You can see the elements highlighted in yellow below below.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Here’s a close-up of one of the corbers, so you can see how it’s aligned compared to the rulers (still highlighted in yellow).

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Keeping the frame white makes it very subtle to the eye. It encloses the piece, yet still lets it breathe.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

The finishing touch for the frame was to give it its own layer group, to give this layer group a layer mask, and to paste photocopy-noise-textures-sbh-005.jpg in it. The texture was sized slightly bigger than the canvas, and rotated of 180°.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

STEP SIX: TYING THE PIECE TOGETHER WITH A LAST TEXTURE PASS

This is the last leg! In order to fully tie the piece together, I used a few more textures. I followed the same process than earlier: placing the texture, sizing it appropriately, desaturated it, and played with levels.

The first texture I’ve used here is Cruzine’s texture20.jpg from the flyer photo overlays series. It fills the whole canvas.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Its blend mode is set to Soft light @ 35% opacity.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Next on the list os The Shop’s metal-dumpster-textures-012-sbh.jpg from the metal dumpster texture pack. It covers the whole piece, and has had its levels altered quite aggressively. I like the “paint smears vibe” this texture can give.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Once put on Soft light @ 25% opacity, it helps to darken the piece and its mood quite nicely.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Next, and from the same pack, is metal-dumpster-textures-044-sbh.jpg. I simply placed, sized, and sharpened the texture a bit. I didn’t touch its color or contrast at all. Once set to Soft light @ 25% opacity, it brings just enough of its rust and blue hues to the piece to make it look a bit dirty or dusty.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

Our next to last texture is photocopy-noise-textures-sbh-005.jpg. Its job is to add some subtle artifacts to the piece.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

I placed it on Screen @ 50% opacity.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

And finally, the icing on the cake: a subtle halftone effect. I’m quite a sucker for these, and was super happy to see that the bundle gives us quite a few great options to choose from.

After some tinkering, I used Ghostly Pixels’ Texture-01.png from the halftone textures series. I used the PNG version because it’s faster to manipulate, but the EPS would work just as well. Since the texture isn’t very visible on the piece, I’ve highlighted it in yellow again.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

After placing it to cover the whole document, sharpening it, and inverting it, I used color dodge @ 25% opacity to fade it “just enough” with the piece.

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

And we’re done! If you feel so inclined, mock your new piece up:

Retro poster design with the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle

I hope you had as much fun going through this tutorial as I had writing it. I hope this convinced you of the incredible potential of the numerous resources included in the Ultimate Vintage and Retro Design Bundle.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Share them below in the comments! I’ll be watching for the next few days. Or tweet at me, @simonhartmann.

Until next time, cheers!