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Create a Cool Music Logo on a Grunge Background

In Designing by Kyle Pero

I really like the artwork that is used in Pitchfork's website; So, I decided to re-create something similar in Photoshop, and make a tutorial on how I did it. These techniques can be used to make a logo and background for a cool grunge style website.

Step 1

Make a new document that is 1500px wide and 1000 px height. I decided to make the document extra large for use to work with; So, we can see the effects really well. With the Text tool set your text in a font that looks similar to the image below. I used the font Blackoak STD. Kern and scale the font as you desire.

Step 2

Load the transparency of the text layer by clicking on the layer's Thumbnail while holding (Command). Go Select>Refine Edge. We want to expand the selection and keep it sharp at the same time. To do this, use the settings below. Make a Solid Color Adjustment Layer below the text layer and fill it with a Dark Gray.

Step 3

While holding (Option/Alt) drag the gray layer in the Layer Palette down slightly until you see a thick black line below it. This will duplicate the layer below the original. Grab the Move Tool (V). Then hit the Down Arrow once and the Left Arrow once. Repeat this step 25 times.

Select all the gray layers and hit (Command+E) to merge them. Duplicate the merged layer once. Then manually drag the new one down and to the left until it lines up correctly. Merge the two gray layers into one.

image

Step 4

Use the Ellipse Tool whole holding (Shift) to create a perfect circle. Make sure the Create Paths button checked on the property bar. Make a Solid Color Adjustment Layer below the Gray layer and fill it with the same Gray. Duplicate the circle layer and change the fill to White. Hit (Command+T) to use Free Transform. While holding (Shift+Option/Alt) scale it down to about 75 percent. Place it where you see fit.

image

Step 5

Select the Line Tool. Again, make sure that Create Paths is checked on the Property Bar. Set the weight to 60px. While holding (Shift) make a line that is angled 45 degrees. With the path you made selected make a Solid Color Adjustment Layer and fill it with a Burnt Orange Color.

Duplicate that layer and hit (Command+T) and then Right Click and select Flip Horizontal.

image

Step 6

Select the orange line layers and go Layer>Group Layers. With the group selected hit the Add Layer Mask button and create a mask. Hit it another time to make a vector mask. Select the vector mask from the white circle layer. Hit (Command+C) to copy. Select the vector mask on the "lines" group then hit (Command+V) to paste. Hit (Command+T) and scale down the path slightly; so, there is a little space between the path and the edge of the gray circle.

Select the transparency of the gray lettering. Go Select>Transform Selection. Move the selection up and to the right slightly so the distance between the "e" and the selection is the same as the white gap we just created. Select the mask of the orange lines group. Fill the selection with black to mask it out.

Step 7

Create a new Alpha Channel in the Channels Palette. Go Filter>Render>Clouds. Hit (Command+T) and scale the clouds up to about 180 percent. Load the selection of the Channel by holding (Command) and clicking on its Thumbnail. In the Layers Palette create a new solid Color Adjustment Layer just above the backgound. Make the fill 50 percent Gray (#808080). Blur the cloud mask with a 30px Gaussian Blur.

Just above that layer create a Gradient Adjustment Layer and set up the gradient to go from Transparent from the top-left to White at the bottom-right.

image

Step 8

Just above the clouds layer make a Curves Adjustment Layer that looks like the image below. Invert the mask so that the curve is not visible.

Step 9

Now we are going to load some grungy looking brushes that we can paint the curve back in with. I used the spray paint texture brushes from Spoon Graphics: Free Hi-Res Spraypaint Photoshop Brushes Set Two.

Load the brushes and select the one you want. Click on the Curves Layer Mask, make sure your foreground color is White, and set the Opacity of the brush to 50 percent. Set up your brush with the following Shape Dynamics in the image below. The Size Jitter and the Angle Jitter are the things that you want at 100 percent.

Step 10

Now just click around a few times until you get an effect that you like.

Step 11

Finally, lets put the color into this thing. Make a Solid Color Adjustment layer above the clouds, the curve, and the White gradient. Make the Fill a Cyan/Blue Color. Set the layer's Blending Mode to Color.

Step 12

I know we have added a lot of layers so below is what my Layer Palette looks like for comparison.

Step 13

Select the Gray lettering Layer's Transparency by holding (Command) and clicking on its Thumbnail. Go Select>Transform Selection and Scale it up 250-350 percent. You can also offset its position if you want to. Make a Curves Adjustment Layer just above the color layer and bring up the brightness a little, like the image below.

Step 14

Do the same thing with the Orange line layers. On the Curve layer that you made for the Orange lines, we are going to fade the edges out. While holding (Option/Alt) click on the layer's mask. Grab the Gradient Tool (G). Have the Gradient go from a Black to White fade, set the mode to Multiply on the property bar, and make it a Radial Gradient. Drag from the center of the 'X' to the edge. This will make it fade out.

image

Final Image

Now place the 'X' where you see fit and you're done!

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Comments

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  1. Interesting effects but not a very impressive result.

  2. … I like the background :-)

  3. Great Tutorial!

    Thanks

  4. Nice tutorial :) Might have a go!!

  5. nice ideas…
    thanks for sharing!

  6. Hmmm… Pretty interesting I might say. :D

    Great one. Keep them coming.

  7. I cant find “Refine Edge” In CS2.

  8. nice

  9. Holy sh*t this is so nice tutorial !
    PSDTUTS i love you !

  10. Gravatar

    Jakub Švehla

    There’s the better way to do the gray border around the text. Select the layer with the text and hold down Ctr+Alt+T and then move it 1 px left and down (hit the Down and Left Arrow). Then hit Ctr+Alt+Shift+T for 25 times.
    P.S.: Excuse my bad english, I’m from Czech :)

  11. Gravatar

    Jakub Švehla

    I have forgotten: Between holding Ctr+Alt+T and Ctr+Alt+Shift+T you have to hold down enter :)

  12. Nice typo style :)

  13. Cool, try it out lateron, thanks

  14. en verdad un muy buen resultado….. lo tendre q probar…. :D

  15. sweet.. the basketball game was getting boring…

    Swany

  16. This is great! I’m bookmarking this!

  17. Awesome, great logo

  18. Photoshop never fails to surprise me, Great Tut!! :o)

  19. Lumedia? Sounds like a disease XD

    Great tutorial.

  20. thanx a lot

    it is terrific~

  21. Cool tutorial. Thank you.

  22. Nice tut though wouldn’t this be much easier in illustrator?

  23. i like the way u put the cross behind the logo… great work!!

  24. For Step 3, alternatively:-

    I. you could load the text selection by clicking on the thumbnail of the text layer using (OPT/ALT).

    II. Then, create a new layer, and use the Selection Tool (U), and ensure that it is under the ‘New Selection’ mode, so that you can actually nudge the empty selection of the text in the new layer.

    III. Then, nudge it by moving 1 px to the right, and 1 down. After which, fill the selection with the color of your choice (ALT+DEL would fill the selection with the current background color).

    IV. Repeat step (III) as many times as needed to create the same effect as that stated in Step 3 of this tutorial.

    Hope this info is useful to all… =)

  25. I would say, make the logo in illustrator and then bring it to photoshop.
    Where you make your background

  26. Some nice techniques here.

  27. Fireworks would have made it much easier to do this logo. But great I idea on the background and very inspirational, thanks!

  28. cool… except the “copy 25x the layers”… it can be done much more easier, cleaner, faster in illustrator with the 3d tool.

  29. Another great tutorial, thanks :D

  30. well, have to say, nothing new

  31. So we probably need AITUTS.com, what? ;)

    Great tutorial

  32. hmm not the best tu on this homepage !

    Its a tut for noobs ! more creativity !!!

  33. very nice one! congrats!

  34. Ma non credi che ci siano troppi livelli?

    There are so many levels…

  35. Gravatar

    capowned!

    I don’t really like thisone. the grunge and the logo style aren’t compatible and the logo itself is too simple. sorry!

  36. Nice tutorial - thanks for posting.

  37. nothing new, sorry :-)

  38. Hmmm. Like the look - lots of techniques, but they aren’t all in a similar style. Nice tutorial, but the logo would be better in Illustrator and the O with an X in it would look better if it was in the same style as the text (with the retro-shadow).

    I’m sire there is an easier way to do the retro-shadow look in PS with layer styles.

    I will experiment and report back!

    Isaac

  39. Hmm, you can use a Drop Shadow with an 100% range, then addo on a mask, but that’s just as difficult. Still much easier with Illustrator - why use Photoshop for this unless you don’t have Illustrator?

    Isaac

  40. Good tutorial. I think i might be using a grungy style somewhat similar to this in an on-going project of mine.

  41. awesome tut. Too bad pitchfork is full of the most elitest, self-indulgent music snobs on the web.

  42. This is a good tutorial, though reading through the comments I kept thinking: This is not a fireworks/illustrator tutorial site. Hence “PS” (Photoshop). Thus; Photoshop Tutorials ! Granted I can probably do this a lot faster if i hired someone to do it …. you see what I mean? There’s always better, faster and more accesiable ways to do things..but for those who want to do it themselves and in —-photoshop—- then this is what these tutorials are for.

    :)

  43. I would agree with above comments about how this tutorial should not really be all Photoshop and how the techniques really aren’t all that interesting. Only thing good about this tutorial was the masking of a curves layer using grunge brushes, rather than painting with the grunge brushes and setting to multiply.

    As for techniques, the duplicating the layer 25 times is ridiculously stupid. Obviously Illustrator and it’s Extrude effect would do this in about a second. If you insist on doing it in Photoshop, the easy way is the following…

    1) Create a single gray layer as instructed. Then hit Ctrl+Alt+T or Cmd+Opt+T to do Free Transform. However, throwing in that Alt/Opt key instructs PS that we want a copy.
    2) With Free Transform open, simply move the shape down one and left one. Then hit enter to accept the transformation.
    3) You’ll see that this layer has been duplicated and move. Now, simply press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T or Cmd+Shift+Opt+T, 23 more times. Each time you do so, you reapply the last transformation, which in our case was duplicating the layer and moving it.

  44. I love only text and object. The text effect is good.

  45. Too simple.

  46. This might have also been done using the extrude filter if Photoshop. It would give you some more options as well as giving you a smoother transition between the text.

  47. not a great result but i learned many thing from it :)

  48. I cant find the refine edge tool…. :/ maybe cause i’m a complete noob with fotoshop xD

  49. decent tutorial I love the grundge effect it is defo back in full effect.

  50. Hi Juntje,

    Press “Strg+Alt+R” to find the Refine Edge Tool ;-)

    Daniel

  51. I love grundge - web 2.o is thing of the past

  52. I’m no noob at photoshop, but just cant find the Color Adjustment Layer you talk about in step 7. I never used this before, and i’m not sure what it does, so i can replace it with a diffrent technique that i know, and has the same effect :P

    Can anyone help me?

    Steffy

  53. I believe Refine Edge is only in CS3, if I’m not mistaken.

  54. Use photoshop ‘actions’ it’ll save a lot of time, otherwise great tut

  55. great work keep it coming. this kinda stuff inspires us nwebies

  56. Not everyone has Illustrator. Some people may only own Photoshop … a creative way to create an extrude effect, when you don’t have another tool to create it for you. A creative way to not let an application hinder the creative process.

    If you don’t like all the layers then merge them afterward.

  57. cool logo tutorial :-)

  58. Nice idea for a logo, I like the Grunge background.
    It definitely seems the new standard for web design in 2008 :P

  59. and you have time to hit 25 times!? thats why i prefer illustrator , work there and copy paste…

  60. nice tuturial i nlove everything grudgey - the grudge effect has really taken off and is in full effect

  61. I found this tut frustrating and annoying becuase it was catered for people with CS3 and for people working with a Mac.

  62. Always good to see real life examples.

    For more of this why not look at the original at http://www.pitchforkmedia.com

  63. abit too simple for PSDtuts but ok nonetheless

  64. it’s a simple one, but thanks anyway i like the background.

  65. i need this logo in .psd file. please somebody to send the psd file

  66. Gravatar

    Jimi_xxl

    Veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy GoooD

    Beautiful Design

    GooD Luck My Friend

  67. Nice logo :)

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