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Home»Abstract»Design a Grunge-Style Abstract Typography with Rusted Metal Texture in Photoshop
Abstract

Design a Grunge-Style Abstract Typography with Rusted Metal Texture in Photoshop

By James QuFebruary 27, 20095 Mins Read
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In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to make a Grungy-Style Abstract Typography using rusted metal texture in Photoshop. The inspiration of this tutorial came from a grungy metal image I came across on stockvault.net and thought I could have a play with it :)

Together we will explore some layer blending techniques, variuos filter effects, and an interesting method of making the text look 3D. Have a go!

Here is a preview of the final image: (click to enlarge)

grungy-poster-typo-final-2

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OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Download a copy of this grungy image from stockvault.net and load it into Photoshop. We will use it as the background of this poster.

Rotate the canvas by 90 degree CW by going into Image > Rotate Canvas > 90 degree CW:

1-rotate-canvas

We can add a bit of noise on the background image and make it look more grungy. To do this, duplicate the background layer and go to Filter > Noise > Dust & Scratches and apply the following settings:

1-dust-and-scratch

Change the layer blending option to “Overlay” and you will have the following effect:

1-effect1

Step 2

Duplicate the “Background copy” layer once, go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen and apply the following settings:

2-sharpen

2-sha-shadow

2-highlight

Keep the layer blending mode as “overlay” and you will have the following effect:

2-effect5

Step 3

Duplicate the “Background copy 2” layer once and go to Filter > Stylize > Glowing edge and apply the following settings:

3-glowing-edge

Keep the layer blending option as “overlay” and you will see the following effect:

3-effect5

Then hit Ctrl + Shift + Alt + B and bring up the Black and White adjustment Tool, apply the following settings:

3-bw1

And you will have the following effect:

3-effect-2

Step 4

Duplicate the “Background Copy 3” layer once, change the blending option of the duplicated layer to “Screen” and you have the following effect:

4-blend

To create a bit of colour depth, we apply the Black and White adjustments to this layer (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B) with the following settings:

4-bw1

4-effect6

Step 5

Still on the previous layer, grab the Eraser Tool with a big soft round brush, erase the area where covering the yellow/golden part:

5-erase

Change the layer blending option to “Color” and you will have the following effect:

5-effect7

Go back to the “Background copy 3” layer, again use the Eraser Tool with a big soft brush to erase the centre portion of the image:

5-erase-2

Step 6

Now let’s add some text onto the background texture. Download a copy of this font and type some text onto the canvas:

6-type

When you’re happy with the text, rasterize it and change its layer blending mode to “Hard Light”.  Apply the following layer blending options:

Drop Shadow:

6-drop-shadow

Bevel and Emboss:

6-bevel

Texture

6-texture

Gradient Overlay:

6-gradient

And you will have the following effect:

6-effect5

Duplicate the text layer 7-8 times, keep the blending mode of each layer as “hard light”, and you will have a deeper text effect as a result:

6-effect-2

Merge those duplicated layers together and name the merge layer as “Text”.

Step 7

Change the blend mode of the text layer to “Hard light”, duplicate it once again and apply the following Gaussian Blur filter on the duplicated layer:

7-gau-blur

After applying the Blur filter, duplicate this layer once more. On the duplicated layer, add a White colour overlay blending option as shown below:

7-white-colour

Then on this layer, use the Eraser Tool to gently eraser some part of the text, by doing so you can create a uneven lighting effect and make the text look 3D:

7-effect5

Step 8

To a bit of extra flavor to the image, we can add a new layer called “cloud” in between the text and the background texture layer, use the Lasso Tool with 40px feather to make a selection around the text and render some cloud inside:

8-cloud1

To make the cloud look a bit uneven, we can simply duplicate the existing cloud layer once and set the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “hard light”.

Here is the effect so far:

8-effect3

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! You can of course add some of your own texture or filter effect and see what the end results are!

Here is my final result for this tutorial: (I add a bit of radial blur, and adjusted the colour balance a bit)

grungy-poster-typo-final-2

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

blending dark effect grungy text texture
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James Qu
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James is a seasoned Photoshop expert with over 25 years of experience, mastering the software since its 5.0 version. As the driving force behind PSD Vault, he authors the majority of its in-depth tutorials and insightful articles.

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41 Comments

  1. Stewart on February 27, 2009 5:23 AM

    I”m a fan of your work right now, good job on this tutorial. Can I ask you how you got the final image to look like that; with radial and color balance? Do i make a new layer or no? plz help :)

  2. Stewart on February 27, 2009 5:38 AM

    Are you sure the step 4 for the black and white adjustment is correct mine look a little darker, I think the yellow needs to be like 70?

  3. hieronymus on February 27, 2009 7:11 PM

    Again another amazing tutorial to get some insperation for some new art work. Cheers dude…

  4. psaddict on February 27, 2009 7:55 PM

    Added to Psaddict

  5. Mabuc on February 28, 2009 2:35 AM

    That is beautiful, very nice artwork. Thank you for sharing this one

  6. joyoge designers' bookmark on February 28, 2009 11:32 PM

    nice effect tut. thanks..

  7. Escapade on March 1, 2009 8:26 AM

    Heya. I’m really a fan of you and probably read most of your tuts, but I have a question… how much do you change the color to get it green and kinda spooky like that? Cheers.

  8. Escapade on March 1, 2009 9:02 AM

    Wait, think I fixed it.. would a new layer, with a radial gradient of dark green/blue, then overlay on the layer style work?

  9. admin on March 1, 2009 11:10 AM

    yeah, another method is to make a duplicate of the background layer, then use the colour balance adjustments on the duplicated layer, give it a dark blue/yellow adjustments, and change the blending mode to overlay.

  10. logo design guru on March 3, 2009 5:44 AM

    that looks very cool. thanks for the interesting tutorial. great background texture. thanks.

  11. Nadia on March 6, 2009 8:44 AM

    Wow, that’s a great effect! Thx! <3

  12. Brochures on April 2, 2009 11:37 AM

    That is soooo cool! Excellent texture and lighting effects! Your online tutorials are some of the most creative, useful, and really good ones I’ve come across. Great, great work! Congratulations!

  13. james on April 8, 2009 8:43 AM

    Can u please make me one because i need one for my banner website but i cannt do it as good….
    my email is klankaos2k@yahoo.com
    thanks

  14. photo retouching on May 11, 2009 5:13 AM

    Another really great tut. Please don`t stop submitting!

  15. huwaw69 on May 11, 2009 5:24 PM

    great effect, and great image output…

  16. Piercezilla on May 31, 2009 6:15 AM

    When adding the clouds how did you get the blacks. The clouds only come in as white and wash the whole background out.

  17. minisite Design on June 23, 2009 8:10 PM

    Nice tutorial man! thank you very much!

    http://www.myminisitegraphic.com

  18. Web Tasarım Grafik Tasarım on September 12, 2009 2:38 AM

    this, very thank you..

    Your site full professional and very beautiful…

  19. oggi on December 5, 2009 5:51 AM

    2 hours ..
    finnally finish ^^

  20. Webby Design Guru on February 2, 2010 4:33 AM

    Interesting creative work! Great effects

  21. reuben on February 25, 2010 11:42 AM

    hee great tut man!
    ive been following your tutorials lately and they are fantastic!
    i have a question though which pattern do you use with the texture elements?(im a newbie in PS)

    keep up the good work!

  22. reuben on February 25, 2010 11:45 AM

    forget the question i already figured it out LOL:P

    Thankss Again

  23. reuben on February 25, 2010 12:06 PM

    @Piercezilla
    check your foreground/background color
    make the forground dark grey and background color black or something just fool around with it till you get something you like;)

    greetz

  24. PrintSafari on March 6, 2010 2:29 AM

    Need your photoshop artwork printed? We are an online printing company based in Canada and the US.If you want your designs printed in high quality offset, please check out http://www.PrintSafari.com. We offer a wide range of printing products at very good prices.Have a nice one!

  25. henri on April 18, 2010 11:16 PM

    thank you.good tutorial.love it so much.

  26. Wendy on June 3, 2010 12:13 PM

    The grungy feel is sick! It looks really good in the final design. I’ve been trying to design a textual logo somewhat like this for myself for a project I’m working on and it did not come out as what I hope it would! I didn’t manage to get it looking right like yours did. In the end, I decided to use the professional services of an online logo design site instead (http://www.logodesignstation.com) and got the logo I wanted at an affordable price and fast too, within24 hours. I did provide this link for reference and inspiration to my designer as I liked how yours look. I’m not going to design a logo without any professional help anytime soon although it’s fun and stress-relieving. Haha. Thanks for posting this, by the way.

  27. CJ on June 23, 2010 7:56 AM

    great looking grunge. I did a bunch of vector textures a while back for a t-shirt company.

  28. icy on July 2, 2010 11:21 AM

    great job but i cant understand

    before step 5 the last adjustments of the black and white
    i cant find a preset of a none

    help plz

  29. airjordan on July 20, 2010 9:59 PM

    It’s so lucky for me to find your blog! So shocking and great!

  30. texture plus on July 26, 2010 3:39 PM

    great tutorial!..

  31. mma lessons on October 4, 2010 4:21 PM

    very good tutorial, being a graphic designer myself there’s so much to learn, its umlimited, bookmarked for future reference :)

  32. Sasa on December 19, 2010 10:20 PM

    hmmm.good photo

  33. logo design on January 8, 2011 5:38 PM

    Good tips you discussed it is really need to keep in mind. Thanks for it.

  34. Cleveland Web Design on March 15, 2011 3:46 PM

    Thanks for your help and guidance i really appreciate your work .

  35. Arifur Rahman on June 23, 2011 2:18 AM

    This is an awesome design I’ve ever seen. Nice post. Thanks for sharing

  36. addy80 on July 2, 2011 10:23 PM

    wonderful post..its relay awesome tutorial..!

  37. Razvan on July 24, 2011 6:13 AM

    what is the texture u add at the text?

  38. Custom Logo Design on December 21, 2011 3:16 PM

    Nice design work and its look good. Completely awesome!! 

  39. Kieffer Sutherland on January 11, 2012 7:19 PM

    Wow nice design and this is so awesome man

  40. Elena Gilbert on January 11, 2012 7:25 PM

    I love it <3

  41. Web Development on February 20, 2012 8:57 PM

    thanks buddy where can i find work just like that for Corel Draw 

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