Design an Awesome Geometric Shaped Typography with Grungy Background in Photoshop

Posted on September 25th, 2009 under Text Effects, it has 70 Comments and 59,400 Views so far.

In this tutorial, I will show the processes involved in designing and creating this really cool, Geometric Shaped Typography with Grungy Background in Photoshop. This is a simple tutorial yet the effect looks awesome, have a try!

Along the way, I will also give you some tricks that you can use for creating awesome lighting and smoky effect to spice up your design.

The techniques involved in creating this typo include layer blending, filter effects, image adjustments and custom brushsets. Hope you enjoy it!

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

PSD File for this Tutorial

You can have this PSD File for only $2.00 via Paypal! Click the link below and you will be taken to the Paypal checkout page, after payment you will be redirect to the download page automatically.

OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Font

Brushset

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200 * 1700px, fill the background layer with black colour. Create a new layer on top of it and grab the brushset we just downloaded and paint some grungy texture as shown below:

1 effect

The trick here is to set your brush flow and opacity to a reletively low level, both around 30% – 40%, and vary the brushset size when you paint. Also don’t stick with one brushset, try mixing different ones together and see what result that brings you.

If you want to skip this step, you can simply download a copy of this background texture here.

Now we want to make a space for our text and create some depth for the image. To do so, on the texture layer, add the following layer mask to it:

1 mask

To adjust the lighting contrast a bit, we can add a Curves adjustment layer on top of all previous layers:

1 curves

and here is the effect so far:

1 effect 2

Step 2

Use the font we download before, type and position the text as shown below: (Use a dark gray colour as font colour)

2 type

Tips: type the texts on seperate layers, use the free transform tool (Ctrl + T) to rotate and fit them together.

Once you’re happy with the position, rasterise and merge those text layers and apply the following layer blending option to the merged layer:

Drop Shadow

2 drop sha

Bevel and Emboss

2 bevel

Gradient Overlay

2 gradient

and you will have the following effect:

2 effect

Now we’re in the fun part of this tutorial – Duplicate this merged text layer five times, and set each layer’s opacity as shown below:

2 type opacity

Use your up and right arrow key on your keyboard, repeatly type them until each layer seperates from each other and form this effect as shown below:

2 effect 2

Step 3

Load the selection of the last text layer (hold ctrl + left-click the thumbnail image of that text layer on the layer pallette), and apply the following refine edge settings:

refine edge

Maintain the selection, create a new layer called “cloud” and render some cloud in it: (Black and White colour)

3 render cloud

Duplicate this cloud layer three times, and drag the last text layer on top of the duplicated cloud layer, you will have the following effect:

3 drag layer up

Duplicate the cloud layer twice, and drag the two layers on top of text layer, change their blending mode to “overlay” and you will have the following effect:

3 effect 2

Step 4

Now we can add some colours onto the image to spice it up a bit. To do this, I simply create a new layer called “colour 1″ on top of all previous layers, and grab a big soft round brush and select some colour I like to paint over it:

4 paint

Change the blending mode of this layer to “overlay”.

I also want to highlight the edge of the grungy background, so I add another layer called “colour 2″ and grab a brown colour brush to paint around the edges:

4 paint 2

Set the blending mode of this layer to “colour dodge”.

You can also highlight some part of the text, simply create another layer called “highlight” and grab a white soft round, big size brush and paint over desired area:

4 paint 3

Change thie blending mode of this layer to “soft light”.

For final refinement, I added two adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Curves

4 curves

Colour balance

4 col bal

Apply the following mask to the colour balance adjustment layer:

4 mask col bal

Overall, you will have the following effect:

4 effect

Ok that’s pretty much it for this tutorial! Of course this doesn’t stop you from enhancing it and put it some your own creativity to it.

I further added some lines and apply some of this brushset around the edge of the text.

Here is my final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tut! Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful and inspirational! Cheers and have a great day!

Kevin Says:
Dumb question, but how do I add the layer mask to the texture layer (step1)?
James Says:
@kevin: you can go to layer > layer mask > Reveal All, or you can click the “add layer mask” button (a symbol has a circle inside a rectangle) on the layer palette.
Hope this helps “)
Kevin Says:
@James, I appreciate your reply. Though, I still don’t get it. Once I did that, what do I need to do then? Nothing seems to happen to the grungetexture after I clicked Reveale All.
James Says:
@Kevin: after you add the layer mask and reveal all, click on the mask you just added, grab the eraser tool with a soft brush setting, erase the centre portion of the grungy texture.

Again Hope this helps.
Kevin Says:
If I do that, the grunge layer becomes transperant and the black background shows up. that looks not like the picture shown in the tutorial. gosh, i guess should start learning more basics first. ;)

Picture: http://i35.tinypic.com/3504hfq.png
Santa Says:
Awesome tutorial, well explained, had no troubles. Thanks man
Ani Samuel Says:
Wooow! this is great. have been looking for something like this for the past months. thanks for shering. looking forward for your next tuts
James Says:
@Kevin: I had a look at your screenshot – the layer mask wasn’t added, and the brush size you chose is too small. Try using a larger, soft round brush.

For layer mask basic, you have a look at this doc here:

http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/10.0/help.html?content=WS53F74E51-AED7-4f75-A1E3-7285F83FD96C.html

Hope this helps!
Taji Says:
I have cs2 and not cs 3 so i am stuck on step 3
hedda Says:
That was fun – thanks for the tut! :)
James Says:
@Taji: cs2 can still achieve similar effect without the refine edge. You can make a selection around the text using Lasso Tool, and set its feather according the one shown on Step 3 refine edge, and render the cloud inside the selection.

Once you render the cloud, perhaps use the free transform tool to adjust it a bit to fit the size of the text layer.

Hope this helps
Angad Says:
Hey!

Thanks for a brilliant tutorial. I tried to go for a radial blur instead of clouds. Here’s The End Result.

http://i34.tinypic.com/16bkj9k.jpg

Keep up the good work :)
dotndot Says:
Wonderful post…Great share.
Taji Says:
thank you so much that did help!
Johnson Koh Says:
Very colorful and interesting effect. Nicely done!
Dwayne Says:
i’m using cs4. . when i hold ctrl + left click the thumbnail to refine edges. . refine edges doesn’t show up. any help?
Kidgico Says:
After you ctrl+left click the thumbnail go to select refine edge for the window or press alt+ctrl+R for the shortcut.
salek Says:
i dont get the layer mask thing….when i erase it the checkered background comes into view.
James Says:
@salek: you can add the layer mask from the layer palette, there is a small button on the bottom and says “add layer mask” and click on it, then click on the thumbnail of the mask you just added, use the eraser tool to erase the portion you would like to hide.
Hope this helps :)
CWill 78 Says:
very nice heres my version

[IMG]http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c221/akuma007/deviant%20art/GrungeWallpaper.jpg[/IMG]
tutorial blog Says:
very nice. Thank for share
teuingsaha Says:
It`s a great tutorials . I have made it but in the others version .

Thanks for sharing .
Tigerclaw Says:
i failed alot <_< didnt even bother to retry cuz if i dont get it on the first try i will bever do it
Onfinay Says:
THX nice Tut. !!
Onfinay Says:
My version =)
[IMG]http://img5.imagebanana.com/img/q13657/wallpaperremake.jpg[/IMG]
MAtt Says:
Dude, this was a great tutorial, and amazing looking effect, I am going to probably use it on my bands next myspace layout. Thanks a ton.
Alvaro Says:
THANK U so much!!!! The best tutorial I’ve found today :D
Rikke Says:
can one person be so kind and take a screenshot of everything he / she dos in step 3?
everything is just wrong when I do it …
Pleas help me .
Drknzz Says:
Well really cool tut, but i couldn’t understand this:

“Now we want to make a space for our text and create some depth for the image. To do so, on the texture layer, add the following layer mask to it”

How do i embed an image into a mask? O.o

Still, made the mask all by myselft, and here’s my result :D

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/5273/drknzzprototype.png
Bill Pope Says:
Fantastic tutorial, thanks very much for taking the time and trouble to prepare this for us…………did my own, now adorns my desktop ! : )

This is mine, by the way……….

[IMG]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o58/encee_2006/abstract.jpg[/IMG]
Michiel Says:
Very nice tut, one of the best i ever do (in effects).

Here is my result: http://yfrog.com/jbtekstdinges2j
R10 Says:
very good tutorial, it would be very good if you give me a free PSD copy
Tips Menulis Online Says:
Thanks. very very very nice. i’m gonna try it.
José Gomes Says:
Great Tutorial

But for some reason Refine Edge is not working for me…
Im using CS4 and refine edge like you explained just makes the whole image black, and does nothing