Last weekend I was enjoying myself wandering around the stalls at a classic car show admiring
a collection of vintage automotive signs, which featured various lubricant and fluid
brands on old rusty metal plates.
It has taken over 70s years to slowly decay those tin advertisements into vintage memorabilia,
but they gave me the idea to use the aesthetic to create our own rusty sign effect using
Illustrator and Photoshop.
Follow along with today's tutorial to produce a simple motor oil brand sign with a 50s inspired
design, using type and colours that are based on authentic examples.
We'll use Illustrator to construct the design for its powerful shape and text editing tools,
then we'll transfer the artwork over to Photoshop to distress it using a rusty metal texture.
I'll show you how a simple layer mask trick can instantly take your crisp digital design
and give it a realistic weathered patina look.
new document.
I'm just using a basic A4 artboard, but you might want to enter specific dimensions if
you're creating your own print.
Grab the rectangle tool to draw a shape that covers the artboard to act as a background.
It's so much easier to find the corner of the artboard if you have Smart Guides enabled
from under the View menu.
Click and drag the shape to the opposite corner.
By default shapes have a white fill and black stroke, so in the toolbar, clear out the stroke,
then double click the fill block to choose a new colour.
You can find some great inspiration for 30s-40s-50-60s era automotive memorabilia on Google and Pinterest,
which can help you come up with colour scheme, type and layout ideas.
My background colour is going to be a subdued indigo.
Draw another rectangle that forms a stripe across the artboard.
Edit the fill block to alter its colour.
Rather than choosing pure white, an off-white with a hint of yellow gives the design more
of an antique look.
Using the Selection tool, select both the stripe and the background shape while holding
the Shift key, then give the background an extra click to make it the key object.
In the Align panel, choose Vertical Align Center to move the shape into the middle.
Click anywhere on the area beyond the artboard to deselect, then select just the stripe shape.
Go to Object > Transform > Shear.
Choose Vertical, then enter -5 degrees to add a slightly diagonal angle to the stripe.
Grab the rectangle tool again and draw another shape that covers the lower portion of the
background.
Change the fill to a dark green, or whatever colour palette you've chosen.
Right click and choose Arrange > Send Backward to place this shape underneath the stripe,
or use the CMD+[ shortcut, or CTRL and [ on Windows.
Use the Text tool to lay out the name of your fictional automotive brand.
I'm using McQueen, set in a script font available on Adobe Fonts named CornerStore.
Scale the text to fit within the stripe, then apply the same Shear adjustment so the angle
matches.
Select both the text and the background shape, giving the background an extra click to make
it the key object so it doesn't move out of place, then align the text centrally.
Add more text elements using a complementary sans-serif.
Brandon Grotesque has a geometric style that is common in advertisements of the era.
Set the fill colour to the same colour used in the stripe by sampling it with the Eyedropper
tool.
Scale the text to suit the layout, then align it centrally.
Rather than make the background shape the key object, you could also change the settings
of the Align panel to align relative to the Artboard.
With the Selection tool active, hold the ALT key and drag a copy of the text element.
Place it in the lower portion of the layout and alter the wording.
This simple layout has the visual style of an old advertisement sign, but it needs to
decay over decades to achieve the natural patina of authentic vintage memorabilia.
Thankfully, we can simulate the look in just a few clicks digitally.
It is possible to create rust effect using various filters, but the best result comes
from using the real thing by finding a rust texture photograph.
There's loads of stock photos of dumpsters and other grungy metal surfaces with flaking
paint and various levels of decay.
If you're watching this tutorial within the first week, there's currently a great 99%
discount on a Textures and Patterns bundle at Design Cuts.
The texture file I'm using in this tutorial is an asset from that collection, so I'll
put a link in the description for you to pick it up yourself.
There's loads of other useful texture resources in there too!
While Illustrator was perfect for constructing the design, Photoshop is much better suited
to working with raster images and effects.
Draw a selection across everything in Illustrator, then hit CMD+C to Copy.
Open up your rusty metal texture in Adobe Photoshop, then press CMD+V to Paste.
Choose Pixels, then scale the artwork to fit over the texture before hitting Enter.
Toggle off the visibility of the artwork layer for a moment by clicking the eyeball icon
next to the layer.
Switch over to the Channels panel, then click each Red, Green and Blue channel in turn to
find the one where the rusty parts are the darkest and have the most contrast against
the painted area.
Since this particular texture has a blue surface, the blue channel is the best.
Hold the CMD key and click on the channel thumbnail to make a selection.
Click the RGB channel to bring all three channels back to show the full colour image, then switch
back to the layers panel.
Turn back on the visibility of the artwork layer, then apply a Layer Mask, this will
automatically use the selection we've just made of the rusty areas.
To adjust the mask, use the CMD+L shortcut to open the Levels window.
Move the Shadows and Highlights sliders to alter the contrast, This helps you to bring
back some of the colour in the non-rusty areas, or make the rust expand further into the design.
The mask erases the areas where there is rust, but because this texture has a bright blue
area, that colour is showing through onto our custom artwork.
Turn off the visibility of the artwork layer, then select the Background.
Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above it.
Click the pointer icon in the Properties panel, then click on a blue portion and drag to the
left to desaturate this colour sample.
Turn back on the visibility of the artwork to see the blue colour cast has been eliminated.
The final result is a rusty sign effect that looks like it has been naturally decaying
over decades.
The use of a real rust texture ensures the effect looks as realistic as possible.
If you enjoyed this tutorial or learnt any new tricks, a thumbs up to help recommend
the video would be really appreciated.
Subscribe to stick around for more tutorials for Illustrator and Photoshop, and be sure
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As always thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.