Create Retro Badge in Photoshop

From this Photoshop tutorial you will learn how to create simple Retro Style Badge with the help of Tree Bark Texture applied on the Background and Waffle and Lead-horizontal patterns- both are default for the program.

In the process of our work we'll be using Polygon and Ellipse tool, Layer Styles and Custom Shape. We are also going to type Text on Path.

The Tree Bark Texture is my own photo and unrestricted stock so you can use it for your works if you like it.

You can create this Retro Badge in any Photoshop version.

This will be your outcome if you follow all my steps:

STEP 1

Start your work with creating square .psd document of 1000 Pixels both Width and Height. Call it Retro Badge, set its Resolution to 72 or 96 Pixels/Inch, choose RGB Color for Color Mode and Transparent for Background Contents.

Rename Layer 1 to Radial Gradient and place it in a group (Ctrl+G) called Background.

Create Textured Background and Drag Guides

In Steps 2-7 you have firstly to colorize the Background with Radial Gradient, then you have to download awesome Tree Bark Texture which you are going to crop.

After that you have to activate the rulers and drag two guides which will help you to place your shape in the center of the canvas.

STEP 2

Select Radial Gradient layer then Set Foreground Color to #af8b35 and Background Color to #151201. Take Gradient tool from the Tools bar (or press G), select Foreground to Background Gradient from the Gradient Picker in the Options bar and click on the Radial Gradient icon. Drag from the middle to any chosen corner of the canvas to colorize it with the Radial gradient. Your result should resemble my screenshot below:

STEP 3

In this step you have to download this cool Tree Bark Texture covered with lichen. Simply click on it to open it in high res, then right click and choose Save Image As to place it in your folder.

STEP 4

Open the Texture in Adobe Photoshop, select Crop Tool, Set its Custom Aspect Ratio to 1000/1000px then crop the Texture.

STEP 5

Create a New Layer on top of Background group in your Retro Badge file and name it Tree Bark Texture.

While the Tree Bark Texture is opened in Photoshop, press Ctrl+A to select its image then press Ctrl+C to Copy it.

Return to your Retro Badge document, select Tree Bark Texture layer and press Ctrl+V to Paste there the downloaded Texture. As the cropped Texture is the size of your canvas (1000/1000px), you don't need to resize it with the help of Free Transform. It should fit perfectly to your Background.

STEP 6

Change the Blend Mode of Tree Bark Texture layer to Soft Light.

STEP 7

In this step for your convenience you should drag two guides intersecting in the middle which will help you in the process of work to place your objects centrally on your canvas.

For the purpose firstly navigate to the Menu bar and select View, Rulers. When Rulers appear around your canvas, check if they are set to Pixels. If not, go to Edit, Preferences, select Units&Rulers, then choose Pixels from Rulers drop down menu.

Go back to View but this time select New Guide. Insert 500 Pixels for Vertical Position to get your first vertical guide. Go again to View, New Guide but this time check Horizontal for Orientation and insert again 500 Pixels. Now you should have two intersecting guides.

Activate also the Smart Guides- View, Show, Smart Guides.

Use Polygon and Ellipse Tool to Create the Badge

In Steps 9-21 your work is to draw two eight sided polygons and one circle then you need to add lots of Blending Options to them in order to create the final attractive look of the Retro Badge.

STEP 8

Create a New Layer named Polygon 1 at the top of your Layers panel. Place it in a group called Badge.

Set Foreground Color to #35aea4 and while Polygon 1 layer is selected, go to the Tools bar and choose Polygon tool. Navigate to its Options bar and set its Mode to Pixels. Insert 8 for Sides and click on the Gear icon. Insert there 500px for Radius, check Smooth Corners and Star options, Indent Sides By 50% and also tick Smooth Indents option. Draw your Polygon and use the help of Move tool and the Guides to place the shape in the middle of your canvas.

STEP 9

Double click on Polygon 1 layer's thumbnail in order to activate Layer Style dialog box (Layer, Layer Style, Blending Options). Firstly you have to apply Drop Shadow so tick it, then lower its Distance value to 0px. Increase Spread to 65% and Size to 25px.

Don't close Layer Style box because we need to add more Blending Options.

STEP 10

Now tick Gradient Overlay Layer Style, set its Blend Mode to Soft Light, click on the Gradient swatch and select Black, White Gradient from the Picker, then set the Angle to 90 degrees.

STEP 11

We are going to add tick yellow border to our Badge so check Stroke Layer Style, increase its Size to 10px and Set Color of Stroke to #f8f17f.

This is how our Retro Badge will look after applying all Blending Options to its first layer.

STEP 12

Create a New Layer on top of Badge group and call it Polygon 2.

Set Foreground Color to #ffb65f then select Polygon tool in Pixels Mode, leave its Sides to 8 (as we previously set them), then click on the Gear icon and change the Radius to 450px. Leave all other options as we set them for the first Polygon.

Draw the light orange Polygon as you see on the screenshot below.

STEP 13

Double click on Polygon 2 layer's thumbnail to call Layer Style box and start with checking Pattern Overlay Layer Style. Change its Blend Mode to Linear Burn, and choose Waffle (64 by 57 pixels, RGB mode) from the Pattern Picker.

STEP 14

Let us lighten the borders of Polygon 2. Tick Inner Glow Layer Style, Set Color of Glow to #f9d061 and increase the Size to 20px.

STEP 15

Now tick Stroke Layer Style, reduce its Size to only 1px and Set Color of Stroke to #4b2d07.

This is the result after the work we have done on Polygon 2 layer:

STEP 16

Create a New Layer on top of Badge group and name it Ellipse.

Set Foreground Color to #fffa9f, then select Ellipse tool in Pixels Mode. Click on the Gear icon, tick Fixed Size and insert 500px for both Width and Height.

Your circle should look like this when you place it in the middle of the canvas:

STEP 17

You can suppose that Blending Options will come right now. Firstly apply Pattern Overlay on the Ellipse layer. Change the Blend Mode to Soft Light and choose Laid-horizontal (256 by 256 pixels, RGB mode).

STEP 18

The next Layer Style we have to apply on Ellipse layer is Inner Shadow. Set Color of Shadow to #b97429, then lower Distance to 0px and increase Size to 70px.

STEP 19

The last Layer Style we have to add to the yellow circle is Stroke. Change its Size to 1px and Set Color of Stroke to #4f4707.

This is how our Retro Style Badge will look so far:

Add Text on Path and Custom Shape

From the next step till the end of the tut you have to type some Text which purpose is to attract potential customers. After that you have to add small decoration, using Custom Shape tool.

STEP 20

Now grab Horizontal Type tool (hot key T), select Lithos Pro Font from Font Family menu in the Options bar, Set the Font Style to Black and Font Size to 72pt then insert #fa0202 Color Code for Text Color and type 100%.

Highllight your 100% Text and go to Window, Character. In Character box set the Tracking to 10, then insert 120% for Vertically Scale and 80% for Horizontally Scale.

Move your 100% Text layer on top of Layers pane and place it in a group named Text and Custom Shape.

STEP 21

Right click on the Text layer and select Blending Options. Tick Drop Shadow Layer Style, reduce Distance to 0px, then change Spread to 50% and Size to 1px. This will create awesome thin dark stroke for the Text. As you can see strokes can be added not only with the help of Stroke Layer Style.

This is the result of applying Drop Shadow on the Text layer.

STEP 22

Create a New Layer on top of Text and Custom Shape group.

Select again Ellipse tool but this time set its Mode to Path. Click on the Gear icon, tick Fixed Size and insert 300px for both Width and Height to create a circular Path.

Use Edit, Free Transform Path to place the Path in the middle of the canvas. Press Ctrl+J to duplicate the Path layer.

STEP 23

Select Horizontal Type tool and use the same Lithos Pro Font to type Superb on the Path, using Capital Letters. Change only the Font Size to 48pt and Text Color to #075653.

Use the same Font with the same settings to type Quality on the duplicated Path layer as you see on the following screenshot.

I don't recommend you to rasterize these two Text layers. Better leave them editable, because later you might decide to use another Font with different settings if you don't like mine.

STEP 24

Create a New Layer on top of Text and Custom Shape group named Fleur-De-Lis after the Custom Shape we are going to use.

Set Foreground Color to #d200de. Take Custom Shape tool in Pixels Mode, find Fleur-De-Lis Shape in the Custom Shape Picker and set its Fixed Size to 70px both Width and Height. Place the shape at the right side of the yellowish circle as you see on the screenshot below.

STEP 25

Apply Stroke Layer Style on the Fleur-De-Lis Shape. Set Stroke Size to 1px, choose Inside for Position and insert #9e21b1 Color Code for Stroke Color.

This will be the result on your canvas after adding subtle stroke to the Fleur-De-Lis Shape:

STEP 26

While Fleur-De-Lis layer is selected, press Ctrl+J (Layer, Duplicate Layer) to make a copy of it. Move the duplicated shape at the opposite side of the Ellipse.

With this we finished our work on the Retro Badge. You should have these three groups and layers in Layers panel (from bottom to top):

1. Background group with two layers in it: Radial Gradient and Tree Bark Texture;
2. Badge group which includes three layers: Polygon 1, Polygon 2 and Ellipse and
3. Text and Custom Shape group with four layers in it: 100% and Superb Text layers, Fleur-De-Lis and Fleur-De-Lis copy layer.

As you don't need the Guides anymore, go to View, Show and uncheck Guides to make them invisible.

STEP 27

This is my Retro Style Badge saved in .jpg format.

Hope you find this tutorial useful and learned new things from it.

Thank you very much for reading and God bless! :)