Aggressive Graphics

Final Result: What We Will Make

1) Let's Go Fire Up Photoshop!

Make a new document.

• Width: 600px
• Height: 600px

2) Set Our Background Color

Now we will fill our background layer with black (#000). This will make it easier for us to see our effects that we are about to add.

3) Place Our Text

Now lets go ahead and put some text down. For this example I used Arial at 150pt with white as the color (#FFF).

4) Gradient Overlay

Lets start adding some effects now. First well start by applying a Gradient Overlay. We will be using a custom gradient as shown below.

You should now have something that looks like this.

5) Stroke

• Size: 1px
• Position: Inside
• Blend Mode: Normal
• Opacity: 100%
• Fill Type: Gradient
• Reverse: Check
• Style: Linear
• Align With Layer: Check
• Angle: 90

6) Define Our Stroke

Let’s define our gradient for our stroke by click the gradient box. now we will use a custom gradient that look like this.

We should now have something that looks like this.

7) Outer Glow

• Blend Mode: Screen
• Color: #FFF
• Opacity: 15%
• Spread: 0
• Size: 3px

8) Inner Glow

• Blend Mode: Multiply
• Color: #000
• Opacity: 50%
• Choke: 10%
• Size: 5px

Our image should now look like this.

9) Inner Shadow

• Blend Mode: Screen
• Color: #FFF
• Opacity: 5%
• Distance: 0
• Choke: 100%
• Size: 50px
• Anti-Aliased: Checked
• Noise: 100%

10) Drop Shadow

• Blend Mode: Multiply
• Opacity: 85%
• Angle: 90
• Distance: 8px
• Spread: 0%
• Size: 8px

Everything should look like this right now.

11) Placing a Background Image

Let’s place a background behind our text to make it stand out. I’m going to use a image I have of concrete, but feel free to use anything you would like. Usually dark backgrounds really make the text stand out better.

12) Adding a Vignette

Time for the last finishing touch. We’re going to add a Vignette around our image. To do this, I find that the easiest way is to create a new layer. Use the Paint Bucket Tool and fill it with a background color (the color doesn’t matter) and set the Fill to 0%.

Inner Shadow

• Blend Mode: Multiply
• Opacity: 70%
• Distance: 0
• Choke: 30%
• Size: 190px

Make sure that our Vignette layer is under our text layer.

Conclusion

That’s it! You’re done! You should have something close to this now.

Final Result