Creating a Customized Product and Label

7/28/2019 Creating a Customized Product and Label

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Creating A Customized Product And Label

Introduction

It should be noted that this is an advanced tutorial and Ill be writing to that level. If youre still gettingyour feet wet in Photoshop, you may just want to sit back, kick your feet up and watch the progression

of the project because this lesson will move rather quickly and wont have as much detailed instruction

as youre used to.


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Step 1

For the purpose of this tutorial Ill be working with a document thats 540px wide at 72ppi. Obviously if

you were working toward a print quality file, youd want to be 150-300ppi depending on your printers

desired file size.

Im going to start by placing a vector file I found at iStockPhoto onto the stage and sizing it accordingly.

Although I could have created the container from scratch, the small cost of a stock piece like this far

outweighs the time it would have taken to create by hand. Ive rasterized the vector because its a Rights

Managed file and I cant go giving it away. If you want to pick this one up at iStock its file ID is #5343602.

In this case I was only worried about getting a container that would suit my style and labeling purposes

and not so much about color.
http://refer.istockphoto.com/ta.php?lc=062985042431004651&atid=53104%7CBannerID%3D53104%7CReferralMethod%3DLink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.istockphoto.comhttp://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?refnum=pshero&id=5343602http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?refnum=pshero&id=5343602http://refer.istockphoto.com/ta.php?lc=062985042431004651&atid=53104%7CBannerID%3D53104%7CReferralMethod%3DLink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.istockphoto.com


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Step 2

The bottom of this container was a bit bright for my tastes, so I solved the problem on a new layer with a

Black to Transparent Linear Gradient from the bottom of the container upward about 1/3 of the way. I

then created a Clipping Mask between the Bottom Gradient and Bottle layers. I also changed the

Bottom Gradient layers Blend Mode to Luminosity and lowered its Fill to around 75%.


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Step 3

Well now add a few Adjustment Layers, one for Curves and one for Levels, above the Bottom Gradient

layer also clipped to the Bottle layer as shown below. I want to deal with the cap separately, so Im also

going to add Layer Masks to these two adjustment layers so that theyre only visible over the body of the

bottle.

(*note: Once youve created the Layer Mask on one of the Adjustment Layers, you can easily copy it to

the other Adjustment Layer by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key and dragging the mask from one

layer to the other.)


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Step 4

The last thing to do on the body of the bottle is to shift its color. To do this, create a new layer above the

last Adjustment Layer called Color Change and fill the entire layer with a new color. I took a color from

the design of the brochure #d8d6cc. Clip this layer to the others, add the same Layer Mask as the

Adjustment Layers have (ie. just the body of the bottle) and change its Blend Mode to Color.


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Step 5

Now all we need to do is get the cap to look like it belongs. To do this Im going to add a new

Hue/Saturation adjustment layer at the top of the stack and simply drag the Saturation slider all the way

to the left. Ill also clip this layer to the others and Ill black out everything except the cap in the Layer

Mask.


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Step 6

To keep our file clean and easy to manage, lets select the Bottle layer along with all the layers that area

clipped to it and press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G) to Group the layers. Ill rename the group Bottle Group.

(*note: If youre using and older version of Photoshop, this option may not be available to you. Perhaps

its time to upgrade!)


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Step 7

Now lets grab the Pen tool by pressing the P key and create a Path to define where the label will live on

our bottle. I tried to use the natural curves along the edges and bottom to help give my label a shape

that would feel right.

(*note: As a reminder on good Photoshop habits, dont forget to switch over to the Paths palette and

rename your path so itll be saved incase you need it later!)


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Step 8

Instead of using this new path as a mask for a single layer, were going to use it as a mask for an entire

group but since you cant have a group without a starting layer, lets create a new layer called White

Background and fill the layer with white, then with the new layer selected press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G)

to put it into its own group. Rename the group Label, select it and then with the Pen tool still active,

Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the path and select Convert to Vector Mask. No anything we put insidethis Group will use the same mask and we wont have to mess with a bunch of Clipping Masks and Layer

Masks as we work on the label elements. Well need plenty of those to achieve other effects anyway, so

its one less thing to have to worry about.

(*note: If youd prefer not to have the path lines visible, simply Option-Click (PC: Alt-Click) on the Vector

Mask thumbnail next to the Group thumbnail.)


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Step 9

The first thing Im going to do is create a dark space at the bottom of my label. Most of this will be

covered up as we continue to add layers and elements, so think of it as the first layer of paint on a

canvas. It doesnt have to be exact, and it may change later, but its our starting point. I used the Elliptical

Marquee tool to create a large oval which I filled with a dark brown #493a2f and placed in the lower left

side of the label.


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Step 10

Next, a Foreground to Transparent Linear Gradient from the bottom to the top of the label on its own

layer of course.


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Step 11

I wanted some bubbles for the bottom of the bottle, so I did a Google Images search for the term

Bubbles and came up with this one from a foreign cleaning ad. I first desaturated the image by pressing

Command-Shift-U (PC: Ctrl-Shift-U) used levels to increase the contrast of the blacks and then inverted

the image by pressing Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I).
http://pshero.com/assets/tutorials/0078/bubbles.jpghttp://pshero.com/assets/tutorials/0078/bubbles.jpg


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Step 12

Once the bubbles had been prepared and inverted I drug them into my file above the Brown Linear

Gradient layer and named the layer that was created Bubbles. Then all I had to do was change the layer

blend mode to Screen and Shazam!


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Step 13

Now lets add the main text to the bottle. Since folks seem to think its ok to steal my tutorials, I like to

include my name in the projects when possible Im sure you hadnt noticed. I used the Arch Warped

Text feature in the Character Options bar to add a little character to the word Hero and the word "the" is

on its own layer so I could keep that text straight.

Step 14

Now lets add a double border to the text. Create a new layer below the text layers called Text Borders

and make both layers of text into a selection by holding down the Command and Shift keys while clicking

on both the text layers thumbnails. Expand the selection by choosing Select>Modify>Expand from the

main menu and setting the Expand amount to 5px. Using the color picker, find a nice tan color like

#bebaaa and fill the selection with color.


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Step 15

Now lets add a few Layer Styles to the Text Borders layer. A 5px stroke will add the second dimension to

our border, the little bevel will make the first border stand out a little and a drop shadow will polish off

the effect.


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Step 16

Behind the Text Borders layer well now add a couple of 12 point stars, one larger than the other by

using the Custom Shape tool set to Shape Layer, Polygonal, and then using the Polygon Options fly out

menu to set a deep indent to the sides and specifying that we want it to be a star. After creating the first

star Shape Layer, I duplicated it and used Free Transform on the path to make the second one smaller.

I gave the Little Star layer an Opacity of 50% and the Big Star layer an Opacity of 25%.

(*note: Holding down the Option and Shift keys while transforming will constrain the proportions and

transform from the center of the object.)


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Step 17

To add a little more brightness and glow behind the text, lets add one more layer, this time below the

Star layers called White Radial Gradient. Press the G key to switch to the Gradient tool, make sure your

foreground color is set to white and that the tool is set to Foreground to Transparent and Radial then

drag a radial gradient from the middle of your text outward to the edge of the label. I also dropped the

opacity of this new layer to 85% to tone down the effect a touch.

Step 18

Every good cleaning product needs a tagline of some sort, so lets add the text for that now. Again Ill use

the Arch style to make the tagline flow with the text above it. I placed this text layer just above my Star

layers.


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Step 19

Its obvious well need some sort of dark shape behind the taglilne if we want it to stand out, so lets

create a new layer behind the tagline and using the Pen tool lets draw a nice little swoosh type shape.

Convert the path to a Vector Mask as we did earlier and fill the layer with the original dark brown color

used for the circle in Step 9 (#493a2f). Ill name this layer Swoosh.


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Step 20

Lets add a few Layer Styles to the Swoosh layer as well. Ill use a small Stroke with a low opacity to create

a neat edge effect, and a Drop Shadow for depth.

The tagline looks a little too stark against the dark background so lets drop its Fill to around 65% as well.


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Step 21

Lets add one more thing before we move on. I really think a border around the whole label might set it

apart from the body of the bottle better. I want the main lettering to appear on top of the borderthough, so lets add a new layer above the Swoosh layer called Label Border and for the moment lets fill

it with white.

Drop the new layers Fill opacity down to 0% (which will momentarily make it invisible) and lets use the

Vector Mask from this Group on the layer as well. Hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and click and drag

the Vector Mask from the Label Group onto the new Label Border layer. Once the mask is in place, add

the following layer styles.

A few things to pay attention to here:

The Bevel and Emboss size is set to 0px, but when you combine that with the Chisel Hard setting you

actually get what looks like a 1px hard bevel which is perfect for the edge of a piece of paper (or a label).And second, notice that the Stroke location is set to Inside. The color for the Inner Glow is #493a2f and

for the Stroke is #beb9aa.


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Step 22

Were now done with the label, but I think the bottle needs something more, perhaps in the upper left

corner of the label. How bout one of those stickers theyre always putting on stuff yeah, thats it!

Create a new layer above the Label group called Sticker Background, change your foreground color to

that nice dark brown #493a2f and grab the Custom Shape tool again. Making sure that Shape Layer and

Polygon Tool are set correctly, change the number of sides to 30 and the options to Star with a 20%

indent and click and drag your sticker shape onto the stage (dont forget to hold down the Shift key to

constrain it).


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Step 23

Now lets add a few layer styles to spice up the sticker. A Stroke (set to Inside) with a color of #e4e2e1, a

Gradient Overlay set to White to Transparent and Radial and a little Drop Shadow for good measure.


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Step 24

Add a little text to the sticker with maybe an outline like we used in the Hero text

Step 25

Maybe add a shadow, reflection and some witty text. And thats it folks! I hope you learned something

useful, or at least were mildly entertained.

Creating a Customized Product and Label

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