My apologies for this deceptive title. This ain’t really a tutorial but more of compilation of production screenshots and notes I took when I designed my latest poster, gms2009. I don’t do photoshop tutorial too often. Maybe because I always end up skipping from step 3 to step 22 and then wonder why nothing works. I am not saying it is a bad thing to do them but I prefer reading, watching, bookmark, and going back to specific steps when I encounter a technical problem.

For those reasons, I decided to do this “tutorial” a little bit differently. I have always been more interested in the development and process of my favorite artists rather than knowing the exact settings of the ’satin’ layer styles they used. In this document, I tried to cover the main steps of my process. It is not hard, but you should be armed with patience and already know your way around photoshop because I am not covering the basics( i.e. explain how to use the pen tool).

If you want me to explain a specific step more in detail, let me know in the comments and I’ll post a video update.

See notes:

or download pdf here

The Vignelli Canon is a short reference book on communication and typography by Massimo Vignelli, the founder of Vignelli Associates along with his wife Lella in 1971 . Probably most known for such work as the signage system for the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority, the corporate identity for American Airlines and package design for IBM. If you have seen the documentary Helvetica you most likely remember Mr. Vignelli as the first designer interviewed in the film. The Vignelli Canon shares theories and principles  of typography extracted from over 50 years of Mr. Vignelli’s experience as a graphic designer.

If you haven’t already already downloaded the book, provided free in PDF form from Vignelli Associates, I highly recommend getting it. It is a concise 96 pages and can be read easily in one or two sittings but still retains a great deal of depth despite its relative brevity. I would gladly read a book three times in length but still this an amazing resource offered for free so I have no reason to complain.

Download The Vignelli Cannon

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