Complete Grunge Sig

1. Start with a 400x100 image, or another size if you see the need for it. Set background to white (#FFFFFF).

2. Now for the background. The easiest way (but yes, it is cheating) is to use a set of grunge brushes. There are a few nice sets of brushes here on Tribe Radio if you do not already have any grunge brushes.

3. Select the brush you like, and using black as your foreground colour, paint away. Try to darken up the area where your text will go, to make it more readible. Anything like mine will do.



4. Create a new layer, and set #FF0099 as your foreground colour. A nice bright pink! I used the same grunge brush as in the third step, but you can select a different one also. Give it a bit of contrasting colour.

5. For this pink grunge layer, set the opacity to 40%.



6. Now, time for some text! There are two ways you can go about this. First way, find a grungey looking font and type your name in that. Or second way, use a thick plain font like Impact or Arial Black and break it up yourself. For the sake of a interesting tutorial, i will do things the second way.

7. Type your text in thick PINK (#FF0099) letters. I have done mine in a seperate document, but you can do yours easily in the same grunge sig document.

8. Right click on the text layer and select Rasterize Layer.

9. Using the Lasso Tool (press L), draw all over your text like I have done.



10. Go to Layer > New > Layer Via Cut.

11. It will put half your text onto a new layer. Select the Move tool (press V) and press the up arrow once, and the left arrow once. And there is your grunge text! Simple!



12. Merge the 2 text layers together, to form one text layer again. Now right click on the single layer and select Blending Options. Go down to Stroke, and use the following settings.



13. This time select Outer Glow from the Blending Options, and use my settings once again.



14. Nearly there now...For something different I added a kangaroo street sign (since I am from Australia mate!). You can add whatever you like at this step. Plenty of random stock photos available for free at Stock.XCHNG.

15. I put the street sign on it's own layer and set the opacity to 28% so it is less visible, but still legible.

16. Finally, create a new layer on top of all your existing ones, and add a 1px black border around the outside of your whole image. To do this, select black (#000000) as your foreground colour, select the Pencil Tool with a 1px Square brush, zoom in a bit, hold down shift, and draw 4 straight lines around the outside of the image!

17. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Remember, be creative and change a few things along the way. That way it will be more individual and reflect you.