The article guides readers through the process of creating an impactful banner in Photoshop, with emphasis on conveying messages visually and adapting to changes promptly. By using a file saved preset, the author demonstrates how to establish an artboard, import relevant copy, adjust text sizes, and incorporate dynamic images to evoke the sense of hustle and innovation.
Key Insights
- The tutorial emphasizes the importance of visual storytelling in banner creation, using concepts such as "hustle", "changing", "expanding", and "innovation" to dictate the selection of dynamic imagery.
- It provides step-by-step instructions on how to set up an artboard, integrate text, and adjust font sizes using Photoshop's tools and features.
- The author highlights the benefits of linking files within the Photoshop interface, as this allows for real-time updates to the banner whenever changes are made to the linked file.
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In this video, we'll begin working on our third and final banner. So, let's begin by creating our file.
We'll go to File > New, and here we'll create a file using our saved preset. Go to Saved and select Pop-up Banner PTC.
Next, let's give our title a new name.
We'll type 'PTC Banner 3' and then click Create. Before moving further, let's save our work.
Go to File > Save As, and save this as 'PTC Banner 3, ' then click Save and OK.
We now have Artboard 1 set up, so let's begin reviewing some of the copy and materials that will go into it.
We'll go down into our folder and open the Phase 10 Copy. With this copy set up, we can see that we have all the Banner 3 text ready to be added to our artboard.
Let's simply copy all the text by highlighting it, then hit CTRL C to copy it.
We'll then go back into our banner in Photoshop, create a text layer using the Horizontal Type Tool, create a bounding box in the bottom area, and hit CTRL V to replace Lorem Ipsum.
Next, let's adjust the size of some of this text.
We'll click and hit CTRL A to highlight all the text, then go to the options bar at the top and drag it down until we can see all of it. It looks like I can see all of it now at about 91.
In the future, we'll make adjustments to this text; however, it is helpful for now to see it at the bottom.
Let's click outside in the Layers panel.
Next, let's talk about what we want on this artboard for our banner.
Reading some of our copy, we can see words like hustle, keep up, changing, expanding, and how much time to keep up.
Essentially, the message is that things are constantly moving fast, so we’ll want to incorporate an image where things are hustling and moving quickly.
Additionally, there’s emphasis on expanding, changing, and innovation, so we'll want to feature things changing, growing, and innovating.
For a banner like this, we want the entire design to be image-oriented since it will attract a lot of attention and have a lot of energy.
Let’s create a frame for our artboard that covers most of it.
We’ll start by creating a guide at the top. Let’s drag the guide down and release it at 50 inches.
Next, let’s create a frame for Artboard 1 so we can insert an image at the top of our artboard.
We’ll go to the Frame Tool in the toolbar and drag a frame from the top-left corner down to the bottom-right where it intersects with the guide, then release.
We can then rename this frame, hit ENTER, and now we have our frame at the top and our text below.
Next, let’s create the Photoshop file that will contain our image.
We’ll save our work by hitting CTRL S on the keyboard, then go to File > Open.
Here, we can look at the different images we have.
For this image, let’s open 'London.jpg' and click Open.
As we discussed for our artboard, we want an image that shows hustle and movement, and an image like this will incorporate that well.
Let’s create a Photoshop file and save it for this.
We’ll start by dragging our background layer into a new layer, rename it 'London Scene, ' and hit ENTER.
Next, let’s rename our background layer 'London Original' and hit ENTER.
Finally, we’ll lock the 'London Original' layer and hide its visibility.
We’re now ready to save our Photoshop file. Let’s go to File > Save As, title it 'London Banner 3, ' then click Save and OK.
We’re now ready to make changes to our file.
Let’s go back into 'PTC Banner 3' and link the image we have here into our frame.
To do this, we’ll select the thumbnail, go to our Properties, and select 'Inset Image > Place from Local Disk (Linked).'
This places a linked file within the frame, meaning any changes made to the linked file will automatically update in our Photoshop file.
We’ll select 'London Banner 3' and click Place.
Now we have our London banner, and we can move and drag it around as appropriate.
In addition, if we make a change to the 'London Banner 3' image, it will also show in 'PTC Banner 3.'
For example, if we select a shape, draw a circle in the middle, and drag the ellipse to the top, the ellipse will appear in our image.
If we hit CTRL S to save this and go back into 'PTC Banner 3, ' we’ll see that because the image is linked, any changes made to 'London Banner 3' are reflected here.
However, if we delete this now by selecting it, hitting Delete, and clicking Yes, it will be deleted.
If we go back into 'PTC Banner 3' without saving our 'London Banner' file, it won’t update until saved.
We’ll click 'London Banner 3, ' hit CTRL S to save, and then go back into 'PTC Banner 3, ' where we’ll see that our image is now updated.
Let’s save our work for now by hitting CTRL S on the keyboard. In the next videos, we’ll begin building out our London scene image.
See you then!