Photoshop Label Workflow/Tutorials/Tips

I recently added my label to the Show Us Your Label thread and after seeing so many incredible designs, I thought that it would also be nice if people provided their workflow and/or tips they use to design their labels.

This isn't limited to just Photoshop but I figured its a tool that lots of people have access to. Anyway, I always like to learn and would like to see your process.

I figure I'll get the ball rolling with a video using Gaussian Blur. It's a tool I use often. This is just a general tip focusing on faces, but I use it quite often to soften edges on objects in my labels and when designing UI's.

I'd like to see a video of the steps you did to create the label.

The best piece of advice I can give as a graphic designer is to avoid over using layer styles. I would say completely avoid using them altogether, but they do have some good uses.

I love designing my labels, but I'm very low tech. I find art I like using Google Image search, mostly based on the idea for the name I want to give the batch. I've also amassed a stock of jpegs of old Art Nouveau / Art Deco liquor, beer and wine posters that I like for future use. I edit the jpegs using MS Paint (old school FTW!). I find fonts I like from free online font databases.

Here's a sample of my stuff:




It's a great way to waste time at work while I'm daydreaming about brewing.

BargainMugs said:

The best piece of advice I can give as a graphic designer is to avoid over using layer styles. I would say completely avoid using them altogether, but they do have some good uses.

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Why should you avoid using layer styles? I don't think it would be any problem to use it. Problem is using photoshop in the first place (if you are an perfectionist). Anything with text or vectors should be dealt in illustrator or inDesign. But since none here is going for commercial use of their labels photoshop and layer styles would work just fine.

Over using layer styles. A simple drop shadow, outer or inner glow is fine. But I was saying to avoid using too many layer styles on text.

b_andersson said:

Why should you avoid using layer styles? I don't think it would be any problem to use it. Problem is using photoshop in the first place (if you are an perfectionist). Anything with text or vectors should be dealt in illustrator or inDesign. But since none here is going for commercial use of their labels photoshop and layer styles would work just fine.

Click to expand...

I learned photoshop first, so I often draw the shapes in photshop then export to illustrator to finish. I'll only start in ai if i'm using my tablet to draw something by hand. It ultimately gets the same results, but it works better with my bad habits. I find ai a paint to do anything geometric in. Its just easier to measure and align stuff in ps, imo.

Everyone learning photoshop will bevel/emboss *everything* then eventually grow out of it. Its a fun process to observe. Gradient overlays are great if you are stuck working with raster images, but I don't use anything else much.