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Lets face it - rubber stamps are an amazingly quick and easy way of marking something in real life, but recreating them in Photoshop is a little more difficult.  Unlike real media, the electronic canvas does not have creases, folds, and underlying texture to distort the ink.  Neither does an electronic stamp have problems with ink adherence, creating a unique effect every time it is used.   That is not to say, of course, that Photoshop cannot reproduce these little nuances of real media.   The aim of this tutorial is to describe a simple method to create grunge brushes, and to detail how these brushes can be used to reproduce realism in our rubber-stamped logos.  Interested?  Read on...
 

Step 1: Open up a stock image in Photoshop of any size and/or format. The best results for this tutorial usually involve large photographic images with effective color separation.  Since the overall grunge effect will come out of this source image, it is best to select a photo with lots of vertical lines and straight edges going off at different angles.  Rounded objects (especially 'natural' objects) do not work very well.   From personal experience I can say that construction-yard pictures are ideal... although you may still need to experiment a little to obtain the optimal results.

Step 2: Ensure your background layer is selected in the layers palette, and prepare to vastly overexpose the contrast by selecting Image > Adjustments > Threshold from the main menu.    A dialog box should pop up.   Drag the slider nearly all the way to the left, leaving only the most prominent lines and details present.   When you are finished, press the OK button to finalize your changes.

Step 3:  Open up a new blank document (via File > New) of any size with a single white-filled background layer.   Click on the foreground color swatch at the bottom of the tools palette and set it to red.   Select the horizontal Type Tool and create your type.  In my example to the left I used the 'Gill Sans MT Ext Condensed Bold' font with a size of 250pt.

Step 4: Select your text layer in the layers palette and rasterize the text via Layer > Rasterize > Text.  This will allow you to modify the text like a brushed object.  At this point you can further enhance your text as you see fit before going any further. I chose to add a simple border using the Rectangular Marquee Tool and PaintBucket Tool.

Step 5: This stage is entirely optional, but I find that it often helps to give the logo a little skew via Edit > Transform > Rotate.  Logos at perfect right-angles to the canvas look fake and ruin the illusion of real media that are are trying to create.

Step 6: Go back to your original photo document that you created in steps 1 & 2.  Switch to the Magic Wand Tool and click directly inside a black-color area of your photo.  Expand your selection to all black areas via Select > Similar.   Now that you have all the black areas selected, its time to Edit > Copy and Edit > Paste them over to your logo document that you made in step 3.  The 'grunge' layer should automatically go to the top of the layers palette.

Step 7: Hold down CTRL on the keyboard (OPT if you are using a mac) and click on the grunge layer's thumbnail in the layers palette with your mouse to reselect the grunge object. Then, without losing your selection, make the logo layer active and press DELETE on your keyboard.  Now all you have to do is lose your selection, hide/delete your grunge layer... and its done!   All quite simple really!

- Tutorial written by Man1c M0g

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