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35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

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By Jacob Gube

With the recent post on retro and vintage in modern web design, it’s time to put the theory into practice. We’ve scoured the Web to find some impressive Photoshop tutorials that can help you achieve an "old-fashioned" look-and-feel in your designs. In this post, we go back to the 1900’s all theway to the 1980’s to showcase a variety of vintage- and retro-inspired designs that involve poster art, collages and graphical elements. Whether you’re into print design or web design, you’ll find something you can use or build upon.

Without further ado, we present 35 high-quality vintage and retro Adobe Photoshop tutorials that may help your design… well, travel back in time.

Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Colorization Tutorial
This short tutorial showcases a method for colorizing a black and white photo to achieve an aged, vintage look.

08-colorization in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Wicked-Worn Vintage Pop Art Design
Mesh vintage pop art with grunge to create a unique mash-up of the two popular design styles.

17-grunge Vintage in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Retro Grunge Poster
Wield the Pen Tool and utilize some free brushes and textures to achieve this retro-grunge hybrid look-and-feel.

24-retro Grunges in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Vintage Film Style Video
Use a stock image of an old TV and Photoshop CS3 Extended to play vintage-style video clips inside the TV.

09-old Tv in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Give Your Photos a Retro Comic Book Effect
Here’s another method for creating a retro-stylec comic book effect to your photos using Photoshop.

34 Retro Comic in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

WWII Airplane
Recreate the World War II airplane brushed-metal texture and paintings in this excellent Photoshop tutorial that involves using Noise and Blur filters.

10-wwii Airplane in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Cool Vintage Collage Design
In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to use old advertisements, hand-written text, and patterns to create a vintage design.

01-vintage Collage in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Pin-up Effect
This video tutorial showcases how you can create the classic 50’s pin-up effect using some Photoshop filters and Blending Modes.

02-pin-up Effect in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Radio Knobs/Dials of the Past
Learn how to design old-school radio knobs/dials in this Photoshop tutorial by skillfully using of the Marquee Tool in Photoshop.

03-radio Knobs in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Old Fantasy Map of Your Area
Learn how to create a vintage, aged map using a screen shot of the area of your interest in Yahoo! Maps.

04-map Your Area in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Turn of the Century Vaudeville Poster
Create a beautiful turn-of-the-century poster geared towards intermediate to advanced Photoshop users.

05-vaudeville in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Virtual Letterman Jacket
In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to design retro-style varsity/letterman lettering using some ingenious Layer Styles.

06-letterman Jacket in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

B-movie poster art
In this tutorial, you can learn the techniques involved in recreating B-movie posters from the golden age of cinema.

07-b Movie Poster in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Gigposter Design
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a retro-styled poster using Photoshop and Illustrator.

31 Gig Poster in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Vintage Polaroid Effect
This photo treatment tutorial shares a method for creating a vintage look using modern, colored digital photos.

11-vintage Polaroid in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshop Vintage Effect
Learn how to age modern digital pictures by adjusting contrast, saturation, and Curves in this short step-by-step Photoshop tutorial.

32 Vintage Photo Effect in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Vintage Fifties Letter
Create this aged letter envelope by following this Photoshop tutorial that’s aimed at intermediate Photoshop users.

12-50s Letter in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Vintage Truck
In this short Photoshop tutorial, you’ll learn some techniques on how to use colored digital stock images to give it a vintage/retro look-and-feel.

13-vintage Truck in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Make it worn
Learn how to create a worn look-and-feel web design background, using detailed from scanned book pages.

33 Make It Worn in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Comic Book Photo Effect
Learn how to take ordinary photos and give it a retro-styled, pop art comic book effect.

14-comic Book in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Vintage collages in Photoshop
In this tutorial, you can gain insights and learn useful methods on how to achieve a vintage collage.

15-vintage Collages in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Make your own pop art
Learn the techniques involved in creating your own classic 50’s style pop art.

16-pop Art in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Hot Chick on a Muscle Car
Create a retro-styled post card using stock photos that are linked to by the author of the tutorial.

18-hot Chick in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Retro Wallpaper/Poster
This step-by-step tutorial walks the readers through the process of creating a retro wallpaper/poster.

19-retro Poster in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Retro Style Game Controller
Illustrate an old-school gaming console joystick using Photoshop with this wonderful tutorial.

35 Retro Controller in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Retro Stars
Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to create stars and then add multi-colored streaks to it, to achieve this popular ’80’s look and feel.

20-retro Stars in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Sweet Radio Station Advert Design
Learn how to create a radio station advertisement with retro curves with the help of Illustrator (or download them from vector stock sites).

21-retro Radio Advert in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Pop Art Inspired by Lichtenstein
Create Lichtenstein-style pop art design by studying this Photoshop tutorial geared for intermediate designers.

25-pop-art in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Retro Lighting – Ford Mustang
You can utilize the Custom Shape Tool for elements of the design to recreate this 70’s inspired design.

22-retro Mustang in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Mix Cool Retro Curves into Your Photographs
Combine retro with modern design styles and elements to create this stunning photo effect.

23-retro Curves in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshop Serigraphs
Learn how you can take a portrait to recreate this Andy Warhol inspired pop-art.

26-serigraphs in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Retro Sunflower Design
Remake this sunflower-themed retro wallpaper using ready-to-use Photoshop brushes, the Ellipse Marquee Tool, and custom shapes from the Custom Shape Tool.

27-retro Sunflower in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Retro Summer Poster Illustration
Utilize some of Photoshop’s vector tools to create a summery retro poster illustration.

28-crazy Hair in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

3D Retro Strip
Use the Pen Tool to create 3-dimensional retro strips.

29-3d Retro in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Abstract Retro-Pop Wallpaper
This tutorial shows readers how to design a colorful retro-pop wallpaper using stock photo for texture and the RNS Bobo Dylan Font.

30-retro Pop Art in 35 Beautiful Vintage and Retro Photoshop Tutorials

Jacob Gube is a bilingual web developer (JavaScript and PHP), web designer, author, and the Founder/Chief Editor of Six Revisions: an online publication that shares useful development and design resources and tutorials for web professionals.

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  1. 1
    Derek
    October 14th, 2008 8:04 am

    Very nice collection, I’ve been trying to locate a decent collection of retro-style tutorials!
    1st post! Sweet!

  2. 2
    Justin
    October 14th, 2008 8:12 am

    These all are so great. I’ve been looking for things like this

  3. 3
    Jason
    October 14th, 2008 8:15 am

    Excellent. You guys never fail to bring the good stuff.

  4. 4
    Jonathan
    October 14th, 2008 8:16 am

    Is it me or these long collections of design things are becoming a bit boring? Has this website lost its essence somehow?

  5. 5
    dev(Www.iHaCK.ASIA)
    October 14th, 2008 8:24 am

    i like the Wicked-Worn Vintage Pop Art Design, the no.2,really beautiful.

  6. 6
    Rodmanu
    October 14th, 2008 8:27 am

    @Jonathan
    I personally think it is great to have those long collections of design, Internet is so vast and it is time consuming to do such a research, I find it really helpful to have these kind of articles and search for them into smashingmagazine rather than on the whole web.

  7. 7
    Roshan
    October 14th, 2008 8:47 am

    Nice collection of vintage art. I might try few of these to improve my photoshop skills.
    amazing effects.

    Roshan

  8. 8
    Common
    October 14th, 2008 9:17 am

    Anyone have good tutorials on creating different types of note paper and sticky notes in photoshop?

  9. 9
    Raphael
    October 14th, 2008 9:47 am

    Thank you! i love these retro styles…

  10. 10
    steve
    October 14th, 2008 10:12 am

    awesome, thanks

  11. 11
    Cosmi
    October 14th, 2008 10:52 am

    I love retro & vintage !

  12. 12
    Herbert Berends
    October 14th, 2008 11:02 am

    Nice list. Very useful! I was surprised to see that they have used my picture/illustration of an old TV! I had no idea of this new function in Photoshop CS3…

  13. 13
    gNcWebmaster
    October 14th, 2008 11:17 am

    Awesome Collection. Thanks For…

  14. 14
    ronen
    October 14th, 2008 12:06 pm

    Great!
    thank you, not so much for the tutorials but for the collection itself. it’s always useful.
    Ronen.

  15. 15
    Jad Graphics
    October 14th, 2008 12:23 pm

    Awesome retro tutorials. Can’t wait to try some of these out.

    Jad Graphics

  16. 16
    Joe
    October 14th, 2008 12:53 pm

    LOL @ the “Ford Mustang” tutorial. The car used is definitely not a Mustang…

  17. 17
    Tom Ross
    October 14th, 2008 12:56 pm

    Thanks for featuring my tutorial. Great list you have here, I hadn’t seen a few of these before :).

  18. 18
    Stefan Matei
    October 14th, 2008 1:07 pm

    Hey, thanks for the mention!

  19. 19
    Cos
    October 14th, 2008 1:08 pm

    Great list, thank you! I’ve done a few of these tuts with fantastic results (and learn a thing or two in the bargain).

  20. 20
    Steve Tolley
    October 14th, 2008 1:25 pm

    Thanks for including my tutorial, great collection, Very Useful!

    Stevie :D

  21. 21
    Jimi Ninja
    October 14th, 2008 2:02 pm

    I thank them for putting it all in one place and making sure I don’t have to trawl the internet trying to find stuff. Cheers!

  22. 22
    BCS
    October 14th, 2008 4:46 pm

    This is truly a very pleasant surprise for me… thank you so much for including my tutorial on your list! Like what Tom Ross said, I haven’t seen a lot of these before, and they’re all beautiful! :) I have a strong feeling that I’ll be using some of these someday. :)

  23. 23
    Eli
    October 14th, 2008 6:26 pm

    Thank you for linking to one of my tutorials on Design Blurb :) Great roundup.

  24. 24
    Praveen Sewak
    October 14th, 2008 7:31 pm

    WoW! Guys whose tuts. are linked here actually read SM. Can’t say that i am surprised, but wow! SM is the first browse of the day for me.

    Great list btw. There are a few i would definetely use in my designs. [Hot Chick on a Muscle Car] for one… hehe.

    Good job (again) SM…

  25. 25
    gaurav_m
    October 14th, 2008 8:57 pm

    nice ..simply great

  26. 26
    Roshan
    October 14th, 2008 9:06 pm

    Thanks nice post.

  27. 27
    John Sexton
    October 14th, 2008 9:12 pm

    Wow, I’m thrilled to see my work featured on here too (Vintage Turn of the Century Vaudeville Poster)!

    That was the first tutorial I’ve written up, but I hope to do more before too long.

    Thank you! This site is a great resource.

  28. 28
    Marco
    October 14th, 2008 9:31 pm

    Yes Jonathan, it is just you. These roundups are great, very helpful. Thanks guys.

  29. 29
    Ash
    October 14th, 2008 11:31 pm

    Once again, excellent resources !

    Some effect were still hard to achieve for me, now i will be able to complete my skills.

    Thanx a lot !

  30. 30
    Sophia
    October 15th, 2008 12:15 am

    There can never be enough retro and vintage :D. I am so feeling the 3D Retro. Nice!

  31. 31
    honour chick
    October 15th, 2008 12:39 am

    AwESOME!!! makes me want to cry :(

  32. 32
    freshness
    October 15th, 2008 1:39 am

    i already knew some of them, but this is a nice bunch, thanx :)

  33. 33
    Riccardo
    October 15th, 2008 2:46 am

    Nice article, it’s always great to have these tutorials collected together in one place. I’m sure these will be useful in the future.

  34. 34
    Jacob Gube
    October 15th, 2008 3:09 am

    Hi everyone! I’m glad you enjoyed this article. Since the vintage/retro trend is (relatively) still in its infancy, it was quite a challenge to find this many high-quality tutorials to share with you.

    To the authors of tutorials featured here, I’d like to thank you for providing us with top-notch tutorials and helping us advance our craft by sharing your techniques and knowledge.

  35. 35
    Jesse Vlasveld
    October 15th, 2008 3:48 am

    I’m certainly going to experiment a little with this style, it’s hot.

  36. 36
    Chris
    October 15th, 2008 4:18 am

    Brilliant list – I’m bent double, gagging with the waves of nostagia..

  37. 37
    yogesh lalchandani
    October 15th, 2008 4:33 am

    Nice Design styles and coloring tuts

  38. 38
    armanjac
    October 15th, 2008 5:56 am

    Armanjac essai délicious

  39. 39
    Ann Edwards
    October 15th, 2008 7:07 am

    @Joe. No kidding. I find that more than slightly annoying….

    That’s the only one included that I don’t think matches the quality of the others.

  40. 40
    Luke
    October 15th, 2008 2:22 pm

    Nice collection. Where would one use this?

  41. 41
    Burkhard
    October 15th, 2008 3:21 pm

    realy great tuts. They are very helpfull for editing my photos.

  42. 42
    wrend
    October 15th, 2008 9:21 pm

    Great Website! Great Tutorials! I just found great brushes on this blog I can use for designing.

  43. 43
    Simon
    October 16th, 2008 8:58 am

    Great list, love the Retro Grunge Poster Tutorial.

    Thx for the post.

    Cheers
    Simon

  44. 44
    Lonelytraveller
    October 16th, 2008 10:32 am

    Great tutorials, thanks! I wish I found a post like this before creating the vintage graphics for my blog.

  45. 45
    Alvaro Guzman
    October 16th, 2008 10:43 am

    thanks for posting my tuts (Vintage pop art, and old TV) in the list!!!

  46. 46
    hughe palmer
    October 16th, 2008 1:41 pm

    this is one of the better tutorial collections i have come across. nice work!

  47. 47
    mnvamsi
    October 17th, 2008 2:42 am

    Well these fellows are really gems..
    great work when compared to previous photoshop articles..
    I have to take a brief look at all the tutorial in detail.

  48. 48
    Spyece
    October 17th, 2008 5:51 am

    Wow thanks a lot mate! These tutorials are really the best once out there.

  49. 49
    amy nickerson
    October 17th, 2008 11:44 am

    Mustang tutorial was great. But I substituted a REAL Mustang in the picture. Someone needs to tell them it’s not a Mustang!!

  50. 50
    billseymour
    October 18th, 2008 8:22 am

    Terrific roundup. I’d previously found about 1/2 of them- the beauty of the list, for me, is the other half! Please continue the ‘long list’ concept- I’d enjoy seeing additional topics explored. –Bill

  51. 51
    Mark Mayers
    October 21st, 2008 5:07 pm

    Nice one!

    Thanks for including my ‘Invaders from Venus’ and ‘Pop Art’ tutorials!
    Mark

  52. 52
    SAMUEL HEIDEMANN
    October 23rd, 2008 12:33 pm

    Olha esse post com muitoooooos tutoriais para design retrô!!!!

    show de bola

  53. 53
    Abifahrt
    October 24th, 2008 12:34 am

    Very nice tutorials,

    thank for the collection

  54. 54
    faze1
    October 29th, 2008 10:41 pm

    thanks for the set,

  55. 55
    dim
    January 23rd, 2009 8:20 am

    great tuts…And also on http://www.designioustimes.com/tutorials/retro-sun-rays-–-photoshop-version.html you can find a great retro tut.

  56. 56
    fede
    January 30th, 2009 2:50 pm

    yo te di una ayuda
    nos vemos tu amigo
    de argentina FEDE
    SALUDOS

  57. 57
    chris davies
    March 26th, 2009 11:31 am

    superb, genius

  58. 58
    Aravind
    March 30th, 2009 11:31 pm

    Mind blowing collections!!!! I’ve been looking for things like this. Really fantastic collection. Keep it up.

  59. 59
    kenneth-ac
    April 5th, 2009 6:38 pm

    just marvelous, wonder if i’ll manage to do something similar, or at least respectable hahaha
    just kidding, i know i can…

  60. 60
    wjong
    May 22nd, 2009 9:08 pm

    nice tutorial, thanks for sharing

  61. 61
    ecoy
    September 13th, 2009 7:43 am

    some are good. some are just okay. noting superb. too see an artwork with a couple of vectors and grunge whatever is quite popular and in my opinion should not be the basis of coolness in terms of art.

  62. 62
    Kerrick
    November 4th, 2009 10:54 pm

    The very first tutorial is a broken link. The proper link is http://fx.worth1000.com/tutorials/161018/yet-another-colorization-tutorial

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