ABDZ-paper-photoshop

I've recently written about Google's newly launched visual design language called Material Design. The objective of this new design is to generate a visual language that synthesizes classic principles of nice design with the innovation and possibility of expertise and science. The idea is to generate a UI that has the best of both worlds, digital and physical. A quantity of the imagery they introduced in the spec share some common characteristics, like depth, paper style effects and vibrant colors. I decided to take a pass and try to generate an picture inspired by the Material Design styleguide.
So in this tutorial I will show you how to generate a simple composition in Photoshop inspired by the Material Design styleguide. The whole process will take over hour or even more in the event you get in to the details.

STEP 1

Open Photoshop & generate a used document. I am using 2880x1800 pixels, the resolution of my Macbook Pro.

STEP 2

With the Rectangle Tool (U) generate a rectangle & rotate it. For the colors I am using the Material Design color palette called Blue Grey (http://www.google.com/design/spec/style/color.html#color-ui-color-palette). The colors I will use will come from the palette, the only different will be the accent color.

STEP 3

Again with the Rectangle Tool (U) add another rectangle and rotate it again to generate the outer part of the A.

STEP 4

Duplicate the rectangle from the earlier step & move it a tiny bit to the right to generate a second pane for the left part of the A.

STEP 5

Do the same for the right part, but this time use pink for the accent color.

STEP 6

Keep adding rectangles until you have the form you like. Keep in mind to keep the idea of pieces of paper stacked.

 

STEP 7

For the textures I used to different techinques. The first is by using images and clip masking. The other is  by using patterns and layer styles. For this step they will use clip masking. Search for paper textures you need to make use of and paste in the document.

STEP 8

Change the Blend Mode to Color Burn and move the order of the layers.

STEP 9

For the Layer Styles, I used Bevel & Emboss, Pattern Overlay & Drop Shadow. Use the values below to see how I did. The largest change for the other layers will be the Drop Shadow values.

 

STEP 10

Here's the first sheet of paper with the effects.

STEP 11

Repeat the same process for the other sheets of paper. The main difference will be the drop shadow values.

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

After all these steps you will finish up with something similar to the picture below. It is vital to play with some values for shadow, bevel and also blend modes depending on the colors you pick. The palette I selected is not tremendous vibrant so it is a bit different than if I used a more vibrant and saturated tone. The shadows also make a immense difference. Some will must be more subtle while or will be long and strong. Those details will generate the depth you need for the composition.

Now it is up to you. I will keep playing with mine trying to improve the realism of the shadows and edges of the paper. I hope you have fun generating your own version. I also would like to thank Shutterstock for a quantity of the textures I used in this tutorial.