Call me old-fashioned, but
there’s nothing nicer than receiving a thoughtful card in the mail, especially
during the holidays. So we’re going to create a fun, retro postcard that you
can actually get printed (or buy blank cards and print yourself) to send to
far-away family and friends.
We’ll be using Illustrator’s
built-in drawing tools to create simple vector illustrations and giving our design
some mid-century flair with retro fonts and inky textures. Alternatively, if you’d like to speed up and simplify the process, you can pick up some ready-made, retro-style ornaments and Christmas tree vectors.
Along the way, I’ll
include suggestions for colors and other settings if you’d like to duplicate
the results you see here, but feel free to change those to let your own style
shine through. Let’s get started!
1. Set Up Your Workspace in Illustrator
Step 1
Go to File > New and open a new document according to the settings
below; I’m using a standard U.S. postcard size. Also, if you’re planning on printing your finished postcard, make sure to create two
artboards for both a front and back side.
I’ve chosen to set the color mode
to RGB so the project will display well on screen. But if you intend to print
your finished postcard, you’ll want to convert the final file to CMYK to ensure
the colors come out right during printing. Our Beginner’s Guide to Prepping and Sending to Print also has some great tips.
Step 2
Next, we’ll install our color
palette for the design. I’ve included a file in this tutorial’s attachment. After we install it, the color
swatches we need for the design will pop right up in Illustrator.
Go to Windows > Swatches or select the Swatches icon from your panels toolbar. Click the button in the
upper right corner of the Swatches window, and in the drop-down menu that
appears, select Open Swatch Library > Other Library.
Find where you’ve saved the
attachment on your computer, then select christmas-postcard-palette.ase
and click Open.
And there you have it. I’ve
assigned each swatch a name and included the hex codes for easy reference:
Each time we use a color, I’ll
list both its name and hex code at first mention, and then refer to it just by
its name going forward.
Step 3
Open the Layers panel. Arranging your layers ahead of time will help you
stay organized during the design process and make certain steps much faster and
easier. You can set them up according to the order you see below. To name a
layer, just double-click on it—a Layer
Options box will pop up where you can type in a new title.
Step 4
As the final step of setting up,
you might want to download the assets we’ll be using in the design. That way,
you won’t have to pause and install them later. You can find links to each free
resource below:
First, the fonts:
- Go Long font (via Dafont)
- Gone font (via Dribbble)
- Engagement font (via 1001
Fonts)
And the texture brushes:
- Vector Brushes
(via Dribbble)
2. Create the Background
Step 1
Zoom in to the top artboard;
we’ll be doing the front side of the postcard first. Using the Rectangle Tool, fill the whole card
with the lightest shade of blue (mint / #D4EBE2). Make sure to extend the
background all the way to the red bleed lines, especially if you’re planning on
printing the postcard.
Step 2
For the snowy hillside part of
the background, use the Pen Tool to
draw a curving shape in white. If you find the Pen Tool troublesome, you can
try drawing the shape freehand with the Pencil Tool or Paintbrush Tool.
With any of these techniques, if
your curve doesn’t turn out quite as smooth as you would like, you can use the Smooth Tool (click-hold the Pencil Tool to access it) to clean it
up—just hold and drag the cursor across the path on any crooked or bumpy spots.
3. Add the Greeting
Step 1
Download the fonts linked above
if you haven’t already. We’ll be adding the greeting “Have a Merry and Bright
Christmas” (but feel free to change it to another phrase if you’re so
inclined), working from the bottom up.
Step 2
In the Text layer, type out
‘Christmas’ using the font Engagement at 85 pt. Change the color to red / #EF4428.
Position it above the hillside on the right side of the postcard.
Step 3
Next, type out ‘BRIGHT’ in all
capital letters using the font Gone. Adjust the size so it matches the width of
‘Christmas’—this should be about 40 pt. Position it right above ‘Christmas’ and
change the color to the darkest green option (evergreen / #2B9690).
Then, type out ‘MERRY’ above
‘BRIGHT’, using the same font and color and leaving some space in between the
two words. Again, make ‘MERRY’ the same width as the other two words; it will
be a bit larger than ‘BRIGHT’ at about 45 pt.
Step 4
Lastly, using the font Go Long at
35 pt, type out ‘HAVE A’ in capital letters and center it above ‘MERRY’. In
the Character panel, set the
tracking to 100 to space the letters
a little farther apart. Make the color turquoise / #77CCC8.
Type out ‘AND’ using the same
size and color as above and center it between ‘MERRY’ and ‘BRIGHT’. Set the
tracking to 50. If you like, you can add
a little extra retro personality by selecting ‘AND’ and going to Type > Create Outlines, and then
selecting Object > Ungroup. Now
you can adjust each letter to a different height (see below).
Step 5
Now for the finishing touches to
the text… If needed, adjust the vertical spacing between the words. There
should be roughly the same amount of space between each word, but it doesn’t have
to be exact—just do whatever looks right visually. You can also add some
triangular shapes or other simple embellishments on either side of ‘AND’ to
fill in those gaps.
When you’re done, you should end
up with something like this:
4. Draw Some Trees
Now it’s time for some fun
illustrations. We’re using a loose, angular style inspired by the 1950s and
60s. This mid-century aesthetic is purposely a little rough and
imperfect—that’s part of its charm. We’re replicating a style that was
originally created with design elements that were hand-drawn, hand-painted, or
cut from paper and pasted together.
So I’d encourage you to work fairly quickly
as you’re drawing the trees (and later, adding other objects and
embellishments); let that spontaneity come through in the design and don’t
worry too much about making everything perfectly straight or symmetrical. Above
all, have fun with it!
Step 1
Go to the Trees layer. Use the Pen Tool to create
a simple pine-tree shape (basically an elongated diamond with a rectangle
coming out the bottom). If necessary, adjust the size so it fits well between
‘Christmas’ and the right edge of the postcard. Make the color light green / #79C9B4.
If you want to go with an even
more minimal style, you can leave off the trunks and just create some tall,
skinny triangles to represent the trees.
Step 2
Create a few more trees and group
them on the other side of ‘Christmas.’ I used the light green again, along with
the turquoise for a little contrast. Select the green trees and change the Opacity to 45%; make the turquoise tree a little darker at 60%.
Step 3
Now we’re going to create some
tree branches coming from the left side of the postcard. The colors for these will
be turquoise and evergreen.
For the first one, select the Pen Tool again—if you’re not too familiar
with this tool, I’ll walk you through the steps, since we’ll being doing a little more than clicking in some straight line as we did for the trees:
- Set your first anchor point on
the left bleed line, near the upper corner. - To give the top of the branch a
slight downward curve, set your second anchor point lower than the first one
and about three-quarters of the way across to ‘MERRY’. As you place that second
point, click and hold, moving the cursor upwards slowly until the curve takes a
shape that you like. - Then, still using the Pen Tool, click on the anchor point
that ends your curve to convert it into a sharp corner. - Now keep going with the tool to create a series of lines and angles to represent pine needles on the branch, moving up and down back toward the corner where you started. Do this somewhat quickly and randomly, varying the lengths and widths of the needle shapes.
Step 4
Repeat that process to create a
second branch. I chose to have the second one curve upward to overlap with the
first branch. Select both and change the Opacity
to 55%.
5. Add Texture to the Background
Step 1
If you haven’t installed the texture brushes
yet, do that now. Open them up and select one of the brushes; I like Scatter
Brush 9 (the last one). Change the stroke color to white and the Stroke Weight to 0.25 pt.
Step 2
First we’ll add some texture
behind the Christmas greeting, so go to the Background Textures layer. Using
the shape of the text as a guide, draw some circular swirls and lines using the Paintbrush Tool with the texture brush
you selected. If you’re having trouble seeing what you’re doing, make the Text
layer invisible temporarily by clicking on the eye icon to the left of the
layer name.
Make your lines more concentrated
in the center and further apart as you move out toward the edges of the text.
I’ve included a shot with the text cleared away so you can see what the strokes
might look like. But there’s no need to try to copy that exact placement; just scribble
a handful of lines behind the text until you get an effect that you like.
In terms of size, you should end up with a rough
circle that sits between the pine trees and extends up to the top of the
postcard and down to the hillside.
Step 3
In the Layers panel, select everything in the Background Texture layer by
clicking the open circle to the right of the layer name. Then change the Opacity to 60%.
Here’s what you’ll end up with:
I also added a bit of a shadow to
the embellishments on either side of ‘AND’ to help them stand out a little
better against the background texture. If you’d like to do the same, select
both shapes, copy them (Command/Control-C),
and Paste in Front (Edit > Paste in Front or Command/Control-F). Then change to a
color of your choice; I went with the same color as the sky. Use your arrow
keys to nudge the colored shapes a little to one side of the white ones.
Step 4
Now, still working in the
Background Textures layer, we’ll add some texture to the snow using the same
method.
This time, I chose Scatter Brush 14 from our brush set.
Change the stroke color to mint and the Stroke
Weight to 0.25 pt. Using the Paintbrush Tool, draw a couple of squiggly lines under the trees
on each side of ‘Christmas’. Select both lines and change the Opacity to 50%.
6. Add Texture to the Trees
On to the trees. We’ll be using
the same texture brush technique plus an extra step to clip the textures to the shape of the
trees and branches. At first, the textures will look really messy, but don’t
worry—we’ll get it straightened out in no time.
Step 1
Go to the Tree Textures layer. Pick
a texture brush (I’m still using Scatter
Brush 14) and make sure the Stroke
Weight is still set at 0.25 pt. Make
the stroke color light green.
Step 2
Draw some curved or angled lines
along the edges of the three green trees with the Paintbrush Tool. We don’t want the textures to completely cover the
trees, just to accent an edge or corner. Then change the color to evergreen and
do the same for the middle tree in the group of three.
For the Opacity, change the green textures to 70% and evergreen one to 50%.
You’ll have something like this:
Step 3
Now we’ll go through some steps
to trim the textures so they fit the shape of the trees.
Return to the Trees
layer and select all four trees (leave the branches alone for now). You can
hold down Shift to select more than
one object at once. Hit Command/Control-C
to copy them, then lock the Trees layer—in the Layers panel, to the left of that layer’s name, you’ll see an empty
square. Click on it, and a small padlock icon will appear.
Step 4
Click into the Tree Textures
layer and select Paste in Front. More
tree shapes will appear on top of the trees and textures you’ve already
created. With the help of a handy tool called a clipping mask, we’ll use these
extra tree shapes like a stamp or cookie cutter to remove the bits of texture
that extend beyond the outline of the trees.
Select one of the trees and the
texture that goes with it by holding down Shift
as you click on them, and then go to Object
> Clipping Mask > Make. You can see the result below: the single tree
on the right has had the clipping mask applied… Neat, isn’t it?
Step 5
Repeat the process of applying a
clipping mask to the remaining three trees, one at a time. To speed this up,
you can use the keyboard shortcut for creating clipping masks, which is Command/Control-7.
Let’s check out our progress…
It’s starting to come together!
7. Add Texture to the Branches
Now you should have a pretty good
handle on this texture + clipping mask process—but if not, you get a little
more practice! We’re going to be using the same exact steps for the branches.
Step 1
Again using Scatter Brush 14 at 0.25 pt,
draw a line that roughly follows the curve at the top of each branch. The
first/top one is in turquoise at 100% opacity and the second is in evergreen at
70% opacity.
Step 2
Go to the Trees layer and unlock
it by clicking on the padlock icon. Select both the branches at once and copy
them, then re-lock the layer. Go to the Tree Textures layer and Paste in Front.
Step 3
Apply clipping masks to the
branch textures with the extra branch shapes you just pasted in. (If you need a
quick reminder: select one branch with its matching texture at a time, holding
down Shift, and then hit Command/Control-7.)
Here’s what we’ve got:
8. Hang Some Ornaments
Now it’s time to trim the tree
with some colorful, retro ornaments. In addition to the tools and techniques we’ve
covered already, we’ll be using the Ellipse Tool and some of Illustrator’s
built-in brushes.
First, let’s walk through the
steps to create the base shape for our first ornament:
Step 1
Go to the Red Ornament layer.
Draw a narrow oval in red; mine is approximately 155 px wide. The height
doesn’t matter much, since we mostly want it to fit nicely width-wise between
the left edge of the card and the group of trees.
Step 2
Now we’ll transform this plain oval into a ornament with just a few easy actions. Each step that follows is illustrated in the image below.
- Click on the red oval.
- Select the Convert Anchor Point Tool with a click-hold on the Pen Tool—it’s the last option in the
menu that pops up. With this tool, click on the top and bottom anchor points on
the oval; this will change the smooth points into sharp ones. - Now, from the
same menu, select the Add Anchor Point
Tool and add in extra anchor points roughly halfway between each of the
four existing points. - Now choose the Direct
Selection Tool and, one at a time, click on the top and bottom anchor
points again and drag them slightly outwards.
Now we have an authentic retro
ornament shape. Place in on the left side of the postcard below the branches.
Step 3
Now repeat those steps to create
a second ornament, making sure you’re now in the Pink Ornament layer. The
process will be exactly the same, except the orientation of the shape will be
vertical instead of horizontal:
Adjust the size and placement of this second ornament in a way that looks good to you. I like it overlapping a bit with the red ornament.
9. Add Some Texture and
Embellishments to the Ornaments
Step 1
First, we want to add some
texture around the edges of the ornaments. Go to the Ornament Textures layer
and repeat the same technique we’ve been using so far, with texture brushes and
clipping masks.
As before, I used Scatter Brush 14 here at 0.25 pt. This time, the Opacity for both stays at 100%.
When you’re done, lock this
layer.
Step 2
Return to the Red Ornament layer.
Use the Rectangle Tool to create a white band across the width of the ornament.
Or if you want to opt for a more retro look, use the Pen Tool to draw a slightly crooked geometric shape. Whichever you
choose, make sure the shape extends beyond the edges of the ornament.
Now select the base shape
underneath, copy it, and Paste in Front.
Select both the ornament shape and the white rectangle peeking out from
underneath it, and then go to the Pathfinder
panel and choose Crop. This
will trim the white band to the shape of the ornament.
Step 3
Go to the Embellishments layer.
Use the Ellipsis Tool to draw a
couple of ovals, and stack them on the pink ornament. I used the Direct Selection Tool to move some of
the anchor points and make them a little lopsided. The blue oval in my version
is our aquamarine color / #B1DED8.
I also chose to add some texture
to the inner oval to create a little depth, but feel free to skip this step if
you want.
Step 4
Now, using one of Illustrator’s
built-in calligraphic brushes, we’ll draw some strings to make it look as if the
ornaments are hanging from the branches. I chose an oval brush because it has
some width variation that makes it look a little more as if it was drawn with an actual brush.
In the Brushes panel, click the Brush
Libraries Menu button in the bottom left-hand corner, then select Artistic > Artistic_Calligraphic > 3
pt. Oval. Change the stroke size to 0.5
pt. Now select the Brush Tool. You’ll find that it’s
easier to draw the vertical portion of the string first (holding down Shift as you do to keep it perfectly straight), and then add the bow on
top separately.
Step 5
We’re almost done! Now it’s time
to add some festive decorations your ornaments. For mine, I used the same oval brush to
draw some loops and lines, and either the Ellipse Tool or the oval brush to add
some dots of color here and there.
Some stars, stripes, or zig-zags might also
be fun—play around with different embellishments, or feel free to copy what you
see here.
10. Add a Back Side (Optional)
If you’re planning on printing
and mailing your postcard, you might want to add a couple of embellishments to the
reverse side. I kept mine simple with a greeting and a dividing line to
separate the area for writing from the space for the address, along with a
smaller version of the group of three trees from the front side.
Awesome Work, You’re Done!
I hope you’ve had fun using brushes, textures, opacity settings, and other tools to create a layered, illustrative look for this retro Christmas postcard. I always like finding ways to make digital projects a look a little less computer-generated and a little more personalized and handcrafted, and many the techniques we’ve used in this tutorial are a great way to do that.
Feel free to share how your project turned out or ask questions in the comments section. Happy designing!
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