Hello. We are going to make GoDaddy's advertising banner. Although it isn't a particularly complexed banner, some of the techniques I will be using might be new to you. So, even if you're familiar with Photoshop; it might be worth looking at. The origional GoDaddy file looks like this..



Most advertising banners of that size, are 468x60 pixels. So, we can go ahead and make a new document in Photoshop File > New . Most people i'm sure have never looked into the Photoshop Preset canvas sizes before. But, it's quite handy as there is the size we are looking for anyway.



The base colour of this, is #B2D316 (Which is the nice lime green). So, set your foreground colour to #B2D316, and then fill it Edit > Fill - Foreground Colour. (Or ALT + Backspace)



Now for the circles, you don't have to draw each one individually. We can make them a pattern. So, if we make a new document 10px by 10px. And make the background transparent.

Now, with a hard 8px paintbrush, and your foreground colour set to white; just click your mouse on your canvas (Zooming in here might help)

Then click, Select > All (Or CTRL + A), and then Edit > Define Pattern, and name it Dots



Now, on the banner - We can see that all of the dots are slightly rotated. So, lets make a new document. To be on the safe side, let's set our canvas size to 800 x 600, and again.. transparent



Now, if we click Edit > Fill - We will be able to add our dots to the canvas by filling it with a pattern, the one we've just made.



Great! Now, let's rotate them. Edit > Free Transform. I've done the math, and worked out they're around -18 degrees. So, type that in (see below)
Click to enlarge


Now, press enter (Or select your move tool, or click the green tick) to confirm it.

We want all of thoes dots onto our banner. So, instead of doing it the long winded way (Which ever you usually do it, maybe save and then import.. or select all..) we will do it the short way.

So, position your two windows in a tiled position (See below). Grab your move tool.. and drag the dots onto the green canvas!



Great! Now.. we don't have to mess about recoloring them. Since the dots are white, we can just set the blending options to soft light, and drag the opacity down to about 50%



Right. Now, let's make some of these circles. Here, allot of people will make several circles, and have to cut away bits. Oh no. Make aother new layer Layer > New > Layer - And straight away, go onto the blending options Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options.

First of all, we are going to add a drop shadow. But it doesn't have a drop shadow? It can.. Apply the following settings. (That color is #ffffff)



Now, don't forget - You wont see anything because there is nothing on the layer yet.. but don't panic. So, let's add a colour overlay. That color is #FF3300
Click to enlarge


And finally, a stroke. Now, weather it's a fault on Photoshop or not, is irrelevant. The fact is, that when you set opacity to 0% on a stroke.. it will cancel everything below it out. Which is perfect for us! click the image below to enlarge.



Now, with a hard paintbrush (I used size 95px for the left one, and 85px for the one on the top) You can go ahead and add your circles.



Easy. Now, let's add the text for that. Now, because there is a few different text sizes there, you might as well make each new line a new text layer.. So.. for the HUGE text, i used Arial (bold), Size 23 pt, Character spacing set to -80. Set it to white, and rotated it a little.



It would be a good idea to duplicate that layer then Layer > Duplicate Layer, and just adjust that for the DOMAIN text. For this, i made the font size 12pt, and changed the character spacing back to 0 (from -80)



Duplicate that one, for the SAVINGS text. But change the character spacing to -60 this time.

The exclamation mark, is size 27pt



Use this technique for the other text too. The $6.99 text, i used FranklinGotTDemCon, #FF3300.. with a 2px white stroke (but 90% height). I kept having to play with the sizes, obviously.



For the "FREE EXTRAS" text.. I went back to Arial, white.



For the circle. Make a new layer, and set your foreground color to #E0EEA2. Now, with your paintbrush, make a circle at the bottom right. (I used a 160px brush)



On GoDaddy, you can just save and open their logo - and then paste it onto your document



You can use your eraser to delete the parts you don't need.. and then add a 2px white stroke to it. Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options



The www.GoDaddy.com is again, Arial (bold) Set to black at 11pt, and -40 character spacing.



The border is simple. Make a new layer Layer > New > LayerClick Select > All and then Edit > Stroke and add a 1px INSIDE stroke in black!



Cool! Now just add the ICANN logo, and you've finished! I don't think they look so different.




Want the PSD? Click here to download it