---
url: /blog/create-an-iphone-advertising-poster/
title: "Photoshop Tutorial: Create a Smartphone Advertising Poster"
template: ai-article
priority: 6
wordCount: 2246
lastModified: 2026-05-22T23:31:56.746Z
category: blog
site: "The Graphic Design School"
tokenCount: 1406
---

# Photoshop Tutorial: Create a Smartphone Advertising Poster

> Step-by-step Photoshop tutorial for creating a smartphone advertising poster, covering setup, brushes, lighting and compositing techniques.

**Keywords:** Photoshop tutorial, smartphone advertising poster, advertising poster design, product launch visual, bold composition, controlled lighting, product advertising, Photoshop workflow, brush layering, blending modes, C4D renders, colour grading, PSD file, high-resolution image, canvas setup

Create a Smartphone Advertising Poster in Photoshop raphaelOriginally published 15 March 2014Updated 12 March 20269 min read Finished smartphone advertising poster — the result you are working towards. Originally published 2009. Updated March 2026. Advertising poster design is one of those skills that transfers across every medium. Whether you are creating a product launch visual for a client or building a showpiece for your portfolio, the principles are the same: bold composition, controlled lighting, and a product that commands the frame. This tutorial walks through the full Photoshop workflow for building a dynamic smartphone advertising poster — from blank canvas to finished composite. The techniques here — brush layering, blending modes, C4D renders, colour grading — are still current and directly applicable to product advertising work. Note: The downloadable PSD file and high-resolution final image below are currently being restored from archive. Check back soon, or work through the tutorial with your own product image. See the final result at its original size Download the Photoshop Work file (v2) Step 1 Open Photoshop and set up your canvas. You need room to work — a 940 x 710 px canvas is a reasonable starting point, but adjust to suit your project. Pick a solid, dark background colour and fill it with the bucket tool (shortcut: G). Dark backgrounds make lighting effects far easier to control than light ones. For this tutorial, use black. Step 2 Grab a decorative brush set and create flowing, pen-tool-style shapes around the centre of the canvas. If you need to install a new brush set, read the section below first. Installing Brushes Download your brush set — it will arrive as a .abr file or inside a .zip. Unzip if needed. In Photoshop, select the brush tool (B) and open the brushes dropdown from the top bar: Photoshop brush dropdown — click the menu icon to load new brush sets. Click the menu icon in the top-right corner and choose Load Brushes. Select your .abr file. The new brushes appear at the end of your current list and are ready to use. Step 2 (Continued) The brush set used in this tutorial can be found at DeviantArt — search for decorative or abstract brush sets. Full credit goes to the original creators. Once your brush is loaded, draw a few flowing shapes outward from the centre of the canvas, plus some small circles spread across the composition: First brush layer — flowing shapes radiating from the canvas centre. Colour choice matters here and will inform the whole piece. Warm colours (red, orange, yellow) read as energetic and bold. Cool colours (blue, green, purple) feel more sophisticated. Commit to a direction and maintain it throughout. Duplicate the layer (right-click > Duplicate), then flip it horizontally via Ctrl/⌘+T > right-click > Flip Horizontally. Centre the reflected shape below the original: Symmetrical brush layer — duplicate flipped horizontally for balance. Step 3 Now work with Photoshop’s default Soft Round brush (9px, pre-installed). Open Brush Settings and apply the following configuration: Brush settings panel — Shape Dynamics configuration. Brush settings panel — Scattering configuration. Brush across the canvas in white, covering the main working area. Set this layer to Normal blending mode at around 85% opacity. The result should be a soft, atmospheric texture: White scattered brush layer at 85% opacity — atmospheric background texture. Step 4 Using the Pen Tool, draw tech-style shapes radiating from the centre of the image. Abstract brush sets that mimic circuit board or mechanical forms work well here. Use a soft brush eraser to soften the edges of some shapes: Step 5 This step introduces C4D renders — Cinema 4D renders that designers use as compositing elements in Photoshop. If you are already familiar with them, skip this paragraph. C4D renders fall into two types. Effect C4Ds provide lighting elements: glows, lens flares, reflections. Render C4Ds are abstract 3D forms used to add depth and complexity to a composition. Both types are widely available on DeviantArt — search for “C4D render” or “C4D pack”. All C4Ds used in this tutorial are visible in the provided .psd file. Download it to see exactly which elements were used. Find a flowing Render C4D in a bright colour that complements your brush shapes. Resize it, erase the sections that do not fit, and position it to follow the direction of your Pen Tool shapes: Render C4D positioned and masked to follow the brush shape direction. Duplicate it, flip horizontally, and position symmetrically on the other side: Step 6 Add a second C4D — compact, with few stray elements — to the centre of the canvas. Set its layer blending mode to Lighten using the dropdown in the Layers panel: Layers panel blending mode dropdown — set this layer to Lighten. Then go to Filter > Distort > Ocean Ripple and apply these settings: Erase any areas that do not blend cleanly with a soft brush. Your composition should now look something like this: Canvas after second C4D layer with Ocean Ripple applied. Step 7 Select a third C4D that functions as a ‘shell’ — a form that appears to wrap around or frame the product you will place in the next step. Position it carefully, keeping in mind where your phone will sit. The .psd file makes this relationship clearer if you are unsure: Shell C4D positioned to frame the product placement area. Here is the shell C4D isolated on a black background for clarity: Shell C4D in isolation — understand its form before compositing. Step 8 Now place your product. Start with a clean product photograph on a plain background. Open the image in a separate Photoshop file. Right-click the Background layer and choose Layer from Background. Crop tightly around the product using the Crop tool ©. If the background is plain, use the Magic Wand (W) and experiment with Tolerance settings until you have a clean selection. Delete the background.