Design a Christmas email newsletter in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will guide you through the process of designing an email template for a clean holiday theme. We'll start from scratch and lay out in Adobe Photoshop. We will use some basic and intermediate techniques to start this design. Let's get started!

1th Step

Create Photoshop file (File > New ...) Set as shown in the following figure.

2nd Step

Set up the guides and we will design them in a 620px wide security area.

Note: The vertical guides are set respectively: 40px,80px,340px,600px and 640px.

Tip: You can also use the guideguide in the Photoshop plugin to set up guides.

3rd Step

Developing a good habit of classifying helps to ease the trouble of finding files during use. We create the name "Header", "message", "Best" and "Quote" respectively. Create groups, layers > New > Groups ...

Quickly create a group simply by clicking the folder icon at the bottom of the image below.

Prepare background

You shouldn't make your background too loud or distracting because many email users don't look at it on a small screen. It is also worth mentioning that the background should not be a picture because, by default, many e-mail clients will block it.

1th Step

Let's set up the background of the email first. Set the foreground color to onion-white #f6f9fb and press ALT + BACKSPACE to populate the background layer. You can also use any of the other light-colored settings you like, but it's best to be subtle in color because he doesn't distract the recipient's attention. Of course, different colors will bring the user a different mood.

2nd Step

Set up security zones and all messages are placed on a background. Select the Rectangle tool (U) to draw a 600px-wide white #ffffff rectangle.

Design Head

The head of a message is important, and the recipient of the message determines whether their time is worth further reading. Nicole Merlin, a very good email expert, thinks it's important to have a clear head in the mail.

"The head of the mail is very important and will be rejected if poorly designed." ”

In this tutorial, I will link the company name to prevent messages that are open in the browser from loading properly. Plus, include a big picture, as well as simple mood text to show the message of the holiday happy intentions.

3rd Step

Open the Header group and select the Horizontal type tool (T). Write the company name, why not use the company's logo? As I mentioned earlier, when your mail is opened, corrupted images or disabled flags are not visible, which makes the experience feel bad.

Pick the font that suits your company's brand title, place it on the top of the left and have a certain amount of white left around it. Here, I use the 18-pixel open Sans (Bold) font, the color is: Dark gray #434343.

4th step

This step is important, and the right-hand text at the top provides clickable links to prevent it from opening the mailbox in the browser without providing a good mail client (just a simple line of text links to do the job). I also used the Open Sans (semibold) font, the color is: Bright gray #666666, font 13px. Finally, place it in the upper-right corner of the message.

5th step

Great start! Go ahead, now we need to place images to get the recipient's attention. We will use a Christmas theme photo and add a gradient effect.

Draws a 600x300px rectangle using the Rectangle tool (U). Then create a new layer on top of it and use the gradient tool (G), drag the mouse from the upper-left corner to the lower-right corner, and pull a gradient that changes from red to green.

Holding down the ALT key and placing it between the layers below, a downward cut will be placed in the 600*300px rectangular box, as shown below.

6th step

When you download a picture of a string of lights on the tree, hold down the ALT key and place it on the gradient layer. Turn on cmd+ t to adjust the photo.

Tip: When you hold down the SHIFT key to draw/adjust the image proportions, the image will change proportionally.

7th step

Set a picture of a series of lights on the tree to overlay the layer blending mode.

8th Step

Write the main information. Use bold but elegant Playfair Display (bold italic) font, 52px size white (#FFFFFF) bold text, so that it has a festive feeling. Be sure to keep the information brief and clear when designing holiday mails.

Four. Information area design

Another thing to keep in mind is to design reusable blocks. For example, we will design a template so that users can change the title, master copy, and also need a button to call action. In addition, you can repeat this block and use a different message.

9th step

It is very smart to design a column in a message that can be easily produced in response to the layout. Open the message group and select the Horizontal type tool (T). Sets the font to 32PX, in bold black.

10th Step

Now is the time to do a more detailed, not too long, try to catch the reader's attention, leading the reader click action button. Using the same horizontal type tool (T), write down your copy, set the color to #666666, and the font is open Sans (Regular) 18px.

11th Step

Now put a button on the call action to make your message very useful. Create a new group called "CTA", using the Rectangle tool (U), select the foreground color to be red #de1816, and draw a rectangular shape to 240x40px. Then select the Horizontal Type tool (T) and enter the information for the button: white #ffffff,open Sans (Bold) and font size 14px.

At this point, you need to draw a divider line, the color is light gray #eeeeee, with the line tool (U) set high to 1px draw horizontal lines, the following figure.

Tip: Hold down the SHIFT key to draw a straight line.

Design the "Best" zone

The most common message in the email digest is that the reader may have missed the latest article of interest. At design time you need to remember that this is a dynamic element that requires a module to record message replacement information.

12th Step

Repeat the previously used message header layer by pressing cmd+ J (repeat) to drag it to the best group. Easy to change the title, and put it under 1 pixel line, while maintaining a vertical center of the rhythm.

13th step

Now, we'll list some of the best articles of the year. In this tutorial, I will use this site to tuts+ Web design pictures, titles, and descriptions.

Create a new group named "Article". Using the Rectangle tool (U), and holding down the SHIFT key, draw a 140x140px square. Then select a title map and drag it to the Photoshop window, create a clipping mask, and resize the image.

14th Step

Now you need to enter an article title and a short description so that the reader can click. Repeat the description layer of the "message" Group by copying and changing the font size.

15th step

Minimize the "Article" group, cmd+ J copy two times. Placing these repeating groups below, in turn, will make it easy to change the picture, title, and description of the article.

16th step

Finally, select them and use cmd+ J to put these layers in the best group, and have enough white left.

Design Inspirational Quote Text and Footer

Nearing the end. At the end of the page, place an inspirational text, followed by a Tweet button, and an inspirational quote to inspire the reader.

17th Step

Open the Quote group, use the Horizontal type tool (T), and write an inspirational quote with an elegant font. In this example, I use the Playfair Display (italic) font, the size of 24px and the color of the word is a gray #666666.

18th Step

Copy the tweet button to the Twitter website website. You can use the shortcut key SHIFT + CTRL + Cmd+4 screenshot as shown in the following figure.

19th Step

Last thing. The Write email message provides a fallback option. and use links, and add content backgrounds.

Congratulations, Finish!

The layout of the message is finished, the unwanted layer is removed, and the programmer is given it. This is the basic method of the whole design process, I hope you learn something.

Category:

• PS Getting Started Tutorial
• Christmas Theme _ Christmas