Create a minimalistic button with a ribbon in Photoshop

Richie

Creating buttons can be a lot of fun. It can be used in a lot of ways like icons, logos and even to represent price tags. Even though it is very simple and easy to create, they look minimalistic and are pleasing to the eyes.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a minimalistic button and we will wrap a ribbon around it. We will be learning a lot of effects and later styles in this tutorial. Instead of using Illustrator, I have used Photoshop because it gives a lot of flexibility and for those of you who are learning the basics of Photoshop, this will help you a lot. Also, I have managed to use only shape layers to create these buttons so that they can be expanded to any size, just like in Illustrator because these shapes are vectors. I have also included a free PSD. So, let’s get started.

Step 1:

Open a new document. Choose a desired size. I used a 512 x 512 px so that I can scale it down later, if I want to create icons out these.

Now, Using a Rounded Rectangle tool of radius around 20 px, create a square as shown below. Make sure the option is set to ‘SHAPES’ in the toolbar above (in Photoshop)

Step 2:

Double click on the shape layer (from the layer palette) and apply a Radial Gradient Overlay with the colors as shown below:

Step 3:

Now, in the gradient overlay options, Change the center of the gradient and place it somewhere close to the top of the square. Increase the scale value to something bigger, say 150%. Use the image below for reference

Step 4:

Apply a Inner glow with the settings as shown below. Here, I advice you to try out different contour graphs to get a thin and clear inner glow.

Step 5:

Now Apply a stoke of black color with an opacity of around 50% and of size 1 pixel. Apply a Outer Stroke

Step 6:

Now, Let us create a ribbon. Using Rectagular shape tool and a background color of light red, create a rectangle and place it at the corner as shown.

TIP : While rotating, hold SHIFT to get a perfect 45° rotation. Use the image below for reference in placing the ribbon

Step 7:

Now Go to Edit > Transform. This will allow us to transform the shape of the ribbon. Holding CTRL + SHIFT + ALT (in PC) keys, transform the perspective of the upper part by bringing it closer to each other.

TIP : Make sure the edges are parallel to the big blue square (Enable ‘GRIDS’ by CTRL + ‘ and zoom to 200% for a better view). Use the image below for reference.

Step 8:

Once that is done. Use the arrow keys to move the ribbon layer around pixel by pixel to get it to the perfect position.

Step 9:

Now, we need to create the other side of the ribbon. Using a ‘PEN TOOL’, and option set to ‘SHAPE’ and color set to BLACK, create this path as shown. Make sure this layer is below the big blue square layer.

Step 10:

Now, let us apply a gradient overlay for the ribbon. Double click on the ribbon and apply the gradient overlay with the settings shown below:

Step 11:

Now, let us apply a drop shadow effect.

Step 12:

If you observe, the drop shadow must appear only on the big blue square, but instead it appears on the other white space also. So, we need to remove that part.

Step 13:

Follow the steps shown below and you can extract the layer styles out of the layer. It is very important to know that this feature is very helpful of you want to edit only the layer styles and not the original image:

Step 14:

Now, we have the drop shadow effect as a separate layer. So, we can easily erase those imperfection that we saw earlier.

Using a rectangular marquee tool, create two selections as shown below and press delete.

Step 15:

Our final image looks like this:

Step 16:

Let us now create a name tag for this button. CTRL + Click on the big blue square layer to create a selection around it. Using the marquee tool and option set to ‘SUBTRACT FROM SELECTION’ create another selection as shown below:

Step 17:

The selection must look something like the image shown below:

Step 18:

Now create a new layer above the big blue square layer and name it ‘TAG’ and click on the gradient overlay icon from the toolbar on the left and apply a gradient overlay with the colors shown below:

Step 19:

Let us now apply some effects to this ‘TAG’ layer. We shall apply inner glow. Use the image for reference. Change the contour to what is shown below for a distinct appearance

Step 20:

The final image of the button looks something like this:

Now, you can put them all in one group and select the group and scale it to any size you want. It will maintain the clarity throughout. I created a simple button with it. So, You can download the PSD and start creating your own. Maybe try out new gradient overlays and stuff. Good Luck