Graphic and Web Design

Open a document with 300×200 px and a white background. Press Control + Shift + N to create a New Layer, select the Polygonal Lasso Tool (press L) and create this shape and fill it with black:

Now press Control + J to duplicate the layer and go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal, now put those 2 shapes together and merge the layers:

Select the Eliptical Marquee Tool (press M) and make a selection like this:

Now with the selection still active, go to your Layers window and holding Control and Alt click in the shape layer -you can see how we deselected the diamond shape-:

Now grab the Marquee Selection Tool (press M) and deselect in the work area, the selection areas at the left and right of the diamond so we only leave the top selected:

Fill the selection with black:

Holding Control click the layer and go to Select > Modify > Contract and type 10 then click ok, instead of deleting this part we will recycle it, press Control + X to cut it and instantly paste it again while pressing Control + V (put the inner part layer underneath the other one and place it where it should be):

Right-click the inner shape layer (the one we extracted from the diamond shape) and go to Blending Options > Color Overlay, change the color to FFDE00 and click ok.

We did this since if we only select and fill the shape it wont do it right, it always leave a small border with the older color:

Right-click the black border layer and go to Blending options:

*Only the ones to be edited will be listed.

Outer Glow

-Structure-
Blend Mode: Normal
Opacity: 25%
Color: Black (000000)

-Elements-
Size: 25px

Bevel and Emboss

-Structure-
Depth: 1000%
Size: 6px
Soften: 1px

-Shading-
Angle: 90°
Altitude: 30°
Highlight Mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%
Shadow Mode: Normal
Opacity: 10%

Contour

Contour: Gaussian

Color Overlay

-Color-
Color: 670804
Blend Mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%

And you should have this:

Press Control + R to bring out the Ruler, while holding click in the ruler at the left, drag it to the center of the shape that we just applied Blending Options:

Press Control + J to duplicate layer, press Control + T -you will notice above that some boxes appear- type 96% in the boxes that have a W and H in front. Now select the Move Tool from the Tools window and when a window comes up, click Apply. Place the duplicated layer under the original and center it, leave the guide because we will use it to center the letter/word.

You should have something like this:

Now select the Type Tool (T), make a big box -to cover almost the whole document- and type your letter/word. Change the text size to 150 pt, if its too big then make it a bit smaller and select 670804 as the color. Put the layer on top of all and center it with the help of the guide. Now you can delete the guide (drag it out of the document) and press Control + R to hide the ruler:

Now we just need to merge the text layer with the border of the shield -the one we DIDNT resize-:

You might think we are done but hm…no, not yet. Create a New Layer (Control + Shift + N) and place it under the ones we just merged and now select the one above it and merge it with the empty layer we just created -this way we can work on the effect made by Blending Options-. You will notice that we still have the effect in the layer but theres no Blending Options on it, its now a plain layer.

Select the Dodge Tool (O), if you see above you will notice a dropdown menu named Range, change it to Highlights and set the Exposure to 50%. Right-click in the work area and select a Soft Mechanical brush -a circular blurred one- and set the size to 20, you might need to make it smaller at some parts.

Since we are highlighting, brush over all the white parts and you will get something like this -watch the difference-:

If you think its too bright, then just reduce Exposure.

Now, select the Burn Tool (O) and change the Range to Shadows and the Exposure to 50%. Put some shadow in the parts where you didnt highlight -watch the difference-:

Thats all, now you get to be a superhero lol. Play around with the steps in this tutorial because i know you can improve it.