Design an Art Nouveau Billboard

Choose File → New. Set Unit to Pixels, Width to 2100 and Height to 720, then click Create.

Select the Background, set the foreground to #EFE3C2 and choose Edit → Fill. Run Filter → Add Noise at 6 in Mono so the paper isn't dead flat.

Click the rulers to drop guides:

• vertical guides at 40, 745 and 2060 on the top ruler
• horizontal guides at 40 and 680 on the left ruler

The guide at 745 divides the illustration half from the lettering half.

Rename Layer 1 to Mosaic. With no selection, fill the whole layer with sage #8FA079, then run Add Noise at 22 in Color. The noise gives every tile a slightly different tone.

Open Filter → Voronoi… and set Cells 24, Edge Width 6 and Seed 17. Turn on Preview and click Apply.

Fill the whole layer first. Voronoi samples a colour at each cell centre, and the cells need something to sample right up to the panel edge.

Art Nouveau panels rarely have square tops. Use the Lasso to click out a panel from 745 to 2040 across and down to 660, with a shallow arch on top: the corners sit at about 118 and the centre peaks at 62. Choose Select → Inverse and press Delete.

On the Mosaic layer, open Layer effects and turn on Stroke: #3B2A1E, Width 5, outside.

For the keyline, add a layer named Keyline. Lasso the same arch 13 px inside the panel and fill it cream #F6ECD2. Choose Select → Shrink by 3 and press Delete, which leaves a 3 px cream line.

Black grout fights the lettering. Select Mosaic and apply:

1. Filter → Brightness/Contrast with Brightness 10 and Contrast -55.
2. Filter → Hue/Saturation with Saturation 55 and Lightness -4, to bring the sage back.

The panel should now read as quiet texture rather than pattern.

Add a layer named Frame. Draw a rectangular marquee from 14,14 to 2086,706 and fill it #3B2A1E. Choose Select → Shrink by 12 and press Delete to leave a thick border.

Repeat with a marquee from 32,32 to 2068,688, shrinking by 3, for the thin inner rule.

For the corner ornaments, fill three stacked ellipse marquees at each corner of the inner rule:

• a dark 30 px circle
• a lemon #F2C230 18 px circle
• a dark 8 px centre

Add two smaller dots at the middle of the top and bottom rules.

Select Keyline and click New Group. Name the group Nimbus, then add a layer named Halo inside it. The halo is centred at 422, 360. Fill these concentric elliptical marquees:

• radius 306 in #3B2A1E
• radius 300 in gold #D8C28A
• radius 252 in #3B2A1E

Pick the Brush at Size 14 and Hardness 100, then turn on Radial Symmetry with 32 segments. Cmd-click the halo centre to move the symmetry centre there. Click once on the gold band, 276 px right of centre, then again one half-step around. That gives 64 evenly spaced dots.

Switch to Size 6 and terracotta #B5654A, and click between the dots.

Add a Lemon Wheel layer and fill three more circles: rind #E3A91F at radius 247, zest #F0C53A at 236 and pith #F8EFD0 at 226.

On a new Segments layer, lasso ten wedges in #F6D65A. Each one runs from near the centre out to radius 214, with a 5 px pith gap on either side.

For the juice, set Radial Symmetry to 10, Cmd-click the centre again and drag three short strokes inside one segment:

• Size 5
• Opacity 70
• colour #FCEBA8

Symmetry copies them into every segment. Turn Radial Symmetry off, then add an Inner Glow in #FFF4C4 (Size 16, Opacity 80) so the segments look juicy.

Add a Bottle layer above Segments. Lasso a bottle silhouette centred at x 422: a narrow neck from 150 down to 290, a sloping shoulder, and a body about 224 px wide ending at 638. Fill it with teal #2E6B6A.

Pick the Gradient tool and open Advanced…. Set four stops:

• #1E4A48 at 0 %
• #6FB2A6 at 26 %
• #2E6B6A at 50 %
• #143534 at 100 %

Choose Linear and drag across the selection from left to right.

For a more elegant neck, switch to the Move tool and drag the top-centre handle up from 150 to 104. Press Cmd+D to commit.

Give the bottle two effects:

• Stroke: #3B2A1E, Width 4, outside.
• Outer Glow: cream #F6ECD2, Size 9, Spread 100, which makes a crisp cream band.

That cream band is the cerne, the light contour that poster artists used to lift a figure off a busy background.

Build the rest from simple shapes:

• Cork layer: a copper #9C5A38 rectangle with a rounded top and a gold foil band, with a 4 px Stroke.
• Glint layer: two soft white brush strokes at Opacity 45.
• Label layer: four stacked ovals (dark, gold #D9B865, dark, cream).

With the Text tool, set Size 54 and click in the label to type LE. Measure the glyphs against the label centre and nudge with the arrow keys until they sit dead centre.

This shot uses Metamorphous. In the final polish step it gets swapped for Marcellus, because the uncial E read as "L€".

Add a Vines layer under the bottle. Pick the Pen tool and click-drag each anchor, so every point gets a smooth handle. The left vine runs from 72,705 up through 132,520, 122,330 and 182,150, then curls in at 312,110 and 284,158.

Click the ✓ Commit path button. Set the foreground to olive #3E4A24 and click Stroke Path in the Paths panel with Width 9. Draw a second vine up the right side of the halo the same way.

Mucha's whiplash lines come in two weights. Add thin spiral tendrils with the Pen and stroke them at Width 3.

Start each tendril at its curled tip in empty canvas. If the first click lands on an existing vine, it selects that path instead of starting a new one.

On a Leaves layer, lasso almond-shaped leaves in #5E7F3A (about 92 px long). Place them along the vines, alternating sides at about 55° to the stem. Keep every tip inside the inner frame.

Draw a 3 px midrib down each leaf with the Brush in #3E4A24, then add a 3 px outside Stroke.

In the Gradient Editor, set stops #FAE68E → #F2C230 at 45 % → #C98E17. Switch the tool to Radial.

On a Lemons layer, lasso each lemon as an ellipse with a small nub at both ends. Fill it #F2C230, then drag a radial gradient from a highlight at the upper left out past the lower right. Make six:

• two hanging from each vine
• two lying at the foot of the halo

Brush a curved 4 px stem from each hanging lemon to its vine. Then give the layer a 4 px outside Stroke, so the fruit matches the bottle's outline weight.

Select Keyline and add a Ribbon layer. Build the banner back to front:

1. Lasso the two notched tails in shaded cream #D9C79B, dropped 16 px below the band.
2. Lasso two small fold triangles in #A98E5E where each tail tucks under the band.
3. Fill the main band with a rectangle from 880,556 to 1930,620 in #F6ECD2.

A 4 px outside Stroke outlines the whole banner.

Set the headline in Metamorphous, a Google Font with organic, Nouveau-style curves, in #F2C230:

• Elixir at Size 215, right-aligned so its last letter ends at x 1985, with its top at 343.
• Lemon at Size 250, starting at x 872, with its top at 135.

Type Elixir first. A new text click inside an existing text layer's bounds edits that layer instead of creating a new one.

Staggering the two words leaves a pocket at the lower left for the medallion.

On both text layers, add these effects:

• Drop Shadow: #3B2A1E, offset 9, 9, Blur 0, Opacity 100.
• Stroke: #3B2A1E, Width 6, outside.

Together they give the classic poster look: a light fill with a heavy dark contour and a printed shadow.

Type SPARKLING TONIC OF THE RIVIERA in Marcellus, Size 36, colour #3B2A1E. In the Text panel, set Letter spacing to 7.

Measure the glyph box and move it until its centre sits exactly on the band's centre (1405, 588), with equal air above and below the caps.

On a Medallion layer centred at 1090, 445, fill four circles:

• radius 100 in #3B2A1E
• radius 96 in cream
• radius 80 in #3B2A1E
• radius 77 in lemon

Add 24 dark dots on the cream ring with Radial Symmetry, and a hard 7, 7 Drop Shadow to match the headline.

For the text, create a centred area-text block Maison / Citron in Metamorphous. Add EST. 1897 in Marcellus at Size 17 with letter spacing 3, and centre both in the disc.

Select Frame and add a Litho Grain layer on top. Fill it with mid grey #808080, run Filter → Clouds at Scale 14, then Add Noise at 25 in Mono.

Set the layer's blend mode to Overlay and its opacity to about 14%. The grey disappears, leaving a faint stone-litho mottle over everything.

A last critique pass caught four small problems:

• Medallion lettering: it crowded the dotted ring, so drop Maison Citron to Size 29 and re-centre it.
• Monogram: switch LE to Marcellus so it can't read as "L€".
• Ribbon spacing: select the ribbon and tagline together (Shift-click the second row) and press ↓ ten times, which gives Elixir room above the banner.
• Vine ends: on Vines, marquee the strip just above the bottom rule and press Delete so no stem touches the frame.

Check your history with a few undos and redos. Every step here undoes and redoes pixel-exactly. Then export with File → Quick Export PNG.