Andrew Fairclough knows a thing or two about crafting digital design assets that make it a breeze for graphic designers to incorporate realistic textures in their finished work. He founded True Grit Texture Supply back in 2016, establishing a design resource that has built a reputation for offering “the best digital texturing tools money can buy.”
True Grit Texture Supply provides a variety of handmade texturing assets and brushes that make it easy to add halftone textures, distressing, and grain to design projects with ease. Andrew has spent well over a decade experimenting with and perfecting textures for graphic applications using real-world source materials in his work.
Andrew has noted that many of the people who use True Grit Texture Supply’s products are makers themselves: comic illustrators, indie game designers, those working in music and film, streetwear designers, and anyone seeking a screen-printed aesthetic in their work.
Largely designing his textures in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Andrew focuses on the smallest of details as he works, beginning with analog textures taken from real-world objects (like photocopiers, wood, and even folded paper) that are scanned and converted to digital textures.
In fact, that’s kind of how he began True Grit Texture Supply. Several years ago, Andrew was teaching some online courses and shared some of the textures he had made this way. After students inquired about whether or not he sold such assets to the public, he began to consider the idea — and ran with it.
Years and dozens of products later, True Grit Texture Supply continues to be one of the best resources for realistic textures with a vintage spin. One of our favorite products is Halftone Zine Machine, a one-stop resource that lets you recreate a “90s copy-shop vibe from the comfort of your studio.”
Halftone Zine Machine is an image processing kit that essentially brings the wonder of an old-school Kinko’s to your digital design workspace. Whether you’re working on an illustrated poster or marketing materials for an upcoming event, a t-shirt design with a heavily vintage aesthetic, product packaging with a retro spin, or even a series of graphics for a website, Halftone Zine Machine makes it easy to add a realistic halftone effect in seconds.
With the Smart PSD template sized at 4000 x 4000 pixels, this design pack is well suited to both print and digital designs. Smart PSD functionality allows you to switch patterns instantly while maintaining precise control over the pattern scale, image, and background color in a completely non-destructive workflow that keeps your original image untouched with live edits.
Halftone Zine Machine includes one copy paper texture and 14 unique halftone dot, line, noise, diffusion, and stipple patterns you won’t find anywhere else for exceptional versatility. It also includes five helper actions for fast processing and exporting multiple formats.
This design asset is intended for intermediate to expert Photoshop users and is recommended for use with Photoshop CS6 or higher. Halftone Zine Machine provides a quick-start installation guide and a detailed user guide with easy-to-follow instructions and some advanced tips and tricks you can try!
For best results using Halftone Zine Machine, the recommended hardware should feature a 2.4ghz processor (or higher) with minimum 8gb of RAM (16+ recommended).
Note: The actions included in Halftone Zine Machine will run in English only.
True Grit Texture Supply currently offers 26 products through YouWorkForThem, providing a variety of design tools that make it a breeze to add vintage textures to your digital work. If you love designing with a retro aesthetic, visit their portfolio to take a look at the rest of their products and grab your favorites!
