# Matchbox Label Techniques: Illustration, Vintage Design & Print Textures - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/matchbox-label-techniques-illustration-vintage-design-and-print-textures/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Illustration & Drawing · Solid intro · Rated 8 /10 # Matchbox Label Techniques: Illustration, Vintage Design & Print Textures Updated August 2026 Di Ujdi · Illustrator & Art Explorer Intermediate · 60 min Sixty minutes teach the visual logic of vintage matchbox art plus a full Procreate workflow for faking a real print flaw, not just admiring old labels. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fmatchbox-label-techniques-illustration-vintage-design-and-print-textures%2F1766261085) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. ## A design history lesson with a working method attached Matchbox Label Techniques opens where most vintage-design classes stop: with an actual argument about why the constraints of old printing technology produced good design. The teacher, Di Ujdi, frames matches as a product born from an 1826 accident and matured into a competitive market where small canvases, limited colors, and manual printing pushed designers toward visual economy. That framing matters because the whole course builds on it. Every technique taught later, from cutout negative space to two-color overlap printing, is presented as a direct consequence of a production limitation rather than an arbitrary style choice. The middle section is the strongest. Instead of just showing pretty examples, the class walks through a repeatable analysis method: study a chosen set of reference labels for background and border treatment, then typography placement, then illustration approach, then color and cutout use, then print texture. This is the kind of structured looking that separates a course from a mood board. It gives students a checklist they can reapply to any reference material long after the class ends, which is more durable than a simple style tutorial. The brainstorming stage that follows is similarly concrete. Rather than jumping straight to sketching, the process starts with word association lists split into physical imagery and emotional tone, then uses that emotional list to justify formal choices like straight calm horizontals versus diagonal energetic lines. Watching a brand concept called Horizon evolve from a cliche half-circle sunset into a mountain silhouette that doubles as a resting human face is a genuinely useful demonstration of how a design idea gets refined through iteration rather than arriving fully formed. ## Where the technical payoff lands The back half shifts into software, and this is where the course earns its intermediate label. The core technique is layering each color separately with multiply blend mode in Procreate, mimicking how vintage printers ran cardboard through the press once per ink. Overlapping two colors to generate a third, then fine-tuning that mix with hue and saturation adjustments on a live preview, is a smart way to simulate an offset-press limitation digitally. A downloadable color chart built from seven risograph-style hues gives the exercise real constraints instead of unlimited color freedom. The print-imperfection stage is the most specific payoff: roughening crisp digital letterforms with an ink brush, adding halftone shading at reduced opacity, deliberately nudging color layers to create misregistration, and finishing with either a Procreate paper-texture brush or a scanned book cover composited in Photoshop using clipping masks and levels. These are exact, reproducible steps rather than vague "make it look old" advice. The course has real gaps. Typography, despite being one of the two core elements of matchbox design, is explicitly pushed to a future class, leaving this one illustration-heavy by default. The Photoshop segment also assumes access to physical old paper or a scanner, though a downloadable substitute is offered. Anyone without basic Procreate layer and blend-mode fluency will find the pacing brisk. But for the stated audience, illustrators wanting a historically grounded, technically specific vintage print effect, it delivers exactly what it promises. The standout The multiply-blend color layering method that lets two inks overlap to generate a third color, mirroring real risograph and letterpress registration. ## What you will learn - · Read a matchbox label's historical design language: border treatment, typography placement, and illustration style across periods and regions - · Build a personal brand or advertisement concept through structured brainstorming lists that translate words and feelings into visual motifs - · Set up multiply-blend color layers in Procreate to simulate how vintage labels were printed one color pass at a time - · Use halftone brushes and layer nudging to reproduce authentic-looking print imperfections like ink bleed and misregistration - · Create a limited risograph-style color palette and exploit color overlap to generate a third color from two inks - · Finish a design with a scanned paper texture composited in either Procreate or Photoshop using clipping masks and levels adjustments Best for: Illustrators and designers with basic Procreate fluency who want a structured way to study vintage print aesthetics and reproduce them convincingly in a digital workflow. Skip it if: Complete beginners to Procreate or digital illustration, and anyone hoping for in-depth typography instruction, since that topic is explicitly deferred to a separate class. Engaging Teacher Clarity of Instruction Helpful Examples Actionable Steps [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fmatchbox-label-techniques-illustration-vintage-design-and-print-textures%2F1766261085)