Create Realistic Cell Phone Using Photoshop

Cell phone manufacturers have highly skilled designers who create beautiful handsets which we love to buy.

But have you ever wanted to design a handset on your own? If yes, then I will show you how to do this using Photoshop.


Before beginning let me avoid you to get distracted from this tutorial by telling what we’ll be using.

Well, we will be using only the layer blend and some shape tools that’s all.

Let’s being with the tutorial

Open Photoshop and create 4” by 6” document with resolution about 150 pixels/inch.

Create new layer (CTRL+SHIFT+N) and name it “Body” and choose a shape tool and draw a curved rectangle with following settings in the option box:


You’ll be creating shape similar to this:


Now highlight the layer and choose Blending Options layer style. In the Lyaer style window apply the following changes: (see the image below).

For Bevel and Emboss:


Gradient Overlay:

In the gradient color click on the gradient (highlighted in red).

Change first colour to #0d0d0d and last color to #333333.


Your final output will be:


Now duplicate the layer Body and put the duplicated layer below Body layer (refer following image for effect and process).


Now create a new layer for screen and draw a rectangle without any curves.

For the new layer apply following Layer style as we did last time for the body.

For inner shadow:


For Gradient overlay:

Choose first color as #2a2a2a and last color as #383838 in gradient color.


You’ll get the following result for the screen:


Show all the layers and you’ll have the final body with screen ready.


Now we are going to create buttons for it.

First let’s create a button base.

Choose curve rectangle tool with radius 25 px at the bottom part of the cell.


Apply layer style to it with following settings.

For inner glow:

Change the glow color to #C7C7C7


For Bevel and Emboss:


For Gradient Overlay:

Set first color to #191919 and last color to #1D1D1D.


The final image will be like below:


Create another similar but smaller shape to fit in the button base and apply following layer style.

For Bevel and Emboss:


For gradient overlay:


As we have drawn a large oval button part above the button base. What we need to do now is to separate it. Using selection tool delete the middle part of it.


And finally get the following result:


Now the buttons are ready. We’ll now add green, white and red color glow for the buttons.

Create another rectangle in the button and add layer style with following settings.

For Gradient Overlay:


Get the following result then:


Do same with rest of buttons with color variations and delete the slight middle right part of the red button since it is a call reject button.

Now we have the button setup ready:


Now lets head towards the header region of the cell phone.

First create a speaker hole.

Draw curved rectangle with following layer style.

For Bevel and Emboss:


You’ll see the following result then:


Create another curved rectangle over the previous one and change the Bevel and Emboss to following:


Now let’s add brand name to it.

Use type tool (T) to type the text.

For NOKIA logo, I used Arial Black and slightly modified “O” to make it looks like Nokia’s. and for XpressMusic I used Myriad font.


Now create a XpressMusic logo. I used custom shape tool (Right arrow) and a variously sized round button to create it.


Now let’s create a front camera.

Use circular marquee selection tool and subtract the circle with another circle over it as shown in figure:


Apply some bevel and emboss layer style and gradient layer style to it. Also repeat the above process for the inner circle but with different color settings to get final result somewhat similar to this:


Now your cell phone is almost ready. Only thing left to do is to add reflection to it.

To do so, select the region for the plastic reflection.


Fill it with linear gradient color with white and black composition. Level the opacity in the layer tool box.

And finally you have your Nokia 5800 XpressMusic ready.


Thus you got an idea about it. Now just use your imagination for designing other handsets too.

I hope you will enjoy designing more handsets using samilar methods.