How to design a simple play button with Photoshop

In this tutorial you will learn, how to create a nice and simple play button using Adobe Photoshop.

Open a new Photoshop document with dimensions of about 500 x 500 pixels and a white background.

Choose the Rounded Rectangle Tool and set the Radius to 6 px (see picture).

Press Shift + Ctrl + N to create a new Layer.

Click OK to confirm.

Set a nice foreground color ...

... and draw a round square.

Press and hold Shift key to draw a perfect square.

Now right click the new square layer and choose Bevel and Embos...

In the Bevel and Emboss settings window choose the same settings as I did ...

... and the rest of the settings as well.

On the left click Stroke and choose the same settings as I did.

Choose Gradient as a Fill Type and Foreground to Background as a Gradient.

Click OK.

Now lets pull out some guide lines now, you need to click and hold the vertical ruler (see picture) ...

If you don't see any rulers, click Ctrl + R to make them visible.

... and drag it to the middle of your square.

Do the same with horizontal guide line.

Drag it from the horizontal ruler.

Now choose the Pen Tool.

Press Shift + Ctrl + N to create a new layer.

And click three points to draw a triangle (see picture).

If you want to learn more about the Pen Tool and how to make a selection using pen tool, click here.

Now right click you triangle path and choose Fill Path.

Choose Use: Background Color and click OK.

Now press Ctrl + T then resize and move your triangle so it end up looking something like this.

Press Enter to confirm the transformation changes.

Right click the new layer and choose Blending Options...

Click Stroke on the left and choose the same settings as I did.

Choose White color for a Color Fill.

Click Bevel and Emboss on the left and choose the same settings as I did ...

... and again choose the same settings as I did for Bevel and Emboss Shading settings.

Click Drop Shadow on the left and choose the same settings as I did.

Click OK.

Choose the Ellipse Tool.

Press D to set the black foreground color.

Click the square layer and press Shift + Ctrl + N to create a new layer.

Draw an ellipse like I did.

Right click the new ellipse layer and choose Clipping Mask.

Set the Opacity of the layer to 20%.

If you're not quite sure what a clipping mask is, click here for the clipping mask explained on an example tutorial.

And that's it!

If you need some help or just want to discuss the tutorial, don't hesitate and use the Forum.

Click here if you want my source PSD file from tutorial.
Click here for the PNG version of the button.