We deal with a lot of submitted artwork at Etchstar, and most of the time they’re small JPEGs and other raster images that come out sub-par when we laser etch/engrave them on the back of an iPod, iPhone, laptop, etc. It’s troublesome and something we don’t like to see.

Today, we wanted to show you how to create superb and fun vector artwork to use for laser etching, as well as, for stencils, stickers, wallpapers, layouts, and more!

Vector artwork comes out a lot cleaner, as well as, allows you to scale without turning pixelated or blurry. For example, you could use vector artwork on a business card, as well as, on a poster and they would both would be clear and sharp.

For this tutorial, we decided to pick a popular person in the news lately, Senator and President-hopeful Barack Obama! He already has a beautiful poster floating around (thanks to Shepard Fairey) that captures our desired vector artwork goals.

Step 1: Choose the Perfect Photo
We jumped on Flickr, and looked for a Creative Commons photo that we could use which would capture the passionate Obama, but at the same time, be easy to cut out from the background.

We chose this shot, taken by Mr. Fajardo, of Obama at a Denver rally. Thanks Michael for sharing! http://www.flickr.com/photos/mfajardo/2236473259/

We chose this shot, because it’s clean, clear, and the background can be easily removed (due to it’s light nature.)

Step 2: Open it up in Photoshop and Crop Accordingly
We cropped the crowd out and focused on everything above the waist.

Step 3: Convert to Black and White
Go to Image —> Adjustment —> Black and White

Play with this, and try to make the background as white as possible, while at the same time, keeping the facial traits of Obama strong and easy to identify. This is why choosing a great photo is so important.

Step 4: Make the Background White
I created a layer mask, and removed any debris or dark areas around Obama to create a solid white background. You could easily do this with an eraser tool, but the layer mask gives you room for error and freedom.

Step 5: Save as a High Quality JPEG and Import in to Illustrator
I flattened my image, saved as a high-quality JPEG and opened up Illustrator. Once Illustartor was open, I opened the JPEG through Ilustrator, it should look like this:

Step 6: Live Trace in Illustrator
Once the image of Obama is loaded in to Illustrator, select it by clicking it, and click the button on top called “Live Trace.” This converts it to a vector image. You’ll see presets in a drop down bar at the top (the first being “Default”). These presets create different “styles.” I personally like copying and pasting images on top of each other and setting different presents to create one interesting layered vector image.

Check out the final Obama laser etching/engraving artwork! Now it’s time to load up the laser etching machine and get this bad boy lasered in to the back of my iPhone! (how perfect…)

Download my original Photoshop file (with white background) and my final Illustrator/vector file!

Hope you enjoy! Post your vectors for others to see and use!