Distressed

I'm still really digging the grunge/distressed look. It's been around for a long time now, and I see it everywhere, mostly on advertising fonts.

Working in vector, my favorite way to achieve a distressed effect begins in Photoshop. I create a 12" x 12" transparent 300 dpi document and use a wide variety of free web grunge brushes in black. Saved as a png, I open it in Illustrator, use Live Trace, then work it into a seamless tile. 

It is now a vector grunge repeat that I can lay over an existing design. 

Here's a recent example:

I love it!