Orpheus Descending '57 Playbill

As an earlier Playbill design, the program for Orpheus Descending at the Martin Beck Theater in New York looks very different than what one would recognize as a typical Playbill. There is no bold yellow header with the iconic Playbill font, demonstrating how much the logo has evolved and how different it is now than its beginnings. The western-style font is aligned to the right side of the page and the text includes the article “the” in the title which has since been removed from the Playbill logo. 

The abstract illustration is intriguing to the viewer as the plot consists of a wandering guitar player who fell in love with a storekeeper's wife. There is a significant amount of negative space on the cover which guides the viewer across the page, pointing back to the black silhouette in the center which is the focal point. The different shades of gray add depth to the illustration and create an adept visual hierarchy of the supposed character Orpheus and the guitar lying in between the top and bottom text.