Marriage redux

In reorganizing this blog and the tabs above, I spent time going back through the posts. One of them involved designing a graphic for the play A Contemporary American’s Guide to a Successful Marriage © 1959. It’s about two Iowa couples trying to do marriage by the book.

My early attempt meant to pay homage to the 50s, but why not something more closely related? The website abebooks.com deals in used and hard to find books and they sometimes post themes. A recent one was entitled: Fascinating First Editions from the 1950s. A very good place to start. But something else was around in the 1950s … What was it? Ah! The Kinsey report! Actually, two of them: Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, and Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.

 

Borrowing from those cover designs, you have something pretty straightforward, but let’s have it look like a book that’s been picked up and used. Going into Photoshop, I applied a variety of brushes at different opacities of white and black to show wear and smudging. Use your best judgment when attempting something like this. Remember, you can always go back a few steps and try again. Be sure to have your original file safe in case you have to start over. (Don’t think it won’t happen to you, ‘cause … You know … Karma will find you … When you least expect it ...) If you have an older book whose dust jacket has seen better days, it may help to have it in front of you as a reference.

Clean copy on the left, slightly worn on the right. 

I shouldn’t have to say this, but this graphic is most ideal for a program cover. Using the same font, at a slightly smaller size than the author, put the theatre company name above the title: ACME Theatre Company presents …

Sounds like snarky, retro fun ...

Every so often, I get an update from Dramatists Publishing and Samuel French as to what scripts they've acquired to help keep somewhat current with theatre. In checking my email over the weekend, I saw such a notice; this one from Dramatists. And in that notice was the title A Contemporary American's Guide to a Successful Marriage (c) 1959 by Robert Bastron. Oh, I've got to read about this! [click]

"In retrospect, the 1950s were a lot like Bizarro World: a period when much of what seemed right turned out to be wrong, and much of what was considered bad turned out to be wonderful. That's the very solid foundation for this play, which focuses on two Iowa couples who get married "by the book" and then live to regret it…The script by Robert Bastron is funny and smart throughout." —HYReviews.com. "A hilariously compelling and earnest story." —NYTheatre.com. "A very funny play…Robert Bastron's script gets a lot of laughs." —CurtainUp.

It goes on to say the story is played out like the how-to films of the era, you know the ones I mean. I knew almost immediately what kind of look I would do to promote the show.

There are some industrious folks out there who design the craziest typefaces, some have nothing to do with text, they're illustrations. Several have done some retro looks from the 1950s:  people, and one with sci-fi images. Here's what I've got so far ...

I tried a white background, but the pastels pop more on black, more so than I think a darker blue or pink would on white (or black). The two typefaces are reminiscent of those found in the 1950s. The faces are from one of the retro fonts, with a little tweaking. For some reason, the winking woman makes me think there's a little something extra in the man's coffee, like arsenic. Although, I wish there was one with a man smoking a pipe, that would really seal it. I'll keep looking.