John Howrey, Design LeaderFor new work
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Experiment · shipped

The Broadway Oracle

A printed Broadway-lyric oracle deck and a daily-pull social reel

The Broadway Oracle deck on white marble: a black-and-royal-blue tuck box at the top of the frame with the THE BROADWAY ORACLE wordmark on the side, and a deck of cards splayed on the marble below. Each card shows a royal-blue back with white linework: twin theatre spotlights, a stage curtain, a sun-ray oracle emblem reading THE BROADWAY ORACLE, and zigzag borders that read as marquee bunting.

The Broadway Oracle is a real, printed, shipping deck of Broadway-lyric oracle cards. Pull one in the morning. Read the line. Start the day on it.

A second life of the deck runs as a daily reel on Instagram. Each morning a card gets pulled on camera. The deck shuffles. The camera moves overhead. The caption reads "Today's Broadway Oracle." The product and the audience meet again every day.

In motion

Shuffle. Fan. Pull.

A deck is a thing you do, not a thing you read. The motion below is the actual rhythm of using it. Riffle. Cut. Fan. Reveal. Each clip plays on loop because the action is the design.

The card back

Two spotlights, one curtain.

The card back is the brand. Two stage spotlights crossing over a curtained proscenium, a star-bordered bunting along the top and bottom edge in scallop and zigzag, and a sun-ray oracle emblem at the center reading THE BROADWAY ORACLE. White line-art on royal-blue printed on a black tuck box. Theatre marquee dressed in tarot vocabulary.

The card-back artwork: a black field with white line-art rendering twin spotlights crossing over a stage curtain, a sun-ray oracle emblem in the center reading THE BROADWAY ORACLE, and zigzag/scallop borders that read as marquee bunting.A single printed card held to the camera: same composition rendered in white-on-royal-blue, the curtain folds painted into the negative space behind the spotlights, the sun-ray oracle emblem centered, the dimensions and proportions of an actual playing card.

The face

One lyric. One show.

Each face holds one lyric, one show citation, and one piece of art tied to the song's emotional gesture. "Out of the darkness, into the spotlight" pulls a lightbulb-faced figure in a tuxedo for Everybody's Talking About Jamie. "Elevate Your Spirit" and "Defy Gravity" run as chunky 3D outlined display caps for the unstoppable lift of Wicked. The illustration carries the feeling. The type carries the message.

A printed card face: an illustrated figure in a tuxedo with a glowing yellow-and-pink lightbulb where its head should be, against a black ground. 'Out of the darkness, into the spotlight.' set in white sans body copy across the lower half. 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie' as the small white footer citation.A digital card-face study: black field with ELEVATE YOUR SPIRIT set in chunky 3D outlined display caps stacked across three lines, white outlines with a subtle drop shadow giving the type a marquee-light feel.A digital card-face study: same black field, DEFY GRAVITY set in chunky 3D outlined display caps in two lines. The type leans on its outlines to glow off the ground.

The reel

Today's pull.

Each morning a card gets pulled on camera. The deck shuffles. The camera moves overhead. The caption reads "Today's Broadway Oracle" with the date underneath. Below: two morning pulls running on loop, captured on the actual marble counter where the daily reels are shot.

A printed thing wants a live ritual. The deck on the counter is the artifact. The reel in the morning is the practice. Without one, the other is a souvenir.

Closing