Lettered cover hook

The pattern

This still is filed under Lettered cover hook.

Define

The cover is the hook, and the hook is lettering: a title treated as an image.

Mechanism

Type as bait. The words are drawn so they stop the hand before the contents are known.

Verdict

A journal, book, or issue must sell itself on a rack or a feed

Why it works

The word الموسم is drawn so large and so abstract, in hatched strokes of three colours, that it reads as a poster before it reads as a word, which makes the annual issue feel like an event. Everything else is kept to two small boxes: next Tuesday and the annual masterpiece at the top, then 132 colour pages, a large colour gift and the price at the bottom. The white space between them tells the reader this issue is different from the weekly one.

The big idea

The annual issue is sold as an event: one giant hatched word, al-Mawsim, fills the page, and only the date and the extras sit around it.

The offer

al-Kawakib's annual al-Mawsim issue, out next Tuesday: 132 pages in colour and a large colour gift, for 10 piastres.

The proof

A hard number behind the word masterpiece: 132 pages in colour, plus a large colour gift.

Lines from the ad

الموسم

The Season

الثلاثاء القادم

Next Tuesday

التحفة السنوية التى تقدمها الكواكب

The annual masterpiece that al-Kawakib presents

Steal this when

Use it when an annual or special edition needs to stand apart from the regular product, and bold lettering can carry the difference with almost no copy.

The emotion

Written to Excitement. It makes the Say move.

The giant word al-Mawsim makes the annual issue an event, then the ad gives the day, next Tuesday, what is inside, 132 colour pages and a gift, and the price.