al-Hilal special issue ad, al-Kawakib 1952
American University in Cairo, Rare Books and Special Collections Library. al-Kawakib. RBSCL believes this item is in the public domain.
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 issue's theme, أغرب القصص, is drawn in huge hand lettering at the centre of a plain box, so the word strangest does the pulling on its own. Around it the copy stays short: the best and most enjoyable stories by leading writers of East and West. It ends with the only facts a buyer needs, out on the first of October for 6 piastres.
The big idea
A themed special issue sold on one intriguing word: 'the strangest stories', drawn huge in hand lettering at the centre of a plain frame.
The offer
A special issue of al-Hilal on the strangest stories, by leading writers of East and West, out on the first of October, price 6 piastres.
The proof
Stories by leading writers and men of letters of East and West, and al-Hilal billed as the East's first magazine.
Lines from the ad
اغرب القصصThe strangest stories
الهلال مجلة الشرق الأولىal-Hilal, the East's first magazine
يصدر اول اكتوبر الثمن ٦ قروشOut on the first of October, price 6 piastres
Steal this when
Use it when you sell a themed edition or special issue and the theme's name is intriguing enough to be the whole visual.
The emotion
Written to Curiosity. It does neither clearly.
Sells the issue on the single hand-lettered phrase 'the strangest stories' and says only that leading writers of East and West wrote them, with no sample story closing any part of the gap.
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