One, Two, Three (film poster)
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 title is not lettered as a title, it is written on objects inside the picture, so the name cannot be read separately from the image. Turning the count into a countdown with a lit fuse gives a numeral title a consequence, which is the only thing that makes a number a hook. Reducing the figure to four black shapes keeps the sheet readable from across a lobby and leaves the white balloons as the brightest objects on it. Setting every word including the billing in one brush hand makes the credit block part of the drawing instead of a typeset slab bolted underneath.
Steal this when
When the name is a number or a sequence, letter it onto objects inside the illustration and give the sequence a consequence, a fuse, a clock or a countdown, rather than using it as decoration. Use a single hand-lettered voice through headline and small print when the piece needs to read as one drawn object.
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