The culture magazine The Believer had a long tradition of not displaying ads in its pages. It was a privilege, therefore, that Vertical was offered the inside front page ad in the July/August 2008 issue, as it was the first ad space that the magazine had given. It did come with a catch: the cover for that issue was to be die-cut, meaning the ad would have a hole in it.
The solution, I decided, would have to call attention to the hole rather than pretend that it's not there. It was my hope that the tagline had an alternative reading as "Discover what ______ you're missing," where the reader could write or fill in whatever they liked.
The original, uncut ad.
Ad detail.
The ad's position in the magazine, along with how the gimmick was supposed to work (inset).
