De Stijl advertisement page: Le Neo-Plasticisme
The pattern
This still is filed under Exhibit in the column.
Define
An image is dropped into the column of type so the reader meets picture and argument in one scan.
Mechanism
In-flow exhibit. The figure is not a separate see fig. 2. It starts the paragraph. Eye and mind start together.
Verdict
Long copy must show as well as tell: a product cutaway, a before/after, a map in the story.
Why it works
The black bar under the title is the entire design decision: it gives the headline a base, divides the announcement from the ordering information, and functions as an underline scaled up into a rectangle, which is the neo-plastic idea applied to a piece of jobbing typesetting. Two typographic voices sort the transaction for the reader - upper and lower case for the Paris publisher who made the thing, letterspaced caps for the Leiden office that will send it - so source and supplier are distinguished without a word of explanation. Nothing describes the pamphlet's contents, because the author's name is the argument.
Steal this when
Steal this when the name on the work sells it and any description would only dilute it - a known author, artist or brand releasing something new. Use a solid bar under the title to split announcement from ordering detail instead of adding a subhead.