The Chap-Book, Thanksgiving number, advertising poster, 1895
The pattern
This still is filed under Iconic figure claim.
Define
A single figure, drawn, silhouetted, or posed, is the whole claim. You can read it across a street.
Mechanism
Compression into a body. The figure is not decoration. It is the sentence. Distance-legibility is the test.
Verdict
Poster scale, outdoor, packaging at a glance
Why it works
The sheet works as one flat shape, not as a picture with type on it. Black and red are cut directly against each other with no intervening tone, so neither reads as background and the eye keeps reversing between them - that instability is what makes it hold a passer-by. Placing the figure's head inside the gap in the masthead forces image and title to be read in a single movement. Pushing the issue words out to the two margins stretches the design to the full sheet and states the timeliness at maximum width, all achieved with three cheap flat separations.
Steal this when
You are promoting a dated edition or a seasonal drop with no product image worth showing. Design the entire surface as one two-colour silhouette and let the subject break the masthead so the name cannot be read separately from the picture.