The chap-book (1894) [Two women wear red dresses] - poster
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
Drawing the same woman twice, slightly offset, converts a figure study into a repeating pattern, which is what lets the eye read the sheet as decoration and hold it longer than a scene would. The palette is locked to three inks, red, green and black on cream, with no halftone, so the negative shapes between the cloaks are as legible as the figures themselves. The masthead is set in conventional roman type rather than drawn lettering, which anchors the ornament to a real publication and lets one design serve as both wall poster and cover. Colour is used structurally: the red stockings at the foot pull the eye down through the flowers and back up.
Steal this when
Steal this when the brief is brand presence rather than a message, for example a cover, a booth graphic or a merchandise print. Repeat one figure with a small offset, lock to three flat inks, and keep the wordmark in ordinary type so the ornament stays attached to something real.