The lark, February (1896) - 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
The rising diagonal horizon and the figure's backward tilt both point up and right, and the lettering panel is parked at the bottom right where that movement is heading, so the type is arrived at rather than looked for. Drawing the man in outline only, with no fill, makes him a hole in the green rather than an object on it - a cheap way to keep a single flat colour reading as space, not as background. The blackletter panel is the only rectangle on a sheet of curves and diagonals, which is why it holds despite being small relative to the figure.
Steal this when
Steal this when you have one colour, one figure and a date to announce: outline the figure so it costs no ink, then cut a clean rectangle of bare stock for the words. It is also the structure to copy when you want the picture to perform the act of announcing rather than illustrate a story.