Harper's September (1895) - poster
The pattern
This still is filed under Issue-as-product mood sell.
Define
The issue is sold as a feeling: a face, a color field, a stance. Not as a table of contents.
Mechanism
Mood as SKU. The reader buys the atmosphere and trusts the articles will match. Zoning and figure do the listing's job.
Verdict
We publish a periodical or drop and the buyer chooses identity before they choose an article.
Why it works
Penfield splits the sheet into a picture half and a copy half with a hard ruled box, which lets one poster serve two reading distances - the green figure stops the passer-by, the contents block converts the person who has already stopped. Drawing the entire scene in one weight of blue line over bare tan paper, with only the dress filled, makes the flat green shape the sole visual event on a busy sheet. The contents are typeset with the title in lower case and the author in capitals, so the eye harvests the famous names first and the subjects second - the names are the actual selling argument. Ending the list with &c., &c., &c. implies surplus, suggesting the printed six are only the pick of what is inside.
Steal this when
Use this split when your buyer is bought by contributors, contents or lineup rather than by theme. Give the image half the job of stopping, then run a real, typeset, name-forward contents list in a ruled box in the dead corner, and close it with an implication of more.