In Washington's day by Woodrow Wilson begins in Harper's January (1896) - 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
The type is dropped into the empty blue around the portrait, so the credits read as a caption ring rather than a paragraph and each name can be taken in one glance. The single recognisable face does the attention work that a headline usually has to do, then the small black type converts recognition into a specific claim about who wrote it and who drew it. Putting the huge orange HARPER'S JANUARY over the dark uniform rather than on the blue ground is a contrast decision: it is the only place on the sheet where the type could be that large and still be the loudest thing. Naming the issue instead of the magazine forces a dated purchase, which is the actual mechanism - a serial start is a deadline.
Steal this when
Use this when a known name or a known face is launching something inside a dated container - an issue, an episode, a cohort, a season. Put the face first, ring it with the credits in small type, and make the date the largest element so the ask is buy this one, now.