The Saturday evening post, November 24, 1906 - 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 gap between the two figures is the selling device: they are drawn at the same scale on opposite edges, looking at each other, so the reader's eye crosses the empty terrace and starts inventing the encounter. The title line at the bottom then names what the reader has already begun to imagine, which is why it reads as a payoff rather than as a label. Holding the masthead as pure type and letting the picture sit on unprinted paper gives the issue its weekly consistency while the art changes every week.
Steal this when
Use this when a single named contributor or one story is the actual reason to buy. Stage the premise as an unresolved meeting, keep the middle empty, and put the title underneath as the answer.