Gebrauchsgraphik, vol. 2 no. 6 - cover
The pattern
This still is filed under Lettered cover hook.
Define
The cover is the hook, and the hook is lettering: a title treated as an image.
Mechanism
Type as bait. The words are drawn so they stop the hand before the contents are known.
Verdict
A journal, book, or issue must sell itself on a rack or a feed
Why it works
The cover demonstrates the service rather than describing it. A reader who buys commercial art sees the moment of making, which is exactly what he is paying for and never gets to watch. Putting the publisher's own Phoenix mark on the board inside the picture folds the client, the craftsman and the product into one image. The drawing is deliberately unfinished in the smock and tight only at the hand, which directs the eye to the point of work. All the business information is quarantined in one black panel at the foot, so the picture stays a picture and the issue number never fights the illustration.
Steal this when
You are selling a craft service and the finished output is unremarkable on its own. Show the practitioner mid-task with your own mark under his hand, and push every masthead, issue and imprint detail into one contained panel.