Ontwerp voor een boekband voor: Aart van der Leeuw, De kleine Rudolf, 1930
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
Title and illustration are made with the same brush at the same speed, so the lettering is not applied to the artwork - it is part of it, which is what makes a hand-drawn jacket look authored rather than typeset. Rust red is the only warm colour on the sheet and is reserved entirely for words, so the two text blocks read first against a field of grey. The frame at the top is left open on purpose: a closed box would demote the figure to an illustration, while the gaps let figure and title share one space. Uneven letter widths and a drifting baseline are the actual mechanism for the child's-eye register - regular lettering would read as adult and official and kill the promise.
Steal this when
Use this when a cover has to promise interior life rather than plot, and a photograph or a clean typeface would over-specify it. Brush the title in the same medium as the image and hold the palette to two colours plus the bare paper.