People we pass (1895) - poster
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 picture is a literal demonstration of the title rather than a decoration of it, so the reader decodes the promise before reading a word. Penfield differentiates seven figures in a shallow crowd using pattern instead of tone, which is what lets a four-colour lithograph stay readable at distance while still feeling crowded. Putting all the type inside a hard-edged white rectangle treats the copy as a label stuck on the image, so the drawing is never broken and the type block reads as one object the eye can find. The figures cropped at both edges imply the crowd continues past the frame, which is the whole subject.
Steal this when
Use this when the product name is a phrase the audience already lives through daily and a single image can act it out literally. Also use the pasted-label device whenever you need dense credit copy on an otherwise pictorial piece and do not want it floating over the artwork.