The Magnificent Seven (limited edition silkscreen poster)
The pattern
This still is filed under Mark as compressed claim.
Define
The mark itself is the sentence: a monogram, a seal, a device that already means the claim.
Mechanism
Compression. Years of use, or a very sharp first use, load the device so it can appear without copy.
Verdict
The mark is already loaded, or we will spend to load it
Why it works
A tally is a counting device every reader already knows, so the number registers before the words do and no illustration of seven men is needed. The double meaning does the selling: the same mark that counts a crew counts the dead, and the red drybrush pushes it toward blood rather than bookkeeping. The restraint is what makes it work as a print rather than a sales sheet, one image, one colour, one line of type, which is also why the sheet survives outside the campaign it was made for.
Steal this when
When a number is the whole story, find the everyday mark that already means that number and blow it up, instead of illustrating the thing being counted. Works for anniversary pieces, edition numbers, headcounts and milestone announcements.