This is just a drop cap. It’s not really “crappy” design. This is kind of an exaggerated use of it, but it’s not exactly uncommon to see this in magazines.

“In illuminated manuscripts, initials with images inside them, such as those illustrated here, are known as historiated initials. They were an invention of the Insular art of the British Isles in the eighth century. Initials containing, typically, plant-form spirals with small figures of animals or humans that do not represent a specific person or scene are known as "inhabited" initials. Certain important initials, such as the Beatus initial or "B" of Beatus vir... at the opening of Psalm 1 at the start of a vulgate Latin psalter, could occupy a whole page of a manuscript.”

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial