Axe, Axe, Baby

A magaizne about axes inspired by Dostoyevsky's “Crime and Punishment”. 
The novel unveils the moral consequences of the main character Raskolnikov’s actions, as he murders a pawnbroker with an ax. 

I am generally intrigued by contrasts and dark humor, so here I wanted to play a bit with the seriousness of the novel and the notion of the absurd, so that's how this magazine is about axes and how to choose a good ax was born.

Graphic Design

Graphic Design

How would you design a magazie based on a novel?
How could a magazine about axes look like?

1. Re-read "Cime and Punishment" by Dostoyevsky to refreshen some details.
2. Look into magazines of the period the novel was written to see if some elements could be used in my design. As well as look into modern magazines and book designs of the novel
for inspiration.
3. Start narrowing down all the inspirations and chose key elements.
4. Execute the design.
5. Take a small break and then look at the design with “fresh eyes”.
6. Final changes and project submission.

A magazine about axes.

1. Create a magazine, combining seriousness, dark humour and absurdity
2. Play tribute to the time when the novel was written 

Axe enthusiasts

Content. Will the content of the novel be enough to cover a magazine?

Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop

I began work with re-reading the novel in it's original language to refreshen my memory about it. 

In the magazine, I wanted to pay a bit of a tribute to the original novel as well as graphic design and typography in 1866. One way to do it was through typography, which is aligned left, both because the ax may leave an uneven border and because spilled blood would be uneven (ax was a murder weapon in the novel).
In terms of colors, I wanted to go with a bit darker colors with some accents like white, and red. Through colors, I wanted to achieve a feeling of a bit cramped yet in its own way comfortable space.
Generally, I strove for minimalism with some interesting and bold details.

Inspiration and early design exploration. How can I combine seriousness, dark humour and absurdity?

The magazine itself is about axes, in terms of the content 1 article like a “story”, and 1 interview with an ax expert. Looking through other magazines for examples and inspiration I saw a lot of commercials as well, so considered dedicating 1 page to that. I wanted to try different content types to see and show changes in typography and overall behavior.

Commercial
Dedicating one page to a commercial, I wanted to show how a different type of content and design elements might look like in the context of my magazine. The commercial is also about axes, for the relevance of the topic.
I really liked the design I found online and used it as a reference for mine. The text in the commercial is also taken from the novel. Once the text and basic elements were put together, I designed a simple logo for the commercial.

Cover
I decided to pay tribute to the original language of the novel and gave the magazine a simple name, which means “axe”. The first letters on the cover are prolonged the same way as the first letters in the headings to resemble an axe handle. 
In the background, I opted for a picture of an axe, mostly to avoid visual noise but also to show the theme more clearly.

Working with the designs, trying to achieve a good balanced look.

I took a break from designing for a bit, since it was harder to see the mistakes from constant staring on the same things. Came back with fresh eyes and did some changes!
Mostly, did changes to the cover. For the title Топор, I added some shadow to make the headline more dimensional and pop out a bit.
For the final version of the background, I chose the enlarged image of an ax being made, because not only does it resemble the color scheme of the magazine but also looks a bit more interesting in my opinion.

A magaizne about axes inspired by Dostoyevsky's “Crime and Punishment”.
To show versatility of content and play with different layouts, the magazine has several pages with texts from the orignal novel: 
• short article
• commercial
• longer article
• an interview

Final designs.

• Application of graphic design theory in practice
• Worked more with my style
• How to combine seriousness, dark humour and absurdity in design