Crime and Punishment Cover

Often people say not to judge a book by its cover, but realistically, the first thing one sees when looking at a book is the cover, as the cover is meant to entice prospective readers into investigating further into the contents of the book. 

This is why designing an encapsulating and thematically accurate cover is so essential, and why different book covers are reflective of different significant moments in the history of design- they represent the contents of the book, and literature often represents the state of the world, political opinions, social opinions, and the state of society from the period in which it was written.

The cover of Crime and Punishment holds a minimalistic, monochromatic air to it, in order to symbolize the protagonist’s black and white view of the world and of his situation (either inflating and statically amazing, or extremely sorrowful, terrifying, and depressing). The triangles all pointing at the circle are representative of the protagonist feeling like, due to the crime he committed, the entire world and everyone in it is looking at him, knowing what he did, out to get him. Placing the title in a way that responds to the triangles and the circle, almost as if the triangles are also pointing to the title, brings attention to the title of the book as well, so prospective readers are more interested in the classic title. The sans serif typeface reflects the minimalistic design of the cover art