Dark publication Hexus Journal's experimental design matches its texts

Experimental literature publications arguably have a pretty raw deal of it when it comes to first impressions. Too often they’re immediately written off as a slew of black text crammed unthinkingly into a zine format, when in fact the very genre lends itself to something a little more thoughtful. Hexus journal takes the latter form. The first issue, subtitled The New Black, was designed by Christopher Gray, who has set out a selection of experimental texts – short stories, poems and the like – in a pared-back but concise format, with bold headers interspersed with tailor-made imagery to set the mood, with chunky black borders to differentiate between sections. The journal is almost Tristram Shandy-esque in its employment of solid black pages, broken paragraphs and the occasional music stave, resulting in a publication which demands not only to be picked up, but also to be read. Cover to cover. Potentially more than once.