MAIP’s design challenge this year was to redesign a book cover I like that better conveys what the book is about.

For my book cover redesign, I chose We Are the Ants, a novel by Shaun David Hutchinson. As a book I have a physical copy of in my collection, and have read and enjoyed, I thought this was a good choice. I am also a fan of the cover design so getting a chance to work with the aesthetic was pretty cool.

In very brief summary, this book follows highschooler Henry Denton as he struggles with the choice of destroying the planet with a push of a button, or living on, continuing his awful life. The book discuses serious themes such as existentialism, depression, morality, love and abuse, family, and guilt. The main story is the zoomed in story, while the fate-of-the-world actions of the aliens capable of destroying the planet take a back seat. This relationship is something I wanted to address in my redesign. The original cover shows some silhouetted trees and stylized star systems but you don’t really get a sense of being here nor there. There’s little reference to the inner and outer story.

To remedy this, I took the entire world down to the size of a marble, placed on what’s obviously a sidewalk. This mirrors the perspective of the alien race, that the humans are little more than ants to be toyed with, but also keeps things very down to earth. The star-like rings and faint gradient keep in with the original cover’s aesthetic. The typography remained fairly unchanged.