I redesigned a book about public service just for fun.

A couple years ago I read a book called In Defense of Public Service by Cedric L. Alexander. It was informative and thoughtful and left me inspired.

Alexander argues convincingly that it’s the largely invisible 22 million unelected government workers — scientists, accountants, educators, first responders, and more — who are doing most of the work of running the country and keeping us safe.

I enjoyed the book so much that I redesigned the cover just for fun. It’s an important book in these divided times and I felt like it deserved another look. Whether we admit it or not, most of us do in fact judge books by their covers.

I tried to capture the essence of the original in my redesign. I like that the original cover features a diverse group of people but they’re so small that it’s difficult to notice any face in particular. So, I abstracted the concept, hoping it would convey the same message in a simpler way.

I tried a few fonts, including a serif font — for some reason a serif font feels appropriate for a book about the government, not sure why — but ended up using a sans serif called Good Sans, a lovely font by Good Type Foundry with an appropriate name for a project like this.

Dr. Alexander, if you’re reading this someday, I’d like to work with you on a redesign of the next edition of this important and timely book.