Worked Over

Chin-Yee Lai on Designing Worked Over

Worked Over by Jamie K. McCallum is a non-fiction book about the history and current state of work and employment in America. The book starts with two powerful stories: a woman dying from a combination of carbon monoxide and fumes from an overturned gas container while sleeping in her car between shifts and a Caviar delivery worker killed by a car while biking on a rainy night. These two stories resounded in me, especially the first one. I wanted the cover to capture the genuine exhaustion and dire situation that many Americans face. I felt that a photograph would portray the stark reality more accurately than an illustration could, so I set out to find an appropriate image.

Chin-Yee Lai on Designing Worked Over