Educated: A Design as Sharp as a Pencil

Cover designed by Patrik Svensson

In the memoir titled Educated, Tara Westover recounts leaving her survivalist Mormon family in order to gain opportunities and broaden her understanding of the world through a college education. The novel cover’s graphic employs a clever use of size to portray a small figure, assumed to be Westover, hiking a mountain range within the shape of a pencil. What makes this image so effective is the idea that her freedom to explore and create would never have been possible without her schooling.