For this project, I was assigned to create a series of original images for a book cover design. The goal was to visually capture the tone, themes, and atmosphere of the story through cohesive and impactful imagery.
For this project, I designed a book cover for the science fiction novel “Waste Tide” by Chen Qiufan. Waste Tide is a near-future sci-fi novel about a migrant worker caught in the violent, toxic world of global e-waste recycling on Silicon Isle, exposing the human and environmental costs of technological progress.
One of the major themes of Waste Tide is waste itself. Set on the fictional Silicon Isle, where electronics, from cell phones and laptops to bots and bionic limbs—are sent to be recycled and pile up in towering heaps, polluting every spare inch of land, the novel highlights the overwhelming impact of technological refuse. The illustration plays on this theme through symbolism: the character in red appears to be consumed by a sea of waste, visually representing how the people of Silicon Isle are being slowly engulfed by the very materials they process. This symbolic drowning reinforces the novel’s critique of environmental destruction and social exploitation.
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