Seeking Peace Corps Images

I’ve been pouring my fuel down the digital graphics rabbit hole and am at a standstill. I’d love some help and commentary on the below potential cover jackets for my forthcoming nonfiction book, Profiles in Service.

Do you have an image that captures the spirit of what the Peace Corps has done? Are you willing to see it used on the cover of this book? If not, do you have any thoughts on the designs below?

From top to bottom and left to right you can refer to Versions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. As you ponder this, ask what strikes you as a singular, foremost image to capture the spirit of a book like this.

Note that the Peace Corps experiences captured in Profiles come from first-generation volunteers, roughly serving from 1961-1976. They held careers and ambassadorships from 1981 through the early 2000s, with service related to action in Vietnam, surviving 444 days as hostages in Tehran, negotiations with African strongmen and Balkan warlords, eyewitness to Tiananmen Square, and all that followed 9/11, including the re-establishment of diplomatic ties in Kabul after the invasion of Afghanistan and hunting looted antiquities in Iraq in Spring of 2003.

So much ground to cover, from grassroots service in isolated villages to consequential leadership in flashpoints around the globe fore the last six decades.

That one image… What is it?

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