An Interview with the Designer of Prepare to Thrive

Kneeling on the concrete, I swept up a knife and leaned toward the cardboard box. I already knew what lay inside, but that didn’t stop the skitter of anticipation as I scored the tape.

“How long did it take you to design this?” I asked my friend Michaela Duncan as she filmed the unboxing.

“It took a while,” she replied. “We started with the cover—coming up with a few different options, showing them to a bunch of people, getting Ken [Ham’s] approval . . . .”

I peeled back the cardboard, unveiling an array of vivid blue books titled Prepare to Thrive: A Survival Guide for Christian Students.

This was it: the resource God had long ago nudged me to write for equipping Christian students to keep their biblical worldviews strong in college. Like every book, Prepare to Thrive has a story of its own, intersecting with the stories of multiple people, including reviewers, editors, and graphic designers—like Michaela. What was her story, as my fellow young adult and homeschool graduate? How did she design the book I now held? And what insights would she offer to other young people seeking to use their talents for God?

After we’d finished the unboxing and returned to the office, I had a chance to find out.

Michaela’s Story

“Thanks for being down to chat,” I said when we’d found a table in the break room, steaming cups of tea in hand. “The first thing I wanted to know is, how did you get into graphic design?”

“I knew from the time I was ‘little-little’ that I wanted to be some kind of artist,” Michaela replied. “My first memory is when I was two and we were in a florist shop. And I was like, this is the most magical thing that’s ever existed. I want to be a florist!”

Over the following years, Michaela explained, she envisioned creative careers ranging from fashion design to jewelry making to painting. But a turning point came when she volunteered to design a program for her church’s Christmas pageant. “My dad suggested that graphic design might be a good fit for me,” she said, recalling her family’s support for this first project.

Interesting. I couldn’t help but remember how other young people I’d interviewed around the world had expressed the importance of churches and families encouraging students to use their God-given gifts to serve others. Here was an example of this reality unfolding in real life.

“I took some online graphic design classes in high school because I homeschooled,” Michaela continued, relating how homeschooling allowed her flexibility to pursue her interests, practice creating designs for friends, and prepare to study graphic design at university. Her parents not only continued supporting this goal but also took her to tour a Christian university that offered a graphic design program. Michaela completed her degree and an internship there, having decided, “Oh yes, this is for me. Graphic design is my thing!”

“What’s your favorite part of design?” I wanted to know.

“It’s a very service-minded, problem-solving art form,” Michaela reflected. “I love that with design, I’m able to help people communicate what they mean better—to help them present the best first impression of their work. I also just really love my coworkers!”

“That’s awesome. Speaking of coworkers, what kind of projects do you do here for Answers in Genesis?”

“Right now, as the ministry has started to do more of our own publishing, I’ve transitioned to doing more products like books and T-shirts. A big project I have right now is designing the monthly newsletter. So, I work with a lot of different departments to make sure that gets out on time every month.”

Designing Prepare to Thrive

“You mentioned working on books,” I said. “When most of us pick up a book, we don’t know the mysterious behind-the-scenes process of how that book came to be. What is designing a book like?”

“I’m still sometimes learning what that looks like,” Michaela answered, describing how for Prepare to Thrive, the process began with reading the book, brainstorming layout ideas, and designing the cover.

“The cover is a big part of what sells the book,” she explained, “and we have to make sure that the inside matches the cover. So, I came up with a few different cover concepts for Prepare to Thrive, really trying to embrace that survival guide theme and an ‘into the adventure’ feel for dealing with the challenges of young adulthood and studenthood.”

With the cover design finalized, the next step was deciding how to style the book’s interior, organize headings, and format illustrations.

“I did a couple of sample chapters to figure out how to organize the information so it would flow well,” Michaela explained. “Once we had gotten those headings the way that we liked them, we applied them to all the rest of the chapters.”

“Is there a story behind the specific design elements of Prepare to Thrive?” I wondered.

“We went through a bunch of iterations for how to represent the concepts of this book,” Michaela answered. “We wanted to embrace the survival guide thing, and we thought it would be fun to play into the backpacking idea because that’s what you did with 360° in 180.1 So, I found a great picture of a person climbing a mountain. I did some photoshopping to change the colors, and then I illustrated over it to give it the look of a painting rather than a photograph. That’s what we had on the cover for a while, but we didn’t think it looked informational enough. So, we decided to put that illustration inside the lightbulb to bring in that informative, critical thinking aspect of the book.”

“I like the lightbulb concept too,” I said, “because it brings to mind the idea of being a light in a hard campus environment. The color scheme also happens to be one of my favorites!”

Advice for Young People

Pausing for a sip of tea, I turned to my next question. “What advice would you have for another young person who wants to use their talents for God?”

“I think that really, how you can use your gifts is to just try to be good at it and to serve people wherever you are,” Michaela answered. “And that’s something that you can do in any job—look for opportunities to get the job done, look for the person who needs your work, and try to figure out how to serve them well.”

“Yes, good advice,” I said, recalling Colossians 3:23–24:

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

“Is there anything else that you wanted to add?” I asked before we rose to rinse our empty mugs and return to work. “Any last comments or advice you’d like people to know?”

“As I’ve had an opportunity to read Prepare to Thrive a couple of times,” Michaela answered after a moment’s pondering, “I really hope that students are able to take advantage of some of the practical help, recommendations, and resources in the book. I think that it could really be a game-changer for students to have a survival guide because it can just be so hard to do that ‘adulting’ transition.”

Absolutely. That’s why as we filmed the unboxing video earlier, we prayed for every young person who reads Prepare to Thrive. It’s our prayer that God equips each student with strong foundations not only to hold fast to a biblical worldview but also to apply that worldview to impact their surroundings and fulfill their God-given purposes—in college and beyond.

PS—Prepare to Thrive is now available in bulk at a significant discount, to better enable churches, youth groups, campus ministries, and others to use this resource for equipping as many students as possible. To order, visit AnswersinGenesis.org/store/product/prepare-thrive.