{"id":1008,"date":"2025-11-25T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dmokrevival.com\/wp\/?p=1008"},"modified":"2025-11-08T22:33:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T22:33:49","slug":"how-did-we-design-weun-academys-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dmokrevival.com\/wp\/2025\/11\/25\/how-did-we-design-weun-academys-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"How did we design Weun Academy’s cover?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If eyes are the windows to the (Human) soul, then the cover is that for books. Everyone – EVERYONE – judges a book by its cover. You get milliseconds for people to decide if they’re going to skip you book all by what it looks like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a lot of pressure to get a cover right. It has to convey the right theme, look visually appealing, be appropriate to attract your target market, have the right tag line…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Matt and I began the cover work our starting point was “what should it show?” My D’mok Revival books followed very traditional (read “old school”) space scene covers that were far more reflective of classic science fiction (of the 60’s and 70’s). We’re now in 2020’s, it needed to reflect what attracted people TODAY. So we wanted to go with more of a scene from the book. We talked to some of the Beta readers and selected a few specific moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WARNING… Mild spoilers ahead due to images. I’ll hold off on explaining too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Okay? So here they are…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arriving at the gates to the school<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eisah exploding with power<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Seigie Weun Statue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Man of fire<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We even tried developing some of the concepts, specifically the Seigie statue and the “Crystal Gate” to the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I also tried mocking up some things using Midjourney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But it wasn’t coming together in a way we really loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then participated in JD’s book marketing cohort in the fall of 2024. We did more of a contemporary book study. I even went out to Target and Barnes and Nobel and took pictures of what was on the shelf, studying what the market put out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because this book was going to a YA and NA market it needed to have people on the cover in some way. That set us on a path that began as the Seigie statue. At one point we also tried something far more unique and artistic, before Matt had an inspiration on his ipad and our direction dove toward the main visual we have today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s an animation showing that end progression taken from Matt’s ipad (using procreate). Yes, he sketched it by hand on his ipad. I watched him apple pen stroke over apple pen stroke carve this from the ether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n