douqi: (zaowu)
[personal profile] douqi posting in [community profile] baihe_media
Rosmei has revealed the covers for all planned eight volumes of Ning Yuan's court intrigue baihe novel At Her Mercy/At the World's Merch (我为鱼肉, pinyin: wo wei yurou). Per previous practice, they did not provide any further information about the novel in their cover reveal tweet, so once again I resigned myself to doing some free marketing and promotional work for a commercial entity. The cover designs are as follows:



Date: 2024-10-15 07:12 am (UTC)
halfcactus: an icon of a manga shiba inu (Default)
From: [personal profile] halfcactus
They look good when they're posted all together like this and you can see the color palette, but here's my minority opinion: I find the text placements on the front covers (flush on the corners) very bemusing, composition-wise. Also I wish Rosmei would be better at title typography... I've seen worse from them but I'm frustrated at the wasted potential in this.

Date: 2024-10-16 02:49 am (UTC)
halfcactus: an icon of a manga shiba inu (Default)
From: [personal profile] halfcactus
I'm glad that you at least still have versions of the book with more satisfying design choices and that you can actually read!

One of my annoyances is that everyone is so collectively defensive about publishers that any cover dissatisfaction is instantly snuffed by people who purport to understand the industry. Like just a couple of weeks ago there was a hugely viral post that claimed that not having synopses was standard + smart marketing tactics. XD I'm actually fascinated that Rosmei seems to have latched on to the "title in all-caps + metallic effect" formula that 7S has been doing for its gufeng books and then... stopped there, which strikes me as bizarrely bare-minimum design research. /opinions I can never share publicly as someone who does dabble at graphic design but is not in the industry

Date: 2024-10-13 07:29 pm (UTC)
profiterole_reads: (Nü Er Hong - Shi Yi and Hua Yu Tang)
From: [personal profile] profiterole_reads
They're very pretty. <3 And thanks for doing their marketing work for them.

Date: 2024-10-13 07:39 pm (UTC)
aurumcalendula: cropped poster for the webseries 'Nv Er Hong' featuring the characters Hua Yutang and Shiyi (Nv Er Hong (poster))
From: [personal profile] aurumcalendula
I really appreciate you providing blurbs for it! (I do wish Rosmei did way more marketing for it since the only English translation for it besides their previews is a MTL one that started this July)

The cover art is pretty, but I'm surprised they went with two different styles (and I feel like the green and blue color schemes should've been next to each other).

Date: 2024-10-13 07:59 pm (UTC)
aurumcalendula: Xiao Yi and Pei Shuangyi from 'Led Astray (Xiao Yi and Pei Shuangyi)
From: [personal profile] aurumcalendula
Yeah. They at least say it's MTL at the beginning, but I'm still not thrilled about it to say the least.

Date: 2024-10-13 09:01 pm (UTC)
llonkrebboj: (Default)
From: [personal profile] llonkrebboj
Oh what the heck, those covers are lovely!!!! I really really like the ancient painting style ones. If they keep them for the final prints (hopefully the dust jackets so I can wrap them that way), I'll let myself be art baited 🤣

I also think it's really cool that the character art is implied to be set within the landscape art.

1. Palace in the night vs. the bedchamber chin tilt xD
2. Temple in the wilderness vs. horseride
3. Burning campsite vs. general on her horse in the flames
4. The palace/court in the day vs. her backlit by sunlight in the palace
Edited Date: 2024-10-13 09:09 pm (UTC)

Date: 2024-10-15 12:09 am (UTC)
llonkrebboj: (Default)
From: [personal profile] llonkrebboj
THIS IS THE SHERO NOVEL? 😬🤣 oh hell no, not if they keep that choice 🤣 (there's a reason i haven't gotten more PFH or any 7S ones xD). And ooooo morefate collab huh? I do like their cover for Cyan Wings' 魔尊!

Let's wait and see 👀
Edited Date: 2024-10-15 12:10 am (UTC)

Date: 2024-10-14 07:37 am (UTC)
hazevi: (Default)
From: [personal profile] hazevi
Based purely on art I'd say that I really do like the color schemes and vibes for volumes 3 and 5! Color scheme for 3 looks like an ancient Chinese painting and 5 is a fiery red for the battlefield which is very suited.

I'm iffy about the character art on the covers (it's cool, but it's on the cover...) but that's been a criticism of mine since like the whole licensing thing got started and 7seas started insisting on putting the main characters on all of their covers.

The thing about these, though, that I can't shake off regarding overall criticisms is that they are a bit generic... palaces and outdoor scenes for 1, 3, and 7 could possibly apply to a lot of historical novels and then the character art could give the impression that it's just another romance series. I'm sure there are scenes or items of note that make 我为鱼肉 unique; those could have been included in the art.

The art is really pretty, don't get me wrong. I admit that I might just be picking at threads.
Edited Date: 2024-10-14 07:42 am (UTC)

Date: 2024-10-14 10:18 pm (UTC)
geraineon: (Default)
From: [personal profile] geraineon
Ah, thanks for the heads up on this. Would it be alright to link this post to promote on fedi?

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