Designing the Red Rising trilogy

Warning: this post contains spoilers for the first Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown.

"Then you must live for more."

This set of bindings was first created as a commission for a client. I was given a couple requests to be worked into the design: have the spines match across all 3 books and have the title and color symbol on the spines. Outside of that, I had free reign.

After reading the work, I always start with word association to pull out the emotions and themes that stand out to me. I write down things like colors, quotes, places, and objects and then use these to seed the idea that eventually becomes the design.

I approached the trilogy as a unified set but did this initial writing for each book individually. The challenge was creating a cohesive design across all books but allowing each volume to stand on its own. To achieve this, I used the same layout across all three books but altered the elements to reflect what's unfolding in each book.

Mars is the obvious anchor of the design and I wanted it to have a lot of texture, looking rocky and bloody at the same time. The circles are leather onlays that hand-dyed using multiple layers of dye and masking fluid to build up variation and depth. I then attached them prior to covering the book in its main leather.

Each volume has a set of lines representing the core emotions or concept I pulled from that specific book. Since I was working in black-on-black, I wanted the lines to have a different texture than the leather I used to cover the book. I created these by dying calf leather then running it through my leather paring device with the grain facing upward to shave off thin, jagged strips.

Red Rising

“I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.”

For Red Rising, I kept coming back to the feelings of rage and vengeance vs. justice. The whole trilogy, but especially the first book, does an excellent job of looking at what rage does to a person and the result of seeking vengeance instead of justice.

The harsh slashing lines on the cover are there to represent the anger and frustration that has built up in Darrow. The gold page edges with red blood splatters show the violence and suffering of the Reds at the hands of the Golds. There's a red trail making its way through the splatters and that's the bloody path Darrow has been set upon and has ultimately claimed as his own.

Along the cover edges, gold and red dots mark the hierarchy that defines the world of the story. Gold sits at the top, where they've remained for centuries. Red gathers at the bottom, where they've been kept.

The full set of images for Red Rising can be seen here: https://www.blackoakbindery.com/redrising

Golden Son

"Tell all who will hear, the Reaper sails for Mars. And he calls for an Iron Rain."

For Golden Son, loyalty and betrayal was my working concept. The lines trailing down the cover are the relationships that Darrow has made and lost. Some remain true, some are broken temporarily, some forever. 

Cutting across the cover are iron colored lines which are a direct reference to the Iron Rain. It's a moment so seismic that it needed a place in the design. This worked to give visual impact but also allowed this book to have a distinct visual identity within the set. The gradient you see on the page edges is about Darrow's transition into Gold society. He never forgets his roots as a Red but he is truly entrenched now. 

The full set of images for Golden Son can be seen here: https://www.blackoakbindery.com/goldenson

Morning Star

"We're the light, and we're spreading."

For Morning Star, my final guiding concept was hope. For all the darkness and violence in the series, the story ultimately bends toward light. There's a stubborn, hard-won belief that something better can be built, even when the cost is brutal.

The lines sweeping upward across the cover are meant to feel like lift and momentum, representing a rising force that refuses to be pinned down. They're edged with colors to honor the ones carry that hope forward. A Red may have sparked the revolution, but the fire spreads. Blues, Pinks, Violets, Obsidians, Browns, and Greens: each bring their own strength, sacrifice, and stake in the future.

I decided to mirror some what we see in the design for Red Rising. Here the red dots rise to the top and gold drops to the bottom. The page edges reverse as well: a field of red, marked with gold blood, signaling a shift in power and the violent upheaval required to make hope real.

Full set of images for Morning Star can be seen here: https://www.blackoakbindery.com/morningstar

These are available on commission. I'm creating 10 copies of each volume for $1,300 each. payment plans are available and if you commission one of the books, you can reserve the other two. Get touch via email (blackoakoakbindery@gmail.com) if you're interested.