Hi, this is Showkaku Sano. The summer heat in Kyoto has been intense! It’s a beautiful city, but trust me, you might want to plan your visit for a cooler season! I hope you’re all staying cool wherever you are.

I've been diving back into the game Field of Mistria after its major update. It’s a charming retro-style farm sim with incredible attention to detail. It’s still in early access, but it’s already a fantastic experience.

Anyway, on to the July updates for Lumina. This month, I’ve made some improvements to the cover image layout options! To update your theme, please refer to the help guide, “Update the Theme.”

I’m on X and Instagram!

I’ve also been steadily posting on social media:

• On X, I share portfolio tips 2–3 times a week

• On Instagram, I post weekly photos that capture everyday moments with Lumina

If you haven’t followed yet, now’s a great time to check them out:

• X (Tips): https://x.com/sanographix

• Instagram (Photos): https://www.instagram.com/illustfolio_lumina/

A Fresh New Design for “Cover Style: Full”

I’ve redesigned the “Cover Style: Full” layout option. Please take a look at the before-and-after comparison below.

As you can see, in the old design, your bio was pushed off-screen, so you couldn’t see it without scrolling. Since one of Lumina’s strengths is showing your illustration and bio together as a set, this was something that always bothered me a little.

I asked myself, “How can I let users show off a dynamic image and have their bio visible at the same time?” This led me to change the design.

With the new design, your illustration fills the screen while your bio is overlaid on top. There’s a blur effect on the bio’s background, so it still feels integrated with your artwork. And of course, it’s fully compatible with the slideshow feature.

As a tip, the bio is displayed on the left side of the screen, so I recommend using an illustration with some open space on the left.

Including this new “Full” style, there are now four cover image layouts available in Lumina. You can completely change the impression of your top page, so please take this opportunity to give your portfolio a little makeover!

Other Updates

• I’ve made minor adjustments to the color of the social media icons in the header.

For the full update history, please check the release notes.

Bonus: Books That Influenced Lumina’s Development

For this month’s bonus content, I’d like to share some books that have inspired the development of Lumina.

1. Running Lean

This is a practical guide to the process of “planning and selling a new product—even before you've actually built it.” This book was my constant companion from Lumina’s initial concept phase to the start of Early Access. The “problem discovery interviews” I’ve mentioned a few times in this newsletter use the methods from this book almost exactly as-is.

2. Hypothesis-Driven Action (仮説行動)

When trying something new in development or promotion, you start with a hypothesis like “this will probably work.” This book teaches you how to form and refine those hypotheses. If your hypothesis is lame, you tend to “fail without knowing why and gain no learning.” After reading this, I really want to avoid that kind of situation.

3. Competition Strategy as a Story (ストーリーとしての競争戦略)

This book is based on the theory that “a good strategy has a consistent story you can’t help but want to tell people,” and it teaches what makes a strategy compelling. As an amateur in product strategy, I read this to deepen my knowledge. It’s full of real-world company examples, so I was able to read it without getting bored, almost like a collection of interesting corporate success stories.

I think all of these books are incredibly helpful not just for product development, but for anyone starting a new project of any kind.

That’s it for this month’s newsletter! If you haven’t purchased the theme yet, you can get it here!

See you next time!