Judge It By Its Cover: Covers Revealed - February 2016

2/29/2016

On the past few days, we've got not 1, not 2, but 3 stunning covers revealed, all of them are equally beautiful and highly anticipated. So let's check them out!

Crooked Kingdom (Six Of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo

This is the second series by Leigh Bardugo, both series are situated in the same universe, the Grishaverse, however, there is something else they share that you may not be aware of, and that is the same cover designer: Rich Deas. This accomplished designer and illustrator had been in charge of several cover hits published by Macmillan, like those from The Lunar Chronicles and the Razorland series.

While The Grisha Trilogy covers played more with typography, Six of Crows main focus is the illustrations of the crows, and the hidden buildings among its feathers making it all about perception forcing our brains to fill in the gaps. The background texture and high contrast make this an eye-catching and easy to remember cover.

More covers from the same designer:

Water's Wrath (Air Awakens #4) by Elise Kova

I admit I feel an unconditional love for the Air Awakens series, however, I don't think I have ever told you I actually discovered this series after an impulsive cover buy. I remember I was working, looking for visual references at an online social community for artists and art enthusiasts when I found Merilliza Chan's profile, I felt attracted to all of her work and while reading through the comments on one particular image, I found out it was the cover of the first book of an on-going series called Air Awakens, it was destiny calling.

All the covers on the Air Awakens series tell a story, they are color rich and go hand in hand with the story. What I like the most about them is the visual semiotics and symbolisms within the illustrations, the more you read the more sense they make, the more they communicate, and I am sure Water's Wrath will be no exception.

More covers from the same artist:

Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

I read Illuminae at the beginning of the year, I was highly impressed by how it was constructed, I found both the story and the editorial design to be refreshing, incredible and original. A concept as abstract as the universe is not so easy to represent, now add to that the idea of data accumulation and programming, and you get yourself a real visual communication problem that needs to be solved creatively without it being either boring nor too vague.

Cover designer Ray Shappell did a brilliant job by designing an ethereal dust jacket and data filled cover that put together make of his work one of the most beautiful and functional covers I have ever seen, and not only because of how it looks but also because of how it works. Gemina will be following the exact same formula, however, the color combination and hidden messages will be what differentiates this cover from its predecessor.

More covers from the same designer:

Which style do you guys like the best? Were you familiar with the designers/artists featured in this post? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Happy reading,

Miss Phi

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor Aenean massa.

2 comments

Shannon @ It Starts at MidnightMarch 04, 2016
WAIT, I have to pick!??! Well, I will pick Water's Wrath, BUT this is a seriously epic group of covers. WW is my favorite of the AA covers- and that is saying a lot, because I love them all! Gemina is so pretty- I like it better than Illuminae, to be honest! (Sidenote- Ray Shappell has RANGE! Holy crap, I cannot believe how versatile he is!) And with Crooked Kingdom, at first I was "meh"- BUT that was because I had just glanced at it. After seeing it for what it really was, my mind was blown!

Oh, and I wasn't familiar with any of the designers other than Merilliza, and that is only through working with the AA series! Such a fabulous post- and thanks for the great info, it's pretty interesting to see how many covers one person has designed!
ReplyDelete
Replies