Saturday, April 2, 2016

Shelf Candy Saturday No. 168: Tangled Webs, by Lee Bross



Welcome to Shelf Candy Saturday!


This is my weekly feature
showcasing beautiful covers!
It also provides information, 
if available, on their 
very talented creators!


Here's my choice for this week!



Tangled Webs
 Lee Bross
Hardcover, 304 pages
Disney Hyperior
June 23, 2015
Fantasy,Historical Romance, Mystery,
Science Fiction, Steampunk,
Young Adult Fiction


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18368525-tangled-webs



My Thoughts About This Cover


This is the type of brilliantly-designed cover that uses mostly typography to achieve its effects. I don't usually praise such covers, but, in this case, I had to feature this treasure! I love the font used for the title, and the way it's ornamented and surrounded by all the gorgeous designs.

Also, I don't normally go for book covers in which the color orange predominates. Here, however, it's just perfect!  I think it adds something to the intrigue in the plot.

This cover actually looks like an intricate, and very delicate, piece of embroidery. It seems to be lying on top of some gray cobblestones or bricks, too. The cover artist has cleverly interwoven elements from the story into this embroidery -- there's a ship at the top, a half-mask next to a skeleton key, right underneath the word "Webs", and a knife is part of the word "Tangled".

The whole image is tied together by the background of crisscrossing lines, which resemble a spider's web to some extent. And I love all the paisley inspired, elaborate curlicues all over the image, too.

All in all, this is great cover art!  The highly-talented cover artist/designer is Whitney Manger, who is the Senior Designer for HarperCollins Children's Books.  In addition to her full-time work with Harper, she also does freelance design, and has over 13 years' experience. She has also worked for Disney Hyperion and Running Press, and is a graduate of Parsons, the New School for Design. She also holds a BA in Studio Art and English from Drew University.

I have just added Ms. Manger to my list of favorite book cover artists!!
  


What do you think of this 
week's cover?
Please leave a comment
and let me know!










2 comments:

  1. This cover seems really different to me. I like it and I appreciate that a lot of creativity went into it.

    At first glance this looks like standard embroidery. But When one looks close at the small threads they look less like embroidery and more like a spider's web. This is a neat effect.

    I do find that the colors of the embroidery and background clash. I think that as a result one is not drawn to read the title and author. Perhaps a different color combination might have worked better?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, Brian!

    I have seen other covers that rely almost, if not exclusively, on typographical design for the cover image. I haven't liked these covers, as I prefer to see images, not typography, be the dominant factor in a book cover. This particular one, though, really caught my eye! Yes, it's very different!

    I like the effect of the spider web threads, too.

    I agree that the colors of the background and embroidery clash, but that doesn't bother me much. However, I have definitely wondered whether blue might not have been better for the embroidery, instead of orange..... Of course I would say something like that, since I'm SO obsessed with the color blue! Lol!! :)

    Thanks for the great comment!! :)

    ReplyDelete

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