As a web design author, I often get asked what books I recommend. This of course depends on who is asking and what they want to learn, but one book I often pass along is Curt Cloninger’s original* Fresh Styles for Web Designers from 2001. The specific design examples are quite outdated now, but to me, that book was a pivotal source of inspiration at a time when everything online seemed to be either boringly corporate or awkwardly amateur. Cloninger helped me to see the web differently; I learned to creatively tag design trends and techniques so that I could mentally catalog them for my own use.

This process of mentally classifying design inspiration has become a critical part of my growth as a designer as well as my ability to explain web design to the non-designer. In The Web Designer’s Idea Book, Patrick McNeil takes the task of cataloging current trends and styles to a meticulous new level. Within the book’s 256 pages, McNeil has sorted over 700 screenshots of stellar site design by color, design style, type, theme, element and structure. Within these 6 chapters, he has defined a total of 75 individual design categories. Some examples of these categories include: Blogs, E-Commerce, Minimalist, Wood, Pink & Blue, Muted, Rays, Gradients, Tabs and Massive Footers. Then, within each of these seemingly exclusive categories there are a few paragraphs explaining when, how, and why it should be used along with an average of 8 or 9 example screenshots.

Obviously, reading this book will not teach you to be a great website designer. What it will do is expand your design vocabulary and train you to break down your favorite sources of design inspiration into bite-sized chunks that you can use in your own work. I spent a good portion of the cold, rainy weekend reading through the text in each category and pouring over the pages of screenshots. I saw quite a few familiar examples of good design, but was amazed by quantity of inspirational sites that I had never heard of. If I had one complaint about the book it would be that I wish all of the screenshots were full-size, or perhaps if they couldn’t be, that there was an archive of the full-size screenshots posted somewhere on the web. Regardless, I’m sure the book will be a huge source of inspiration for me for years to come. Then, when it is too old to serve as inspiration, it will most certainly be an excellent resource for web design history.

* As I was writing this review, I discovered that Curt Cloninger just released a sequel to this book: Fresher Styles for Web Designers: More Eye Candy from the Underground You can be sure that I’ll be reviewing this book as well in the near future.

I’m a little late with this announcement, but better late than never I guess. Sitepoint printed a limited number of “Hardcover Signature Editions” of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design!

They’re going to start shipping the these babies on Dec. 17th and there is apparently only 50 left, so get’em while you can, folks. …and for those who’ve asked: no, I didn’t individually sign each one. Sorry to disappoint. :)

It has been just over 6 months since The Principles of Beautiful Webdesign hit the shelves and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Even as I was revising the final chapter back in October/November, I had no idea how well it would be received. After four printings, over 50 feedback emails, and a plethora (yes, a plethora) of great reviews, I can safely say that people like it. To me, that alone makes all the work worthwhile. Many thanks to Sitepoint for giving me the opportunity, my wife who kept me on task and motivated, and all the people who have taken the time to write a review. Here’s a list of some of the reviews that you won’t find on the Amazon or Sitepoint product pages:

• 465 Berea Street
• Ask Manny Hernandez
• Anne Kowalski
• Blogcritics Magazine
• Blue Lime Media
• Creative Keys
• Desicritics
• Draiocht Web Design
• Drawing On The Web
• James Booker
• James Pyles from MCSE World Forum
• Maratz
• Mitch Wheat
• Monday By Noon
• Nate Klaiber
• New York Stringer
• Slashdot
• Stevens Media
• Revish
• Teamunited Web Design
• Technology for Humans
• The Coding Humanist
• Visual Gui
• Web in Mind
• Web Teacher

I spent most of the day Saturday driving around to each of the Barnes & Nobles, Books-A-Millions, and Waldenbooks in the greater Columbia area handing out book-themed business cards to the store managers, and asking them to put a few copies of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design on their shelves. As productive as that trip was, I knew that the Amazon rating I saw that day was not caused by my own marketing efforts. Regardless of the cause I was so excited, that I took a screenshot:

56? When I first saw that my book was listed on Amazon it was ranked somewhere around 100,000. Somehow though, for most of the weekend, the book was listed in Amazon’s bestsellers list! But why? I didn’t know the answer to that question until I got in to work this morning and one of my coworkers asked if I read Slashdot on Friday. I have no idea who Trent Lucier is, but he posted a very thorough and positive book review that I am happy to recommend to anybody who is trying to decide whether or not to buy my book. Check it out:

http://books.slashdot.org/books/07/02/23/1512241.shtml

Although I haven’t talked much about the details, it’s no secret that I was working on a design book for SitePoint. Most of my friends and relatives have been asking me “How’s the book going?” and “Are you done yet?” since I started the first chapter back in early April. After several months of late nights, long weekends, and increased caffeine consumption, I’m excited to announce that “The Principles of Beautiful Web Design” is now available!

My personal copies arrived about a week ago, but I didn’t want to post anything about it here until my parents and a few influential people had received the copies I sent them. I thought I would have a few weeks to prepare a promotional page before the book “hit the streets”, but it became available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-A-Million, and Wal-Mart around the same time I received my box. There’s even a review up on Amazon already. In a rush to get something posted for people to link to, I set up principlesofbeautifulwebdesign.com. Yea, I know it’s ginormously long for a domain name but I couldn’t think of a better available name. I’m quite proud of how that little page turned out for the amount of time I put into it. I still have a lot more ground to cover in marketing the book. I printed up some glossy business cards over the weekend that I plan to take to some of the local book stores and ask if they can put a few copies on their shelves. SitePoint also let me send some copies of the book to a few select celebrity designer/developers. For better or worse, I’m looking forward to hearing what these people think about the book. I am personally very excited with how it turned out and think it will benefit a pretty broad range of people who are looking for a primer in graphic design principles as they apply to the web.

This whole experience has been a wild ride. I was excited (and a little scared) by the idea when SitePoint initially asked me to write the book. Somehow though, in the flurry of working on it, I lost track of what being a published author would be like. Being a quiet and humble person, it’s still strange to see my name on the cover. It’s weirder still when all my friends ask me to sign their copy when it arrives. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that, but it really makes all the hard work worthwhile.

While Ames and I were just getting back from our San Francisco trip, I missed Andy Clarke’s preview post about his new book, Transcending CSS. In fact, it wasn’t until I saw a snippet about it on Digital Web that I even knew that he had even written a book.

My curiosity was piqued, and I had some holiday book shopping to do anyway, so Ames and I headed to Barnes & Noble over the weekend. While we were there, Ames grabbed a book about Kitchen Renovations and I picked up Transcending CSS and we spent a “grande half-hour” considering our prospective purchases. As I scanned through the four main sections of the book, I discovered that this wasn’t a book for beginners wanting to learn CSS, but rather a challenge to current CSS webdesigners to take their work to the next level. Unlike many other books on the topic, I am the target audience, and the content seems to be both intriguingly advanced, and relevant to today’s webdesign issues. While I was expecting great written content, I was completely blown away by the visuals. The entire book is peppered with stunning artwork, illustrations, photographs, and screenshots that make it almost as beautiful as it is practical.

With all that said, I decided to wait till after our holiday spending was over before buying myself another book. However, this morning I got the email that Barnes & Noble was offering a one-day 25% off coupon with “fast and free” shipping. This was an offer I could not refuse, so now I should have the book before the holidays. Merry Christmas to me!