Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the Underground

Fresh Styles is another beautifully designed book from New Riders. It is easy to flip through, fun to read, and generously illustrated in full color. Curt Cloninger presents a convincing case for abandoning the current trend toward cookie cutter web sites, and he provides plenty of examples for inspiration. He briefly examines the reasons for the development of these rules and regulations in web design and then points out the pitfalls of adhering too closely to any of them. Cloninger thoroughly explores 10 styles, giving several unique examples for each one, and going into it's purpose, history, and function. Yes, he gives his 10 "fresh style" silly names but it's all in good fun and it works for the purpose of the book. I find this book extremely useful and it is one that I will keep out of a small selection of web reference books. This isn't a recipe book and although it does contain technical advice, there are few code samples. Cloninger isn't giving out style templates that the reader is meant to copy. On the contrary, his intention is to examine the various styles and give us some insight into how they developed, the reason they were used for that particular project, and what did and didn't work in their implementation. Using this approach, he succeeds in turning them into flexible templates that are a springboard for new ideas and "fresh styles" of your own. It has been mentioned that some of the websites used in the book no longer exist or have changed dramatically. This is not a problem and does not detract from it's value or usefulness, since all of the necessary examples are printed in the book. It simply illustrates one of the author's major points, that the web is in a constant state of flux and transformation, and will remain in that state. There is no point in attempting to pin it down or render it safe, predictable, and homogenous. It is far more desirable to develop a set of skills and flexibility that will allow you to transform and develop along with your medium. Otherwise, it might just leave you behind. The author is successful in offering a balanced approach between usability and innovation.

When I read this book, I was immediately captivated by the sites it presented. This book is not meant to be a Web bible and the writer does not say this anywhere...instead, the styles and case studies he presents are meant to show you what can be done with the web instead of the typical bland boxy website.This is possibly the best web design idea book I have seen b/c it shows the reader plenty of examples and styles and gives basic tips on how to achieve that style. The most important thing the book does is it opens the reader to styles that he/she probably wasn't even aware of.I totally disagree with the reviewer below that gave this book 1 star...the style names are a playful way of presenting some of these websites. And when you go through the examples, the sites in each category definitely do have similarities...so categorizing the sites is not faux pas by any means.

As a big fan of simplicity, I was thrilled to see the "HTMinimaLism" style get it's due. Vitually all the web design books out there today skip over this absolutely critical design style -- the style of simplicity, the style of reason, the style of speed, success, and efficiency. Sure, the HTMinimaLism style isn't the sexiest of the styles, but it works and that's the point. Kudos to Curt for speaking the real truth. And, thanks for opening my eyes to 37signals.com -- the primary focus of the HTMinimaLism chapter.

A new group of cutting-edge Web designers are changing the face of the Web, embracing its quirks. Like a new-age digital art historian, Curt Cloninger traces the influences of past masters on the current masters of Web design. Cookie-cutter corporate conformity is out. Morphing the masters is in.Cloninger covers 10 new underground Web design styles, with names like SuperTiny SimCity, Mondrian Poster, and HTMinimaLism. He traces the roots of these styles to the past. He shows current masters of each style, how to perform some of these techniques, and which commerce projects apply for each style. After reading this book, you'll expand your design vocabulary.The idea is to create a compelling experience through great design. Branding matters when selling products. The "usability legalists" say that "an elegant design that is unusable will fail." Cloninger agrees but proposes this corollary: "a perfectly usable site which lacks elegant and appropriate design style will fail." He says that the Jakob Nielsenizing of the Web, avoiding "bad usability" at all costs, has fostered an entire generation of safe, bland, copycat Web sites that "are about as engaging as a book on usability testing methodologies."Cloninger is out to shake things up. He says that to succeed a site must have a "focused narrative voice, an angle, a plan, a consistent point of view to unify its disparate elements and give it a cohesive personality." To Cloninger, creative visual design is an integral part of this site-building process. Inbred conservative copycat design is boring, so Cloninger explores the personal sites of today's leading Web designers. What's wonderful is the way he classifies these styles, relating the present design style to the past with great insight and humor. Roll over Mondrian, tell Kandinsky the news.I really enjoyed this book. Highly recommended.

We've all seen the examples Coloninger writes about in his book but he goes over why they look the way they do and the reasons to incorporate them into your own site. Every web designer needs to first read "Don't Make Me Think" (Krug, Black) and Fresh Sytles. If you put both idealogies together into one site, it will be a success and you will be proud of it. I've been accused of making my sites both too vague and too plain. Both books together will transform your views of design and usability on the web. Fresh styles has plenty of color screenshots of sites and great commentary on each one. Highly recommended for any level of web builder/designer.