The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
I recently purchased a copy of Jason Beaird’s book “The Principles of Beautiful Web Design“. I must admit that I was skeptical when I purchased it. Unfortunately I’m one of those people who are influenced greatly by design. and thus tend to judge my books by their cover. Having just finished reading “Transcending CSS” which was exceptional, beautifully laid out and with a great looking cover, I didn’t think that a book which such a boring looking one would be very interesting. And the sentence “You don’t need to go to art school to design great looking web sites!” on the back also didn’t make me feel at ease. I know quite a few graphic designers whose face turns purple just hearing that kind of statement.
Thus I had very low expectations for this book and yet I would recommend it to anyone. The book is extremely informative, full of great images and resources and Jason does deliver what he promises. A simple, easy-to-follow guide illustrated with plenty of full-colour examples. This book is ideal for people who are just starting to get into web design, programmers who routinely build “somewhat dull” looking web applications or people like me who have been designing for years. I didn’t go to art school and so don’t know the fundamentals of design. I learned everything from the seat of my pants. I sure wish I had read this book years ago.
Thanks for taking the time to write a review of my book and I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
You know, I almost regret writing that one sentence. It was part of my preface text and Sitepoint extracted it and made it the major selling point of the book. Although it really is true, I meant the book to be a basic overview of design principles that anyone could apply, and not an alternative to art school. The one thing that an art degree will get you that this book or experience in the industry will not, is a good multi-discipline understanding of art. Taking drawing, painting, photography, pottery and art history classes in school really added a lot to my personal design perspective. I’m very happy with how the book turned out though, and I’m glad so many people (like yourself) are finding it useful!
I found that sentence funny, because one of my friend who is a graphic designer, used to hate hearing that sentence. Personally I agree with you. I can design websites that are not bad, but can’t draw to save my life. Would art school be good for me? Maybe, but it certainly isn’t necessary.
Thanks for the comment.
Funny, I’ve also just finished reading transcending css, and The princibles of beatiful web design is on it’s way right now…
And that was before I had read this post.Can’t wait till it arrives…
I loved Transcending css. I really liked the way it was written and the examples were excellent. I tend to look at list much more differently now.
I recently bought this and Transcending CSS by Andy Clarke, who only lives up the road, but I waited patiently like everyone else who orders from Amazon
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design - Quite simply this book is great, it’s nicely laid out and easy to read. I had a long train journey to make last week and it was the perfect partner for the journey.
There’s nothing overly complex to digest, but still enough quality points to make me want to have the laptop out trying new things, I was almost sad I didn’t have some animal crackers to try and make my own ‘real life’ collage of repeated graphics!