Advanced Representation: Reading
Essential Text Books
The books in this section form a core of texts that cover all the topics addressed during the Advanced Representation course. All of them are available from the library but you should probably aim to own a copy of at least 2 or 3 of them, especially those of you who intend to take web design to the next level.
Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler
Universal Principles of Design, subtitled "100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design" is essentially a directory of all those design terms and "buzz phrases" that you know you ought to know the meaning of. The authors have chosen 100 design ideas and concepts and devote a double-page spread to each. Concepts such as Ockhams Razor, Fibonacci Sequence, Iteration and Legibility (the basics that all designers must understand) are beautifully described and illustrated with excellent examples to illustrate each point.
This is a general design reference although website examples are used where appropriate. All students of design should read this book and all designers should at least consider it a check list for their own knowledge and understanding.
Universal Principles of Design is available at Amazon.co.uk.
Avery Hill Library copies: 4
Design Basics Index by Jim Krause
This book is the perfect graphic design primer for those who have never previously had to think about where and how objects should be placed on a page. The book is designed as a quick reference but can easily be read through from start to finish (recommended). It covers all of the basic components of graphic design such as colour, image, typography, and the grid but it also takes a detailed look at various concepts such as hierarchy, flow, grouping and proportion.
This is a comprehensive but compact and accessible book. It is written in a clear and informal style and along the way there are numerous exercises for the reader that help to create a better understanding of the topics being discussed. Needless to say, the book itself is beautifully designed. Everyone should read this book.
Design Basics Index is available at Amazon.co.uk.
Avery Hill Library copies: 4
Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual by Timothy Samara
Timothy Samara's book is a primer that illustrates and discusses all the basic principles of graphic design in a direct and easily digestible format. The book consists of 5 chapters; "Form and Space", "Color Fundamentals", "Choosing and Using Type", "The World of Image" and "Putting it All Together". Each one is lavishly illustrated with excellent examples that clearly illustrate the topic under consideration.
In addition to the 5 chapters, the reader will learn the author's "Twenty Rules for Making Good Design", a very good checklist of what to do and what to avoid. Although a book of this nature cannot contain everything that may be relevant, this book comes close and is the best one-volume introduction to graphic design I have seen.
Design Elements - A Graphic Style Manual is available at Amazon.co.uk.
Avery Hill Library copies: 4
Letterhead & Logo Design 8 by Top Design Studio
There are dozens of design source books out there but this one is better than most. This, the 8th volume in the series, showcases a wide range of letterheads, business cards and logos in a variety of styles, all selected by Los Angeles based Top Design Studio. Naturally, there's a North American bias to the selected designs but there's just enough European design to give the book some edge.
The book is a great resource and contains lots of useful and interesting ideas for composition, colour choice and typography. Whether you're looking for something classic, modern, playful or just cool, there's an example in this book.
Letterhead & Logo Design 8 is available at Amazon.co.uk.
Avery Hill Library copies: 2
The Best of Business Card Design: No.7 by Loewy:London
This is an excellent book, full of interesting and innovative takes on the business card. Since the examples are chosen by a London based design firm, the designs have a more European flavour than other volumes in this series. There are a wide variety of business card types illustrated here, using a range of different techniques and styles. There are great examples of die cutting, typography, graphic illustration, photography, mimicry, humour and great use of colour to get you inspired.
The Best of Business Card Design: No.7 is available at Amazon.co.uk.
Avery Hill Library copies: 2
Web Design Index by Content.02 compiled by Günter Beer
If you need a little inspiration for the design and layout of your website, this is a great place to start. The book is organised by website type, so there are sections such as "Architecture & Interior Design", "Design & Illustration", "Food & Drink", "Internet", "Photography" etc. The variety of sites is good, ranging from graphic-strong to text based and in all cases, the design is exemplary. Such indexes are often stuffed with Flash-based site designs because they are often the most graphically rich. To its credit, this book also features a high proportion of XHTML/CSS sites and clearly demonstrate how such techniques can be used to create beautiful, sites.
Web Design Index by Content.02 is available from Amazon.co.uk.
Avery Hill Library copies: 2 (1 on study loan)
Also available; Web Design Index by Content.03: 1
The Best-Practice Guide to XHTML & CSS by Patrick Griffiths
This book is a clear, modern and straightforward approach to current best-practice in web design and is an ideal primer for those who are new to the discipline. It covers all the basics and assumes no prior knowledge. The book is a good mixture of theory and practice with plenty of illustrations. It begins with a good introductory section that gives the reader a general overview of the basic principles, followed by a chapter on HTML and CSS syntax. Subsequent chapters include Text, Links, Images and Layout and the book finishes with a comprehensive appendix which forms a very good reference for XHTML and CSS. This is probably the best beginners' book for those who have never done any web coding before. Those with at least a little experience might consider Craig Grannell's "Essential Guide to CSS and HTML Web Design" as a more substantial introduction to modern web design.
Readers of this book should also visit the accompanying HTML Dog website (in truth, it's the book that accompanies the website) because it is full of excellent tutorials and additional information. In fact, you should use the website even if you don't own the book - it's that good.
The Best-Practice Guide to XHTML & CSS is available at Amazon.co.uk
Avery Hill Library copies: 4 (1 on study loan)
HTML, XHTML & CSS (sixth edition) by Elizabeth Castro
Elizabeth Castro's book is an excellent start for (X)HTML beginners. It assumes nothing and there is lots of context (in the form of an excellent introduction to the book and useful chapter introductions) to help you understand how things work even before you start with (X)HTML itself. This 6th edition has been completely rewritten and is printed in full colour. The book continues the transition, begun in the 5th edition, between old-style coding and modern coding. It treats XHTML and CSS as partners in the webpage design process. The only remaining vestige of old-style coding is in Chapter 16 on Tables where tables are considered as a way of structuring a page layout. However, in the introduction to that chapter, the author is very careful to put this into context. The book also encourages readers to consider working to the latest XHTML standards and explains the importance of the DOCTYPE. The logic and reasoning behind the various editorial decisions in this new edition cannot be faulted and the content is first rate.
The working sections of the book are simple and clear and slowly build to give the reader lots of confidence. Lots of good examples showing the (X)HTML code and the browser results help you make the conceptual link between the two. One might imagine that a book of this sort is very quickly out-of-date but the author has taken the very sensible decision to work with the forthcoming IE7 browser as well as the latest versions of FireFox and Safari so that it remains current for as long as possible. A number of chapters from the 5th edition have been dropped. Those on Frames and those on depreciated XHTML tags. This in itself is good news, even better news is that there are new chapters and sections on multimedia, SEO, handheld devices, syndication and podcasting.
This remains a truly excellent book. For more information, see the companion web site, which contains a full table of contents and a short extract. HTML for the World Wide Web is available at Amazon.co.uk.
Web Style Guide by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton
The Web Style Guide (2nd Ed.) by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton is a relatively slim volume (just 223 pages) but it packs a lot in. The book is concise and clear and covers all the basic considerations of site and page design. In fact, this is the book you should read first if you are considering building a web site. It covers topics such as site hierarchy, page layout, typography and web graphics to name but a few. The book contains lots of example sites and explanatory diagrams, illustrated in full colour. This is another very important text for the Webpage Design course and it perfectly compliments "Web Design in a Nutshell" by covering the non-technical areas of the course.
Despite the fact that this book is now a few years old, it is not out-of-date because the authors have been careful not to focus on the technologies used for building websites nor the browsers used for displaying them. Rather, they consider the generic design elements of webpage and website design. These basic design principles hold true, irrespective of the technological context. However, there are one or two places where the reader should use caution. For example, on page 112 in the section entitled "Layout tables that make sense", the authors state that "The best solution is to use CSS instead of tables to create columns and to control spacing, but… browser support remains too patchy and inconsistent for stylesheet positioning to be a real option". That statement may have been true when the book was written but today, with better browser support, CSS layout is very much the method of choice.
Despite the health warning, this book is excellent and it's even available free on the web in a HTML version at www.webstyleguide.com. However, should you need a paper copy, you can buy it from Amazon.co.uk.
Avery Hill Library copies: 4
Max Hits: Building Successful Websites by Mike Slocombe
Mike Slocombe's book is unusual in that it attempts to do two different things and on the whole it succeeds. At first glance, this is a “showcase” book, full of colour illustrations of stylish (and not so stylish) web sites but as we all know, looks can be deceptive. The book actually gives the reader a concise but accurate overview of the whole web design process. Chapter headings include, “Planning and Building a Site”, “Designing the Site”, “File Structure and Navigation”, “Creating Web Graphics” and “Marketing and Promoting your Site”. The content is great with lots of good examples but it should not be considered a “how-to” book. There is a one-page HTML tutorial but the intent is only to give the reader an overview of the nature of HTML rather than teach its use. As such, this book is a bit of a luxury but at each stage, it offers the reader an excellent selection of on-line resources. The chapter on site promotion is also worthy of note. If you decide not to buy the book, don't miss the excellent companion site which provides a wealth of information and links on web design.
Max Hits is available from Amazon.co.uk at £13.58
Avery Hill Library copies: 1
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird
This book could be subtitled “Graphic Design for Websites” because that's exactly what it is. In 5 chapters, entitled “Layout and Composition”, “Color”, “Texture”, “Typography” and “Imagery”, Beaird discusses all the various graphic components and concepts relevant to building websites. This is not a code book but it is a valuable reference for the early stages of web design. Get these principles right and you'll make great looking websites.
Although this book is relatively slim at just 168 pages, it is chock full of useful information. In particular, almost every page has a footnote containing one or more links that take the reader to even more information on the topic in question. “What's the point of a link in a book?” I hear you asking. Well, this book (like all Sitepoint books) is available as a PDF and in the PDF book, all the links are live. Again, as with all Sitepoint books, there is a sample PDF containing a few chapters that you can download for free.
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design is available at Amazon.co.uk.
Avery Hill Library copies: 3
Further reading
The books below all fill in gaps, overlap and expand upon the "Essential Text Books" listed above. You do not need to own them but they may be used as good alternatives or simply to explore a bit more of the subject.
The Essential Guide to CSS and HTML Web Design by Craig Grannell
At long last, here is a book that talks about "a modern, modular approach to standards-compliant web design" in a clear, logical and friendly manner. No small feat because contemporary web design practice is complex and a good understanding of a whole range of topics is required in order to master the art.
Craig Grannell approaches the topic by looking at various aspects of web design, with chapters like "Working with Type" and "Page layouts with CSS" rather than the more prosaic approach of many code-based books. The initial chapters of the book give a comprehensive background and primer to HTML and CSS but avoid the mistake of looking at code in the abstract. All through the book, code examples are illustrated with the rendered result so that the reader can make a clear connection between code and image.
This is an excellent book that covers a lot of ground (it even includes some useful javascript techniques) and is probably the best single volume introduction for anyone serious about web design.
The Essential Guide to CSS and HTML Web Design is available at Amazon.co.uk.
Avery Hill Library copies: 4 (1 on study loan)
Web Standards Solutions by Dan Cederholm
OK, so you learned about XHTML and you learned about CSS and you even learned about how they can work together. But what about technique and method? What is the best practice for creating navigation bars? Never fear, Dan Cederholm is here to show you how.
In truth, many of the methods described in this book are now standard practice for the seasoned web designer but for the beginner who has just got to grips with XHTML and CSS, this book is invaluable. The book focuses on best practice coding for the most common page elements such as headings, navigation, forms, page layout, styling text and, of course, image replacement. The book is well written and although it deals with some complicated issues, it does so in an easy and engaging way.
Web Standards Solutions is available from Amazon.co.uk.
Avery Hill Library copies: 1
CSS Mastery (Advanced Web Standards Solutions) by Andy Budd
As its title suggests, this book picks up where Dan Cederholm's book (Web Standards Solutions) leaves off. Essentially, Andy Budd gives us more of the same. More methods, more power, and being a more recent publication, more "now". The book covers many of the same topics as Designing with Web Standars but just takes them to the next level. The two books, though, are not interchangeable. Beginners are strongly advised to work with Dan Cederholm's book first and then move on to this one. There is lots of really nice stuff in this book but if I were pressed to pick one section over the others, it would be the two chapters on Styling Links and Creating Nav Bars. They contain some lovely methods with beautiful results.
CSS Mastery (Advanced Web Standards Solutions) is available from Amazon.co.uk at £15.83
Avery Hill Library copies: 2
The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
A wonderful book. Every designer should own a copy. This book is a golden treasury of design ideas, anecdotes, interesting facts and fantastic images. This is a book to reach for when you're short on inspiration. A few minutes (or hours - it's difficult to put down) later, you will feel refreshed and ready for any design challenge.
The book is best described by its author: "This book attempts to open windows to glimpse views rather than dissect the pictures on the wall. To look at things from unlikely angles. References to sources are occasionally provided to keep you going. The book has no thesis, is neither a whodunnit nor a how-to-do-it, has no beginning, middle or end. It's a journey without a destination."
Buy it and cherish it, The Art of Looking Sideways is available at Amazon.co.uk and is an absolute bargain.
Avery Hill Library copies: 2
All of these books are available at the Avery Hill library: UoG Library availability.