Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the Underground [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Curt Cloninger (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Wow, this is a fun book. If you spend a lot of time on Web design and suffer occasional burnout, Fresh Styles is the inspiration booster shot you need to get you back to the keyboard to whip up something new. Perhaps you'd like to try "gothic organic" or "pixelated punk"? Author Curt Cloninger, who's written for the Web developer forum Alistapart.com, defines 10 "underground" Web styles using case studies of several Web sites, and discovers what makes them not just cutting edge but marketable, too. These site designs not only mimic print design, but embrace the medium of the Web with all its flaws (browser incompatibilities, sluggish download times, varying viewer operating systems, and screen resolutions).

All 10 of the design styles discussed in this book sprang from a dissatisfaction with the status quo, a love of the Web as a medium, and a passion for evocative, communicative design.

With such fun chapters as "1950s Hello Kitty Style" and "Paper Bag Style," hundreds of screenshots, and techniques for achieving these looks, Fresh Styles isn't just an inspiring kick in the pants but a cookbook/resource as well. Not everything here conforms to usability wisdom; for example, pages may not bookmark because they're in designer-defined pop-up windows or the entire site is one big Flash file. But the author encourages readers to go beyond the universally practical: "Go ahead and fiddle while Rome burns."

There are ideas here you may never have thought of using. The 8-bit gifs in the "SuperTiny SimCity Style" are the opposite of most designers' layered Photoshop creations. A link points to the perfect Web tutorial on how to get them right. For the "Lo-Fi Grunge Style," think Raygun, complete with TV scan-line effects and "that smudged, misprinted look." A sidebar shows how to mimic a noisy TV signal by placing scan-line patterns on their own Photoshop layer.

Grooviness is what this book is all about: groovy narrative, groovy illustrations, and a groovy layout by Carlos Segura. It's got a good vibe that makes you think that the future of the Web may not be so bleak after all. --Angelynn Grant

Product Description

In a light and friendly voice, the author introduces the reader to new ways of styling websites. With specific examples for each of ten categories, he provides a wealth of techniques for the designer who wishes to apply these approaches in their own work. The styles are broken down into ten categories, which are:

• Gothic Organic School
• Wireframe Icon School
• Lo-fi Grunge School
• Paper Bag School
• Mondrian Poster School
• Pixelated Punk Rock School
• 1950's Hello Kitty School
• HTMinimaLism School
• DraftingTable/Instruction Manual School

Super Tiny SimCity School Further explorations in the book help designers determine which style choices would be most appropriate when changing the look of their own sites.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Waite Group Press; illustrated edition edition (August 22, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735710740
• ISBN-13: 978-0735710740
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #315,672 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty Enhances Usability., May 9, 2002

By A Customer

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.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great review of web styles, September 20, 2001

By	Tate K. Nations (Jackson, MS United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eye candy for creatively-dehydrated web graphic artists, November 18, 2001

By	Satya Witoelar "Tulakom" (Jakarta) - See all my reviews

A very good inspiration source. A very good design reference.

Great visuals, great text.
A whole lot of screenshots of cool websites saved my time on surfing. But rather than just looking at hip designs and trying to figure them myself, half of the text in Fresh Styles guided me through each design, with highly readable explanations, so I know how to take advantage of them in the correct manner. The other half of the text are just the author's snipes at web usability theorists. He shouldn't have worried that much about being different to other web theorists, because usability is not a religion, I can buy both Jakob Nielsen's book and Curt Cloninger's book. No problem.

Curt Cloninger
The author may not be a world-class web designer (his personal website is a copycat of one of his favorite websites, while his commercial website is not fresh at all) and the sample websites do not represent the whole web (some are just his friends' unpublished mockups), but the courage to dissect and summarize the hippest styles into 10 categories is truly remarkable and useful.

Buy the book. Read the book. But apply as necessary.