Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the Underground

I’m a developer. I program. I make the html that makes the pretty pages. I figured that this book would help me come up with some designs (for those oftentimes rare moments that I’m given a design project). I’d impress the boss and get more design projects. It didn’t quite work out that way.

This book made me feel like I was in design class. A basic page and its “template” was defined, and then there were more examples that if you squint and shook your head, then you could see it fits that template. I don’t think it’s so black and white. If so, then they aren’t that fresh, are they?

If someone is stuck for design ideas, I’m not sure this book would necessarily help since it’s giving more templates. We’re trying to move away from looking like everyone else, right? But some ideas for colors did come from this book, so that’s good.

I enjoyed the idea of boiling down a lot of web designs into a few basic themes, templates, etc. but think that doing so might make it that much harder to break out of the box and be fresh. Or, if you’re like me, once you know the rules, you can break them more easily.

I also liked the little bit of a history lesson that came with this design class. It’s quite amazing what some people did with their websites back in the day, and quite amazing how not so far they have come.

Perhaps this book would be better for the true designer and not so much for the developer wanting to be a designer.

[edit 11/16/2004] Ok, this is interesting. After a few design classes, I like the book more. Still wish it broke it down stupid-style more like Before and After.