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Book: The Zen of CSS Design
04 Mar 2005 by Matthew Linderman
The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web by Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag (published by New Riders who also put out our book) uses examples from the CSS Zen Garden as “the foundation for discussions on how to create beautiful, progressive CSS-based Web sites.”
Digital Web’s glowing review says, “Its crammed with useful how-to info and wraps it all up in explanations of why you would want to do it this way.”
Anyone have a favorite CSS Zen Garden design worth checking out?
12 comments so far (Post a Comment)
04 Mar 2005 | Chris said...
Did you say CSS? Then think http://www.justwatchthesky.com. There's a holder page up talking about a new site, so just click the "old site" link... Sweet book, btw!
04 Mar 2005 | Jessie said...
There is also a thoughtful review at visualgui.com.
04 Mar 2005 | Unearthed Ruminator said...
Out of the most recent batch at the Garden, I like Paravion.
04 Mar 2005 | Dan said...
It's too bad the book isn't available until the end of April (right around my birthday =D). If I ever get any free time, I'd love to take a stab at submitting a design for the Garden. Just to be among those linked would be an honor. Needless to say, I'm clamoring to get my hands on a copy.
04 Mar 2005 | Chris Vincent said...
Well, there's my own work, Outburst.
End of blatant self-promotion. I think my real favorite is Inman's si6. It's a tough choice.
04 Mar 2005 | Chris said...
My bad. I made a post about my favorite CSS design above, and didn't even link to it. :) Go here for the one by Ryan Sims of Neubix and JustWatchTheSky
04 Mar 2005 | luke said...
the best css zen garden design? bruce lawson's geocities 1996.
04 Mar 2005 | Sheldon said...
I just picked up the book last night - seems like a great read and reference.
So far - I like the way it is broken up... (CHPTRS: View Source, Design, Layout, Imagery, Typography, Special Effects, and Reconstruction)
Just need to make the time to read it...
I think my fave Zen Garden is from a while back...
"What Lies Beneath"
[
http://www.csszengarden.com/019/ ]
Totally dug how they went horizontal on it... up until this one- they were all vert.
On the darker side...
"The Final Ending"
[
http://www.csszengarden.com/136/ ]
The Final Ending - perfect for Halloween.
04 Mar 2005 | Julian Scarfe said...
Luke's on it: geocities 1996 is the best web geek joke around (and thoughtful illustration of the fact that good design does not necessarily follow from 'standards').
I find centerfold very elegant, if a little impractical for the corporate crowd (narrow content column would be a hard sell)
and this comicbook is a very interesting experiment in form (even if it doesn't necessarily get top points for usability, with the designs menu being at the bottom and a bit hard to read)
04 Mar 2005 | Julian Scarfe said...
whoops > geocities 1996 link
05 Mar 2005 | Chriztian Steinmeier said...
I always liked mnemonic and Golden Mean.
