In part three, our designers discuss recommended books and who/what’s overrated (e.g. Jonathan Ive, Getting Real, 2advanced, blog celebrities) and underrated (Nazarin Hamid, Jared Christiansen, Eric Jordan, scrolling).

Matt
For all: Name one book every designer should own and/or one that everyone should own (designer or not).
Ryan
Ryan
by Oscar Wilde
Greg
Hmmm
Greg
I’ve got 250 books on the shelf… hard to choose one
Dan
For everyone: Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
Jason
[Note: In this chat, Jason is Jason Santa Maria, not Jason Fried] As a designer: What is a Designer by Norman Potter or The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier
Ryan
Dan
Ryan just earned himself a beer
Ryan
Cha-ching.
Jason
In general, probably the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy
Greg
BWD is good but I thought HTML 3.1 was better
Greg
:)
Jason
snap!
Dan
lol
Ryan
Zinging abounds.
Greg
I don’t know why The Design of Sites isn’t recommended more
Greg
it’s an encyclopedia of good practices for online design
Dan
For designers: The Elements of Typograhic Style. Although, I’ve only managed to get through 1/2 of it.
Greg
Massive Change by Bruce Mau is a must read
Jason
It seriously is

Jason
What’s your favorite design you’ve done?
Ryan
Greg
Dan
fav design: corkd.com
Ryan
(Stands and applauds Cork’d)
Jason
Yeah, Cork’d rules. The color palette got me immediately.
Dan
Thanks, dudes
Greg
jason, favorite design…
Jason
I think actually my site. It’s not my best design, but certainly the most gratifying for me. And I’m my toughest client.
Dan
Love the October-ish theme you have there now.
Ryan
No doubt… that’s the worst thing about leaving client work.
Jason
For client work, I still like ALA, and the designs I’m doing for AIGA.
Ryan
Designing for yourself is always daunting and rarely gratifying.
Ryan
That’s why I have a stupid splash page.
Greg
I love your splash page
Jason
Okay, who’s overrated online, designer or otherwise… and who needs more press?
Greg
Jonathan Ive… we get it already
Ryan
Easy, Greg.
Ryan
I don’t really buy into the whole overrated thing.
Greg
maybe I read too many business journals…
Jason
I’ll get shit for it, but Getting Real can be overrated
Ryan
Wow.
Jason
Because I’ve seen clients think it’s a magic bullet
Jason
And they put it in place of real thought
Jason
It works wonders for you guys because you are amazing thinkers
Jason
And you make a lot of decisions just based on experience
Jason
But jumping right into the deep end doesn’t work for everyone
Matt
i’d argue it’s more jump into the shallow end.
Ryan
:)
Matt
but jump.
Jason
I guess I’m saying, when it works, it’s great, but a vital component is a good team
Matt
JSM, Getting Real is the answer to EVERYTHING.
Matt
[passes kool-aid]
Ryan
Truth.
Jason
hahaha, I didn’t mean to go on a tirade :D
Jason
I love you guys, it’s more about power in the hands of those who don’t know what to do with it
Greg
Oh, it’s logged
Greg
and your superiors have been notified
Jason
Shit. Now I’m overrated.
Matt
you always were
Jason
haha
Jason
zing!
Ryan
ZING!!!!
Greg
damn
Matt
mess with getting real and you get the horns!
Greg
37signals rolls hard
Dan
I hear what Jason is saying. It’s the same danger that people have when they say "ok, I need a site that has AJAX and Ruby on Rails and microformats. Oh, and it’ll do this: __"
Jason
EXACTLY
Greg
Nazarin Hamid and Jared Christiansen should get more spotlight
Ryan
Spot on, Greg.
Jason
I second Naz, that guy is great
Ryan
Naz is a genius.
Dan
oh absenter is brilliant
Dan
http://www.thebignoob.com/Gerard should get more press
Ryan
Greg
Paul Nixon is wasting away at Apple… he should be rescued from the box they design in (it’s a nice box but still Paul got da skillz)
Ryan
I’m trying, Greg ;)
Jason
I agree about Paul too
Jason
No one thinks anyone else is overrated?
Greg
2advanced is waaaaayyyyy overrated by young designers
Ryan
2advanced made me want to be a designer.
Greg
but you would starve trying to get work that would allow you to design like that
Ryan
That Korean site you sent looked very similar to what 2Advanced puts out…
Greg
2advanced gives me a headache
Ryan
Eric Jordan probably tops my list of coolest, nicest people I’ve ever met.
Dan
Scrolling is underrated
Ryan
YES, Dan!
Greg
yes!
Ryan
Embrace the Mighty Mouse nipple, I always say.
Greg
I had a client tell me that people hate to scrolll
Greg
I asked them where they heard that BS
Greg
they said something about scientific studies…
Matt
DC, good point. scrolling: underrated. sidebars: overrated.
Jason
The plain fact remains, if you can interest people in what you have to offer, they will meet you halfway
Jason
(and scroll)
Ryan
I’m still scrolling down basecamphq.com
Ryan
...
Greg
zing!
Ryan
Yep, still scrolling
Greg
zing-zing!
Greg
double score
Ryan
I love it though.
Matt
having people scroll seems a lot more realistic than throwing up tons of horizontal content that just gets ignored (like a lot of content sites with multi-column layouts).
Ryan
Matt – Hallelujah.
Jason
It all depends on the point of the site ML
Ryan
I’m going to quadruple my splash page length right now…
Greg
I think "blog celebrities" and that status are overrated
Jason
here here
Dan
yes yes
Jason
Unless you had a blog before "blogs"
Greg
:)
Ryan
Are you self-claiming celebrity status, Greg?
Greg
No
Ryan
;)
Ryan
Girls everywhere dream of running their hands through your firey red hair.
Dan
Do you guys read any blogs that you aren’t subscribed to (RSS)?
Ryan
I read http://joshuablankenship.com religiously.
Ryan
It’s one of the only ones I read not in RSS.
Ryan
I don’t know why really.
Dan
Ryan – cool stuff.
Greg
I have an RSS reader but I never use it
Greg
I like my content rendered on the web
Dan
Ah, see I assumed….
Jason
I am starting to ditch subscriptions
Dan
I used to be like you, Greg. I think I need to go back.
Jason
I try to delete a few a day
Greg
I’m also on the look out for non-blogs
Dan
Like I said before, I think RSS killed the blog.
Dan
I mean, it’s great at the same time…
Jason
Then should we all stop offering RSS?
Ryan
I only do what Mike Davidson dons appropriate.
Greg
there has to be more to our collective creativity than blogs, Myspace, web 2.dough, etc.
Dan
I enjoy posting to Flickr more than anything these days.
Greg
maybe offline is where we need to go
Greg
at least more than we do now
Jason
That’s where I go
Dan
offline, yes.
Ryan
I like offline.
Jason
I need time away from my computer and the internet to function normally
Jason
I want to be alone offline, i see enough people online
Dan
Haha. I think I’m the opposite. I need to be more alone online, and be with more people offline.
Greg
The Church of the Offline
Ryan
I worship there.
Ryan
Is that our queue to leave?
Jason
haha
Jason
I think so ;)


Part one and part two of this chat.

Guests
Dan Cederholm
Jason Santa Maria
Ryan Sims
Greg Storey

[Fireside Chats are round table discussions conducted using Campfire.]