Reading Room
Site Design for the Graphic Artist
By Jeff Wilson and Greg Wilson
The dynamic combination of text, graphics, and animation is what makes the Web exciting, yet it's amazing how ugly most of the books about it are. Almost all of the authors are technologists: They focus on the Web's underlying technology, paying little or no attention to how to make Web pages beautiful.
Lynda Weinman's books,
Designing Web Graphics and Deconstructing Web Graphics, stand out from this homely crowd. It is immediately obvious that they are the products of a creative, skilled graphic designer. Everything from the cover art and its deliciously slick laminate to the page-numbering annotations make these books a pleasure to browse. Their content is a cut above that of most other Web books. Both of Weinman's books signal that the Web has matured to the point where content and presentation, rather than implementation, can come to the fore. Programmers won't find much technical information in either of these books, but will pick up a lot about basic design issues. Designers will see the contrast between Weinman's books and most other HTML books like night and day: While the latter are reminiscent of sleepy lectures and decrepit professors, Weinman's books have more in common with magazines like ID or Wired, and are instructive as well as entertaining.
Designing Web Graphics
Weinman's goal is to teach people who already understand graphic design how to make pleasing Web sites.
