HTML5 Live with John Allsopp : Just purchased my subscription. Though I’m familiar with a lot of this, I still have plenty to learn. I suspect it’ll be a good interactive complement to Jeremy Keith’s HTML5 for Web Designers . … Read the rest here
Q & A with Jason Munn of the Small Stakes : Grain Edit interviews the prolific music poster designer. Have long been a fan, and now purchasing the book , which collects over 150 of Munn’s poster designs for various indie bands. … Read the rest here
A hard copy of Jeremy Keith ’s HTML5 For Web Designers arrived in the mail today. It’s wonderful to finally see how well-designed it is as a physical object. Most importantly, it’s the clear explanation of a confusing subject that’s made this little book a must-read. … Read the rest here
Tapworthy Book: Designing Great iPhone Apps : Josh Clark’s Tapworthy is now available from O’Reilly Books: Tapworthy takes you from concept to polished interface design with plain-spoken principles and a rich collection of visual examples for designing exceptional interfaces for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The ebook version, which is available in the ePub, mobi (Kindle), Android, and PDF formats, is on sale for $9.99 today only (normally $31.99). Use code DDTAP. The print version is also available on Amazon . … Read the rest here
Jason Santa Maria Go to the source
I’m fresh back from New Zealand where I took part in FullCodePress , a knock down, drag out, web design competition to make a website for a charity in 24 hours. The competition was put on by the wonderful folks at Webstock and pitted teams from New Zealand , Australia , and the US against one another. Our teams were each paired with a charity, who was only revealed when the competition started. From there, each team took whatever assets the client brought along (all in various states of completion, or, uh, viability); copy, photos, and loads of information, to make a complete functioning website in a single day. … Read the rest here
How to Add PDF Files to iBooks : This is fairly straightforward, but apparently not straightforward for me—I wasn’t able to figure it out without googling the solution. (Love the double irony in the article’s final photo: Using iPad to read a Windows 7 manual, whose cover includes a doctored Apple PowerBook photo as the featured Windows computer.) Alternatively, you can move PDFs from Dropbox simply by clicking the arrow in the upper right of the Dropbox app for iPad and then selecting iBooks: … Read the rest here
How to Add PDF Files to iBooks : This is fairly straightforward, but apparently not straightforward for me—I wasn’t able to figure it out without googling the solution. (Love the double irony in the article’s final photo: Using iPad to read a Windows 7 manual, whose cover includes a doctored Apple PowerBook photo as the featured Windows computer.) Alternatively, you can move PDFs from Dropbox simply by clicking the arrow in the upper right of the Dropbox app for iPad and then selecting iBooks: … Read the rest here
How to Add PDF Files to iBooks : This is fairly straightforward, but apparently not straightforward for me—I wasn’t able to figure it out without googling the solution. (Love the double irony in the article’s final photo: Using iPad to read a Windows 7 manual, whose cover includes a doctored Apple PowerBook photo as the featured Windows computer.) Alternatively, you can move PDFs from Dropbox simply by clicking the arrow in the upper right of the Dropbox app for iPad and then selecting iBooks: … Read the rest here
“What I’d Prefer for the Safari 5 Reader” : Concept by Justin Stahl. I have to agree, the justified text kick that Apple is bent on right now is seems as one-sided as their Flash vs. HTML5 rhetoric. I honestly don’t get why a simple option isn’t available to allow the user to switch between justified and flush-left text, especially in iBooks. … Read the rest here
How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online? : This infographic really puts things into perspective, based on a solo artist making minimum wage (U.S.) each month. The royalties for authors of most tech books aren’t any better. /via @ stop … Read the rest here
Facebook is My New Boatcar : Blaine Cook, whose argument is similar to Ryan Singel’s article for Wired : Instead of offering a carefully constructed vehicle that offers amazing social experiences, [Facebook has] created a clumsy boat-car that can never truly compete with more focused sites…. While no one will ever be able to overcome Facebook’s advantage on Facebook’s terms, just as no one was able to defeat Microsoft on Microsoft’s terms, it’s downright easy to create better social experiences than Facebook’s. It’s easy to create better tools than Facebook’s. It’s also easy to imagine a better social environment than theirs. … Read the rest here
Creating Stunning HTML Email, The Book : By whom? Campaign Monitor, of course. Two chapters are available for download at the link above and the full text for purchase at Sitepoint or Amazon . … Read the rest here
HTML5 for Web Designers by Jeremy Keith : A Book Apart’s inaugural title. I have a preview copy and it’s worth every penny of the $18 USD you’ll pay for yours. Orders ship in June. … Read the rest here
I Love Typography: The Vignelli Twelve : John Boardley, refuting Massimo Vignelli’s storied argument that designers should restrict themselves to just 12 typefaces: Surely a dozen designs of chair would suffice. And, while we’re at it, let’s make do with a dozen designs of houses, tables, books, bridges, teacups, salt-shakers … everything. Why, then, do we see such profligacy in design? Because that’s what we do, that’s who we are. Our restless minds are always striving for ‘better’, for more functional, more comfortable, stronger, more durable, more economical, more ornate, simpler, more complex, smaller, bigger, greener, healthier, clearer, more legible; even, more aesthetically pleasing. … Read the rest here
What the iPad is Missing: Good Typography : Stephen Coles, FontShop’s self-described “Glyph Pusher” (and boy does he know glyphs): Apple has made some puzzling decisions over the last few years that leave one wondering if they really care about typography as much as they did in the 1980s when the Mac launched the desktop publishing revolution. As recently as 2005, Steve Jobs made typography a central theme of his commencement address to Stanford grads, but his actions as the almighty head of Apple haven’t followed suit. Sadly, I have to agree with Stephen’s thoughts. The Winnie the Pooh book that comes with iBooks is a shining (i.e. dull) example of illegible type. … Read the rest here
Mobile Web Design (iPad Version) : I’m honored my self-published book was available within the iBookstore the day of iPad’s launch. However, the formatting is less than stellar, admittedly. This is because Lulu , who handles the printing and distribution of the book, informed me that I wouldn’t need to do anything—they or Apple or both would handle the re-formatting of the book. Whatever engine they funneled my PDF through didn’t spit things out as nice as I had hoped. … Read the rest here
PixelPads: Sketchbooks for iPad : Shipping April 3rd: At the heart of PixelPads is the 10-pixel grid which allows you to sketch detailed, pixel-perfect interfaces yet it’s also light and unobtrusive enough that free-spirit designers and developers can freely color outside the lines for more organic interfaces. But that’s only half the story, on the back of each sheet you’ll find the 4- screen storyboard format, perfect for designing and developing horizontal and vertical sequences. Ordered. … Read the rest here
“The Future of Publishing” by DK (UK) : The original description on YouTube reads as follows: This video was prepared by the UK branch of Dorling Kindersley Books. Originally meant solely for a DK sales conference, the video was such a hit internally that it is now being shared externally. We hope you enjoy it (and make sure you watch it up to at least the halfway point, there’s a surprise!). I echo Monoscope : This is genius copywriting. … Read the rest here
5 Years ago somebody wrote something stupid on the Internet that annoyed a bunch of bloggers enough to write about it, including myself. Yesterday I received a contrite email from this person saying that the incident had ruined their life and asking if I’d remove the post. It turns out that my blog post ranked in the top 20 results for this guys name and he was wondering if I’d remove the article. I considered it, as to be honest I’d completely forgotten about the event (as had most people 2 weeks after it happen) and I didn’t really care that much anyway. However it got me thinking about two different things. On the one hand, the Internet can freeze youthful folly and a small transgressions can stick with you for life. … Read the rest here
Jason Santa Maria Go to the source
O nce again I’m adding to my list of recommended books with some good reads I’ve come across in the past few years. I’m always up for finding new books to help me better understand design or improve my practices, but it can be very difficult to find the meat from so many fatty offerings. That’s why I try to keep this list focused on design, type, and theory. There are many lists for good web design books around, but few of just straight up good design books, and many of these topics are applicable anywhere. Like last time , this doesn’t aim to be comprehensive, but I personally vouch for the usefulness all of these books offer. … Read the rest here