Rating: 
Summary: A "Help" Book for Brain Freeze
Review: FRESH STYLES FOR WEB DESIGNERS
Eye Candy From the Underground
Curt Cloninger
PUBLISHER: New Riders
REVIEWED BY: Barbara RhoadesBOOK REVIEW: Fresh Styles is the book to add to your library when your brain has run out of new ideas or you are in a "brain-freeze" mode. It is written in print size that won't give you eyestrain to read it and plenty of color is used to enhance what you are reading. Ten different styles are discussed from "Super Tiny SimCity" to "Paper Bag". Don't know what these terms mean? Chapters eight and five respectively will give you the low-down on these styles. The "off-the-wall" styles featured in Fresh Styles will get your creative juices flowing again and maybe even add a new style to your repertoire. The back cover has a built-in bookmark lip and while there are only four pages for the Content section, there are 13 pages in the Index. This should provide you with a way to locate what you want to find in the book. Each chapter ends with a listing of web sites mentioned in that chapter, therefore providing online visualization of work. If you have ever run into the "brain freeze" mode (and what designer hasn't?), then be sure to add Fresh Styles for Web Designers, Eye Candy From the Underground" to your library of reference material.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty Enhances Usability.
Review: Fresh Styles is another beautifully designed book from New Riders. It is easy to flip through, fun to read, and generously illustrated in full color. Curt Cloninger presents a convincing case for abandoning the current trend toward cookie cutter web sites, and he provides plenty of examples for inspiration. He briefly examines the reasons for the development of these rules and regulations in web design and then points out the pitfalls of adhering too closely to any of them. Cloninger thoroughly explores 10 styles, giving several unique examples for each one, and going into it's purpose, history, and function. Yes, he gives his 10 "fresh style" silly names but it's all in good fun and it works for the purpose of the book. I find this book extremely useful and it is one that I will keep out of a small selection of web reference books. This isn't a recipe book and although it does contain technical advice, there are few code samples. Cloninger isn't giving out style templates that the reader is meant to copy. On the contrary, his intention is to examine the various styles and give us some insight into how they developed, the reason they were used for that particular project, and what did and didn't work in their implementation. Using this approach, he succeeds in turning them into flexible templates that are a springboard for new ideas and "fresh styles" of your own. It has been mentioned that some of the websites used in the book no longer exist or have changed dramatically. This is not a problem and does not detract from it's value or usefulness, since all of the necessary examples are printed in the book. It simply illustrates one of the author's major points, that the web is in a constant state of flux and transformation, and will remain in that state. There is no point in attempting to pin it down or render it safe, predictable, and homogenous. It is far more desirable to develop a set of skills and flexibility that will allow you to transform and develop along with your medium. Otherwise, it might just leave you behind. The author is successful in offering a balanced approach between usability and innovation.
Rating: 
Summary: intro to web design.
Review: Great for beginners- Awful for veteran web designers. This book has a great cover and because of this you'd think that this book would be jam-packed with images and new design ideas. Although it is probably a good jump start into web design and what's going on on the web, if you've ever visited K10k or any other site of the likes, you might as well pass on this cause you've probably seen this stuff before. In fact, half my friends could probably get their favorites published and it would be more insightful.
Rating: 
Summary: Panned it
Review: I bought this book for the same reason many did, inspiration and to get out of the design rut I felt myself in. I was tired of going onto the web design newsgroups and hearing about tables versus css and non-validating pages and usability and browser compatibility. It was nice to see someone advocating something that might not have been coded "by the book." That thumbed its nose at "fuddy duddy" web design. But this book careened a little too far off the path for my taste. I was taken aback that anyone could suggest, as this book did, that the designer was being "playful" by hiding navigation elements. This is just bad web design, no matter whether you are designing a web page for a cutting edge alternative rock band or for a law firm. The section on Sim City smashes any theories of usability all to hell. I was literally raked over the coals in a web design newsgroup for committing the unpardonable Sin of specifying pixel sizes. I'd love to see those same people review the sites featured in this book. Especially any site based on the Sim City design... 8px? Uh, yeah, RIGHT! You sure better know who your audience is before you undertake wild site designs like most of the ones featured here. And entropy8 -- or more accurately, its new incarnation, entropy8zuper.org ... I'm invoking the rule my mother taught me long ago: If you can't say something nice.... I'm not sure how much this book would help anyone who designs web pages for a living. It's a nice coffee table book, but it's not a book that will sit beside any of my other HTML or web design books. No, they won't have it. And neither will I. Now, I'm off to e-Bay to see if I can unload this four-day old unrefrigerated fish.
Rating: 
Summary: Fresh? Nope, a Little Stale Around the Edges.
Review: I bought this book for the same reason many did, inspiration and to get out of the design rut I felt myself in. I was tired of going onto the web design newsgroups and hearing about tables versus css and non-validating pages and usability and browser compatibility. It was nice to see someone advocating something that might not have been coded "by the book." That thumbed its nose at "fuddy duddy" web design. But this book careened a little too far off the path for my taste. I was taken aback that anyone could suggest, as this book did, that the designer was being "playful" by hiding navigation elements. This is just bad web design, no matter whether you are designing a web page for a cutting edge alternative rock band or for a law firm. The section on Sim City smashes any theories of usability all to hell. I was literally raked over the coals in a web design newsgroup for committing the unpardonable Sin of specifying pixel sizes. I'd love to see those same people review the sites featured in this book. Especially any site based on the Sim City design... 8px? Uh, yeah, RIGHT! You sure better know who your audience is before you undertake wild site designs like most of the ones featured here. And entropy8 -- or more accurately, its new incarnation, entropy8zuper.org ... I'm invoking the rule my mother taught me long ago: If you can't say something nice.... I'm not sure how much this book would help anyone who designs web pages for a living. It's a nice coffee table book, but it's not a book that will sit beside any of my other HTML or web design books. No, they won't have it. And neither will I. Now, I'm off to e-Bay to see if I can unload this four-day old unrefrigerated fish.
Rating: 
Summary: very interesting, very broad- very specific examples.
Review: I enjoy flipping through this book in the early phase of a project when trying to find the right style for a client. here's a stack of ideas- that does not mean you should choose your styler from this book or any other- but it's a great leaping point. amazing what some people can do.
Rating:
Summary: Expand your design horizons.
Review: I found this book very inspirational and it pulled me out of my design slump. I use it as a reference tool for each job. The book doesn't recommend making the exact sites, but to use some of the ideas and incorporate them into your own design. Also the tips and link URLs were great addition.
Rating:
Summary: has its faults, but still rocks
Review: I love this book. I am a student in webdesign and I had no idea what to expect when our teacher asked us to buy this book. when I started flipping through it and read a bit about the gothic organic style, I fell in love instantly. one problem designers often run into (including myelf), is that once we come up with a good style, we tend to use and re-use it a lot. we get too comfortable with it. this book allows you to explore other techniques and break out of your shell. sure, I wouldn't follow it word for word. some things have always annoyed me, such as cross browser/platform capabilities, window sizes, loading time, functionality and so on. this book doesn't think much of it. but this doesn't mean we can't use elements of the styles described and reflect the general essence of it in our own works. I challenge you to at least try each style. just make a layout and navigation scheme, with no content. just to get a feel of the style. don't think about browsers, window sizes and whatnot. then place these layouts in your portfolio and see what your potential employers think of it. it is quite challenging, but the result is amazingly refreshing. this book is a must-have for every webdesigner to break out of their rut.
Rating:
Summary: what a horriable piece of text...
Review: I must say that I am severly disapointed that a "web designer" can come in and try to categorize web design "styles". Foolish names like "Paper Bag" and "70's punk rock"..... This guy made this book for kids who cracked photoshop and dreamweaver and want to make a site that has had thought put into it. shame on him and anyone who follows this book as some sort of refrence for style...this book makes me sick. bad bad new riders...just bad. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOOK OR BOX
Rating:
Summary: Great Launching Pad for Brainstorming
Review: I read this book more for motivation in helping me think of new ways to approach designing sites and avoiding ruts than as a step-by-step guide to site design. Some of it I'll never use, but just seeing totally different ideas and approaches does make me think differently about the styles and tools I do use. I doubt that I'll ever slavishly design a site in one of the styles in the book, but it does make me look at things like "white space" and site navigation and overall structure in ways that I didn't before.
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