HTML5 for Web Designers
Photo of HTML5 for Web Designers taken from the designer’s website, Jason Santa Maria
I recently read Jeremy Keith’s HTML5 for Web Designers and loved it. It is a great overview of the up and coming web standard. The light, concise tone achieved through Keith’s witty brevity and Jason Santa Maria’s pitch perfect design almost make you forget that the subject is of weighty importance for anyone involved in the web design field. HTML5 is the manifestation of the recent push towards web standards, but instead of dumbing down the markup language for the benefit of the disparate qualities of today’s browsers, many advanced features previously found only in Javascript have been brought inline.
8 Faces, First Impressions
8 Faces is a new project headed by Elliot Jay Stocks, which contains interviews with typographers who create or use type in compelling ways. The first run of 1000 copies sold out in a matter of hours but anyone can do what I did and buy a PDF version. The magazine is planned for bi-annual release and will be a regular addition to my bookshelf, digitally in this case.
The design of the 8 Faces is definitely great, clean layout with wonderful full color photographs. The content is where I had the greatest surprise. The interviews with these luminaries of the field are not that different from what you might find online but isolated in a magazine rather than in series of blog posts with ads and other distractions running along the side really make a difference. I can’t say much more than it really is a pleasure to sit down and read through the PDF on the iPad, and in a way that I have not achieved online. I highly recommend anyone interested in the design field or typography generally to do the same. 8 Faces does a much superior job than the regular industry publications, I’m looking at you Print and HOW, at tickling the inspiration center in my designer brainer.