Andy Clarke’s Inspired CSS

My latest Andy Clarke purchase arrived from Amazon this morning: CSS Artistry: A Web Design Master Class. The set comprises Andy’s 2006 book Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design and a new DVD-ROM called Inspired CSS – styling for a beautiful web.

I’ve had the book since it was first published and it’s now well worn. It’s a beautifully produced tome and is packed with inspiration, cool designs and techniques, all based on web standards. So good I’ve now bought it twice [I plan to donate my first copy to the team of web developers I manage at work].

I’ve started watching the DVD this afternoon. I find Andy’s relaxed, but authoratitive style engaging and never dull. He makes what can be a dry, technical subject watchable. I am around half way through and I have learned so much. Tips and tricks that create those ‘ah, that’s what that does’ moments.

The DVD is not aimed at beginners, which is one of the reasons I decided to buy it. I agree, but Andy makes it easy to understand and digest with lots of practical examples. All of the source code is included on the disc, so it’s possible to follow along and play with the code yourself.

The DVD covers:

• Semantic markup
• Typography
• Microformats
• Advanced CSS selectors
• Layout techniques
• CSS3 features

Highly recommended.

Note: this is a DVD-ROM. Requires Flash Player 8 or above and works on Apple Mac and Windows.