Malarkey is Andy Clarke, a creative designer with a passion for accessibility and web standards. This is his personal website.

And All That (Transcending CSS) Malarkey

This morning I returned from a (literally) flying visit to New York where I had the very real pleasure of visiting my friends at AOL and speaking at their Design and Programming Offsite event. The visit was a memorable one, not only because I am a huge fan of the work that AOL are doing and I was able to spend time with some of their hugely creative designers. (Update: There are a few photos on Flickr.)

Some (most) of you might know that I have spent eight months of this year writing a book, Transcending CSS: The Fine Art Of Web Design. On Friday, at AOL, I was able to see a copy, sent direct from the printers. It was an emotional moment, as writing Transcending CSS has been a labour of love, yet at the same time one of the hardest things that I have ever set out to accomplish.

Words can hardly express my feelings at holding the finished book in my hands for the first time. I am amazingly proud of the end result, it is everything that I wanted it to be and more.

Words can hardly express my pride at holding the finished book in my hands for the first time.

What’s in the book?

Transcending CSS is divided into four parts: Discovery, Process, Inspiration and Transendence, rather than a series of chapters.

It starts with the background and my principles for a transcendant CSS approach, moves through new methods for working with CSS during design and prototyping phases, into an explanation of grid based design and a detailed look at how some of my favourite sites of the moment have been designed. It ends with a series of brand new examples using some familiar and some not-so-familiar CSS techniques including some from CSS3 and rounds off with an exclusive look at the CSS3 Advanced Layout Module actually working in a real-life web browser.

My original page layout concepts.

Making it happen

As I spend most of my time obsessing over design details, I wanted to have control over the design of Transcending CSS; this is not control that publishers usually give over to an author, particularly a first-time author.

I have been so incredibly fortunate that New Riders allowed me not only to write the book, but also to design the concepts and layouts for the cover and for all of the internal pages (above). These have been beautifully transformed into finished pages by the incredible team at New Riders and the design of the book is everything that I could possibly have wished for.

What can I say about my friends and colleagues: Mark Boulton, Aaron Gustafson and Dave Shea who not only helped me develop the book from early concepts to its final shape and edit my words, but gave me the encouragement to see the enterprise through to the end? Molly has written the foreward and Dave the preface. How proud am I to have these two incredible people agree to participate?

So now its done, and so is the supporting web site at www.transcendingcss.com where in the next few days there will be a competition to win one of three Transcending CSS engraved Apple iPod Shuffles. I hope that you will like it, find it informative and an inspiration and funny in places too. There are plenty of visual gags and other in-jokes for the BritPack and my other friends and colleagues too.

When will it be available?

Transcending CSS will be in distributor’s warehouses in the USA next week and shipping to the rest of the world in the next few weeks. Fingers crossed, if you have pre-ordered a copy it should be with you pretty soon.

Replies

  1. #1 On November 19, 2006 07:24 PM Jeremy Keith said:

    Congratulations, Andy!

    The boy done good.

  2. #2 On November 19, 2006 07:26 PM Marko Mihelcic said:

    Congratz mate!

  3. #3 On November 19, 2006 07:32 PM LEOPiC said:

    I bet it must be like having a kid, congratulations!

  4. #4 On November 19, 2006 07:34 PM Ian Fenn said:

    Andy, congratulations!

  5. #5 On November 19, 2006 07:38 PM Veerle Pieters said:

    A well deserved congrats is in order! It looks fabulous! :)

  6. #6 On November 19, 2006 09:29 PM paul haine said:

    Looks gorgeous, well done!

  7. #7 On November 19, 2006 09:55 PM Brian Delicata said:

    Congrats Andy - looking forward to receive my pre-order!

  8. #8 On November 19, 2006 09:56 PM Estrup said:

    Wow!

    Lookin’ forward to turnin’ those pages. Congrats and greetings from Denmark!

  9. #9 On November 19, 2006 10:15 PM brothercake said:

    mmm … transcending :)

  10. #10 On November 19, 2006 10:32 PM Gareth Rushgrove said:

    And just in time for christmas too. One more essential purchase to add to the overflowing bookshelf. Congratulations, it does look rather spiffing.

  11. #11 On November 19, 2006 11:41 PM Jeremy Freeman said:

    Well done Andy.

  12. #12 On November 19, 2006 11:54 PM Ben Buchanan said:

    Congratulations, I’m so excited for you!

    You realise you have to come back to .au so you can sign our copies, right? :)

  13. #13 On November 20, 2006 01:01 AM David Wall said:

    Hopefully this is more practical than the Lynda video. Your examples were clear but didn’t work for me in IE6 (perhaps I’m just being dumb). I love your general design philosophy though! God bless & look after mum.

  14. #14 On November 20, 2006 01:16 AM hooney said:

    Congratulations!

    I like books title (transcending )

  15. #15 On November 20, 2006 01:33 AM Jon said:

    Congrats, Andy! I’ve had my copy on pre-order from Amazon for a few weeks now.

    Your screens of the book pages confirm that it’s exactly what I had hoped it would be. I’m looking to sitting down and reading this week sometime.

  16. #16 On November 20, 2006 01:48 AM luxuryluke said:

    Congratulations! on order!

  17. #17 On November 20, 2006 01:50 AM Damien Buckley said:

    Have it pre-ordered, can’t wait to get hold of it. Looks great, early Xmas box to myself if Amazon can ship it down under for me in time!

  18. #18 On November 20, 2006 02:25 AM zuzu said:

    Yay!! Scooter-licious.

    Now looking forward to Transcending CSS full day workshop next year :)

  19. #19 On November 20, 2006 03:36 AM Peter Asquith said:

    It looks fantastic - well done! Now giddy-up Amazon!

  20. #20 On November 20, 2006 08:01 AM Jaakko said:

    Wow, it sure does look stunning! Ordered it a minute ago and it should be arriving by the end of the year (accompanied by Frank Millers 300). This is superb news, and we shouldn’t forget Mark Boultons upcoming book, too.

    Congratulations!

  21. #21 On November 20, 2006 09:04 AM gleddy said:

    congrats on the book… it’s great to see a book out there once and a while that is motivational and breaks away from the ’trenches of coding’. Looking forward to seeing a copy.

  22. #22 On November 20, 2006 09:51 AM Mark Ford said:

    Gongrats Andy!!

    I can’t wait to get my sweaty paws on a copy.

  23. #23 On November 20, 2006 10:12 AM Matthew Pennell said:

    Congratulations, Andy. Since your @media presentation I’ve been looking forward to the book coming out; it’s now on our design team’s ’to order’ list.

  24. #24 On November 20, 2006 10:48 AM Sam H said:

    Congratulations!

    I’ve been looking forward to reading it and will be putting it down on my christmas list : )

    The design really looks fantastic.

    Can’t wait to read it!

  25. #25 On November 20, 2006 11:19 AM Malarkey said:

    @ Everyone: Thanks for the kind comments guys, this means a lot.

    @ Jaakko: I’m looking forward to Mark Boulton’s book too!

    @ David Wall: Much of the book is browser agnostic although some of the code examples are for ’standards savvy’ browsers rather than being limited to the ’lowest common denominator’ of IE6

    @ Ben: You’ll just have to bug John and Maxine to ask me back! :)

  26. #26 On November 20, 2006 12:21 PM Olly said:

    Congrats Andy! The book design and website both look fantastic, great work. Looking forward to reading it

  27. #27 On November 20, 2006 01:14 PM Colly said:

    Wonderful. Can’t wait to see a non-PDF version of this era-defining tome. Well done mate. Well done.

  28. #28 On November 20, 2006 01:27 PM Alan Wyatt said:

    Well done, that man there!

    Have ’Transcending’ pre-ordered and eagerly await it’s release. It will sit next to Cederholm and Zeldman’s excellent works.

    Looking forward to the next one.

  29. #29 On November 20, 2006 03:21 PM Rich Quick said:

    Congrats Andy!

    Can’t wait to see a copy - the bits I’ve seen so far look great.

    I’ve just finished a writing and designing a book of my own, so I really do know what you’ve been through. Mine took 10 months though - so you’re obviously more focussed than me.

    It sounds so easy, doesn’t it? If only they knew!

    ;o)

  30. #30 On November 20, 2006 04:13 PM Rob Weychert said:

    I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this one for awhile, and it looks like it’s gonna be great!

  31. #31 On November 20, 2006 05:23 PM Aaron Gustafson said:

    It was great getting to work with you on this Andy. It’s a fantastic book and I was thrilled to be a part of the process. I can’t wait to see the final product!

  32. #32 On November 20, 2006 06:07 PM Owen said:

    Great news, Andy. I’ve had my copy on order since September so it’s nice to know my wait is almost over. Any plans to start another one? ;)

  33. #33 On November 20, 2006 09:47 PM Steve Williams said:

    The book design looks wonderful, and from your presentation during @media’06, I know the words will be gold too, congratulations!

  34. #34 On November 20, 2006 10:49 PM Carolyn Wood said:

    I can hardly wait to get a copy of this book. It’s been on my wish list forever, it seems. I’m so happy that you designed the book itself. Web design books are so much more inspiring when they are beautifully designed….and such a turn-off when they aren’t. I think designing it yourself was a very important thing to insist on. The book’s website looks great, too. Between this and Mark Boulton’s book I’m looking forward to some really inspiring reading this winter. Congratulations!

  35. #35 On November 20, 2006 11:11 PM Sally Carson said:

    Congratulations!! I can’t wait to get a copy. Finally, we can start talking about Art in our field!!

  36. #36 On November 21, 2006 01:24 AM Chris Lienert said:

    Top work, Andy! I’ll be ordering a copy once it’s out in the wild.

  37. #37 On November 21, 2006 09:06 AM Leanda Ryan said:

    Hey, can’t wait for the book. Hope you managed to find time to pick up a Jasper Johns flag poster whilst in NY.

  38. #38 On November 21, 2006 12:40 PM Matt Robin said:

    Hey - there it is! Well done Andy…I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy at some point in the near future.

    ’I’m sure all that hard work has paid off and that this will be one of the ’must have’ web design books for ’07.’

    It’s great that Dave, Molly and other excellent people have assisted you along the way. You can put your feet-up for Christmas now right? :)

    p.s. Great to see those screenshot too - cheers!

  39. #39 On November 22, 2006 01:14 PM Geert Leyseele said:

    Congrats Andy! The book looks super, can’t wait to get my hands on it :)

  40. #40 On November 22, 2006 02:27 PM Andy Budd said:

    Nice work Andy. Can’t wait to get a "review" copy :-)

  41. #41 On November 22, 2006 09:44 PM Dave said:

    Well done gez.
    Will have to buy a copy

  42. #42 On November 22, 2006 10:13 PM Karl said:

    Bravo! Just the morale boost the troops in the trenches need! Now, do I buy it myself, ask for an "early" Crimbo present or stare at it under the tree for a week and a bit?

  43. #43 On November 22, 2006 10:23 PM apartness said:

    Beautiful!

  44. #44 On November 22, 2006 10:56 PM d said:

    Looks great! Ordered the book in September, happy to receive my copy soon!

  45. #45 On November 22, 2006 11:13 PM Grant Palin said:

    Hadn’t heard of this one before, but now I’ve added it to my Amazon wishlist. It’s getting longer…Methinks I’ll be needing a bigger bookcase soon!

  46. #46 On November 23, 2006 01:07 AM kartooner said:

    Reminds me more of an art book than anything, and that’s a compliment.

    I agree with everyone here in that the book itself -- inside and out -- is beautiful. You can really tell this was a labour of love and long overdue in my opinion since you’ve been divulging your knowledge of CSS for a few years now.

    I’d like to think of this as a payment for your educated us and for just being a good chap.

    This will be added to my library when it’s released.

  47. #47 On November 23, 2006 01:19 AM Martin Ringlein said:

    Congrats! I can’t wait to read it.

    I’ve already got a cover button up on my blog!

  48. #48 On November 23, 2006 03:17 AM reese said:

    I’m really excited about this book! I hope someone gets it for me for Christmas off my wishlist. If not, I’ll be getting it come the new year!

  49. #49 On November 23, 2006 07:47 AM Damjan Mozetič said:

    Congratulations! I was really looking for some fresh air in css books, I guess that’s it.

  50. #50 On November 23, 2006 01:54 PM Si Jobling said:

    As much as I love your stuff and have eagerly awaited this book, I want to know what separates it from all those other CSS books out there (I’m looking at Andy Budd’s CSS Mastery in particular).

    Are there any significant topics that you cover that makes it stand out from the crowd?

  51. #51 On November 23, 2006 02:21 PM Joe Cardella said:

    Fab-U-los! This is all I want for Christmas!

  52. #52 On November 23, 2006 03:37 PM Malarkey said:

    @ Si Jobling: That’s a great question, thanks for bringing it up. With this book, I wanted to do something very different to other books that have been written about CSS.

    Firstly I wanted it to be more ’manifesto’ than just simply practical. I hope to make people think about moving their design for the web in different directions, and so there is a real focus on using very up-to-date techniques that look great in modern browsers. The message is (in a nut-shell), don’t limit your designs to the the most prevalent (and lowest common denominator) browser.

    Secondly I wanted to make the book really design focussed, and so there are lots of images: some purely inspirational and many from the scrapbooks that I make a habit of keeping. In the first three parts, the code has been kept to an absolute minimum with the focus being about looking at web design and process in different ways.

    In the last part, I focus on practical examples and some new ways for using CSS techniques. Again, this is not a book that says "Ah, but this is not supported in IE6" - so there are no hacks and workarounds for old browsers, just lots of modern CSS2.1, PNG imagery and even some CSS3 including a detailed look at multiple columns, multiple background images and selectors.

    The book ends with a real scoop! The CSS3 Advanced Layout Module: not just saying how it will work, but showing it working it a real-life web browser. All of the files for all of the working examples (including Advanced Layout) will be downloadable from the Transcending CSS web site.

    Transcending CSS is aimed to work with other books by Andy Budd, Simon Collison etc. but has a very different focus.

    I hope that answers your question and that you enjoy the book.

  53. #53 On November 23, 2006 05:13 PM Gordon Mackay said:

    Congrats Andy :)

    I pre-ordered this from Amazon a while ago and have been looking forward to reading it ever since!

  54. #54 On November 23, 2006 05:49 PM dobata said:

    congrats from me too looking forward to checking the book, and the CSS3 parts, it’s not very popular theme I guess. Hopefully it will be a refreshment and inspiration

  55. #55 On November 23, 2006 10:02 PM Dale Cruse said:

    Looks terrific. Can’t wait.

  56. #56 On November 25, 2006 12:15 PM Erwin Heiser said:

    Looks fab! I have it on pre-order so bring it on…and stop teasing us :)

  57. #57 On November 26, 2006 06:12 PM Daniel K said:

    I put this up on my lj the other day and already several people have emailed or posted back that they’ve ordered the book. Last night Amazon(US) sent an email saying it had been shipped out so I’ll receive it Weds. I watched the Fine Art of Web Design cast from @Media and honestly have to say I agree with everything you said and am honestly hoping it’s in the book.

  58. #58 On November 26, 2006 07:39 PM Malarkey said:

    @ Daniel K: That is really great news. I hope that people will get it in time for Christmas. I think that booksellers outside of North America will ge getting it slightly later, but I hope that it won’t be too long.

    Please let me know if you receive a copy.

  59. #59 On November 27, 2006 04:48 AM Brian Zerangue said:

    Andy -

    Congrats on the new book! I’ve already ordered my copy. It can’t arrive soon enough! Your work is always amazing! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

    BZ

  60. #60 On November 28, 2006 12:07 AM Daniel K said:

    One of the teacher’s of the school I go to (something I might ask you about privately Mr. Clarke) received one of the instructor’s orders today. Only had an hour to flip through it but I can honestly stay outstanding. And No, I’m not just trying to suck up. After discussing it with him he’ll be using both the Zen of CSS design and Transcending CSS for his Web III: Layout & Design course.

  61. #61 On November 28, 2006 07:11 PM rb said:

    I just received your book and it is absolutely beautiful. Great job!!

  62. #62 On November 29, 2006 07:09 AM Daniel K said:

    Recieved the book today and finally now able to sit down and read it. I did find one little flaw though with pages 41,43, 45.

    Pages 43 & 45 should be switched, so it flows from 41->45->43.

  63. #63 On November 29, 2006 01:20 PM Lydia said:

    just wanted to say hi to all seen some names from the past and took a mental walk down memory lane.

  64. #64 On November 30, 2006 12:55 PM Roger Dessagne said:

    It’s above any words, for such a great and inspiring book is going to help me quite a lot in designing nice web sites. I’ve many books on CSS, but this one is really outstanding by its design and content.

    I have IE 7 and would like to know the links to javascripts which can allow me to work around the liimits of IE7 in regards to CSS.

  65. #65 On November 30, 2006 01:09 PM Malarkey said:

    @ Roger Dessagne: Thank-you for the kind comments. I will be adding more content to the support section of the Transcending CSS web site in the next few weeks.

    For people who have bought the book, this support section contains all the downloadable files and will soon include a full list of resource URLs and even open comments for discusson on each of the examples.

  66. #66 On November 30, 2006 02:05 PM richard e said:

    Great book, completely different from all the other great books, but fits in well with them, and really good to read and "look" at the creative inspiration in its very colourful pages.
    Note ordered direct from publisher in US, arrived UK in 3 days (23rd Nov), and cheaper than amazon uk because of the exchange rate…sorry about the royalties, but I’m sure you would rather we read it sooner than later.

  67. #67 On November 30, 2006 03:37 PM xxdesmus said:

    This books looks excellent, I will be picking this up as soon as I can.

    Congrats mate!

  68. #68 On November 30, 2006 04:35 PM Lee Hickman said:

    Andy

    Well done mate. Looking forward to the office copy arriving from Mr Amazon.

    Are you still up our neck of the woods? We’ll have to organise a christmas beer. I’m sure I could drag Mr Collison out as well!

    Once again, well done and see you soon.

    Lee

  69. #69 On December 1, 2006 12:32 PM milo said:

    Well done and congrats, what’s next on your list?

  70. #70 On December 2, 2006 12:53 PM Nick Roper said:

    Arrived back from a 250 mile round trip to see a client yesterday to find that my copy had arrived from Amazon. Stayed up to the early hours reading it and drooling over the images and designs - I even forgot to watch the cricket!

    Not only a fantastic resource for us mere developers - but it will also be a brilliant reference to show to clients as design examples.

    Fantastic job Andy - pure CSS Ska!

  71. #71 On December 5, 2006 07:37 PM Malarkey said:

    Ed says: "Doncha just hate wiping SPAM off your shoes?

    As Malarkey has had quite enough love from this post already, I’ll close comments here by saying the hugest thank-you for all the kind comments. You have really made a happy man very old.