Too many websites look alike. They follow familiar patterns, use similar layouts, and leave little impression once you’ve moved on.
In Standout Designs for the Web, I explore what makes websites memorable. Drawing on over thirty years of experience, I’ll show you how to uncover a company’s story, develop a distinctive visual language, and combine colour, typography, imagery, and layout to create designs that people recognise and remember.
No email address required£14.99
+ VAT • DRM-free EPUB and PDFPre-order Nov 12th 2026.
Shipping Nov 20th.
Every company has a story, but it isn’t always obvious. Learn how to look beyond the brief, discover what makes a company different, and turn those discoveries into distinctive design ideas.
Colour, typography, imagery, and illustration do more than make a website attractive. Discover how to combine them into a visual language that communicates character and makes a company recognisable.
Twelve columns aren’t the only way to organise a page. Explore alternative grids, asymmetry, rhythm, and composition to create layouts that feel purposeful rather than predictable.
Memorable websites aren’t made by adding unusual details for the sake of being different. Learn how to bring content, visual language, and layout together to create something that feels unmistakably its own.
Discover why some websites stay in your memory while others disappear into a sea of sameness.
Learn how to uncover the stories, characteristics, and details that make a company different.
Explore how colour, typography, imagery, and illustration can give a website a distinctive visual identity.
Break away from predictable layouts by experimenting with grids, composition, whitespace, and rhythm.
Bring storytelling, visual language, and layout together to create websites that are unmistakably their own.
When I start working with a new client, I want to know much more than what they do and what their website needs to accomplish. I want to discover their story, what makes them different, and the little details that give their company its personality.
The Hardboiled Client Interview is my practical guide to having those conversations. I’ll show you how I prepare for interviews, the questions I ask, and how I listen for unexpected answers that can inspire distinctive design ideas. It’s the perfect companion to Standout Designs for the Web.
Pre-order before November 20th and I’ll include this 35-page guide absolutely free.
£14.99
+ VAT • DRM-free EPUB and PDFPre-order Nov 12th 2026.
Shipping Nov 20th.
I’ve been designing websites for years, but this book made me question some of the habits I’d fallen into. Andy doesn’t just show you how to make something different. He explains how to make design decisions that give a website genuine character.
A refreshing reminder that good web design is about more than following established patterns. Andy combines decades of experience with practical ideas and inspiring examples that will make you want to approach your next project differently.
This is the kind of book I wish more people were writing about web design. It’s thoughtful, opinionated, beautifully illustrated, and full of ideas you can put into practice. It reminds you why making things for the web should be exciting.
Andy Clarke is a well-known designer and writer. He’s been called plenty of things since he started working on the web. His ego likes terms such as “Ambassador for CSS,” “industry prophet,” and “inspiring,” but he’s most proud that Jeffrey Zeldman once called him a “triple-talented bastard.”
With his wife Sue, Andy founded Stuff & Nonsense in 1998, where they’ve helped companies worldwide improve their designs by providing design expertise. Andy’s written several popular books on website design and development, including Art Direction for the Web (2019,) Transcending CSS Revisited (2019,) Hardboiled Web Design: Fifth Anniversary Edition* (2015,)Hardboiled Web Design (2010,) and Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design (2006.)
£14.99
+ VAT • DRM-free EPUB and PDFPre-order Nov 12th 2026.
Shipping Nov 20th.