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readability studies and CSS nuances to typographic explorations and downloadable typefaces. Don’t miss the survey of fonts installed on PC and Mac users’ computers. Founded by the mysterious “Gen,” with kibitzing from Dave Bastian, Joe Clark, Julia Hayden, Webmistress Jo, and your humble author.

The World Wide Web Consortium (http://w3.org/), the mother of us all, is the final authority on web standards. Use it to keep track of existing and emerging technologies and to verify the way these technologies should work, before running off half-cocked, screaming about aliens jamming the radio transmitter embedded in your skull as part of an evil CIA experiment. Note that W3C articles, while definitive, are among the least easy to read and understand of any we’ve seen—and that includes VCR manuals written in Japan. You’ll do better if you check W3C to see what you should learn about; then read the friendly tutorials at Webmonkey, Builder, or A List Apart.

The Big Kahunas

Let us now praise famous art directors:

Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/) not only makes great software for print and web designers, they also run a fine, vast site full of tutorials, columns, and articles on web, print, and motion design. Disclaimer: Your humble author writes a column for this publication.

AIGA (http://www.aiga.org/), the American institute of Graphic Arts, has a long and noble history as a membership organization for designers. But you know that. The site helps you track seminars and conferences and offers a national job bank and member discussion board along with thoughtprovoking articles (“What is Graphic Design?”).

Communication Arts (http://www.commarts.com/) is among the world’s most-respected voices for design. Its interactive section includes design technology columns and a Website of the Week. And of course the Communication Arts annuals honor some of the best design and advertising communications in the world.

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PDN-Pix (http://www.pdn-pix.com/pix/), the digital arm of Photo District News, provides web design features (“Waiting to Load”), Q&A (“Ask Pix”), reviews of noteworthy sites (“Pix’s e-Projects”), and a column by your humble author (“Second Site”). The print magazine will repay your interest; much of this material gets republished on the site along with some webonly content (“Grand Masters of Flash”).

Beauty and Inspiration

When grinding out menu bar buttons saps your inspiration, trust welldesigned, meaningful sites to restore it. Begin your voyage with sites that deliver compelling, original content (and not in plain brown wrappers):

{fray} (http://www.fray.com/), the ultimate personal storytelling site, was conceived, produced, and art-directed by designer/author Derek Powazek. In addition to showcasing what an imaginative web designer can do with words and pictures, the site functions as an on and offline community. Highly recommended. (Derek Powazek is also the author of Design For Community, published by New Riders.)

Glassdog (http://www.glassdog.com/), Lance Arthur’s personal magnum opus, is both sarcastic and smooth. As if the site’s clever writing and smart scripting were not intimidating enough, Arthur manages to combine clean, spare, easy-to-navigate design with the technical dexterity of a dazzling showoff.

Harrumph! (http://www.harrumph.com/), Heather Champ’s charming and witty online diary, sports one of the cleanest web layouts we know. Perhaps this is because Heather has been designing websites since 1995, or perhaps it’s because she’s got taste. All we know is, every site that uses words should be this easy to read and engaging to look at. Few are.

Media.org (http://www.media.org/), “a collective of artists/architects… fueled by a passion for the Internet medium,” was cofounded by Carl Malamud and Webchick in 2000 to debunk web inanities, promote web intelligence, and rescue digital works laid waste by careless businesses. Among the sites they rescued:

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Mappa Mundi (http://www.mappa.mundi.net/) a smart, monthly web-only magazine and another Malamud/Webchick production, is perhaps the most intellectual of the noncommercial online ‘zines.

Spark Online (http://www.spark-online.com/) is an extremely ambitious monthly online magazine covering media, trends, and society. Like all the others mentioned here, it is essentially a nonprofit labor of love.

The preceding sites show what can be done when original minds combine fresh content with fine style.

Those directly following show what can be accomplished when innovation and skillful graphic design are combined. Indeed, most of the following sites exist solely for that purpose, though a few are also commercial in nature.

Many of the sites listed require Flash and QuickTime, and it helps to have a recent browser and a fast connection.

Amon Tobin Supermodified (http://www.amontobin.com/), previously mentioned in these pages, is an extraordinary music site created in Flash. A cold, high-tech look, with a warmly interactive embrace, the site will reward your patience.

Archinect (http://www.archinect.com/), an ever-changing visual exploration, should be seen and not described.

Assembler (http://www.assembler.org/), Brent Gustaffson’s masterpiece of cross-browser DHTML programming has a lovely and understated design sensibility.

Born Magazine (http://www.bornmagazine.com/) is a long-running, ambitious, collaborative work that attempts to continually reinvent the conjunction between word and image. The noncommercial site’s tagline is

“Design. Literature. Together.”

Egomedia (http://www.egomedia.com/) is a design company portfolio with the sensibility of a rock video. Requires Flash.

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Lushly designed eneri.net (http://www.eneri.net/) makes no bones about narrowing its audience: “This site targets luxurious people with a fast computer, fast Internet connection, Netscape or IE 4.0 or above, and Shockwave 7 plug-in.” For those who meet the requirements, Irene Chan’s labor of love offers a beautiful, film-like experience.

Entropy 8 Zuper (http://entropy8zuper.org/) is the site of Auriea Harvey, one of the first web designers to laugh at conventions and bust boundaries. Requires “fast computer, DHTML browser, Flash 5 or better” and “a physical need for wonder and poetry.”

Futurefarmers (http://www.futurefarmers.com/), Amy Franceschini’s web and multimedia design company, gives the lie to the notion that corporate work must be staid and conservative. Amy is one of the original exponents of fine design on the Web; her early web work is housed permanently at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Gmunk (http://www.gmunk.com/), a high-density personal site, pushes the envelope every which way. Outrageously high bandwidth, QuickTime movies, layered Photoshop collages rendered in Flash: everything usability experts rail against is practiced here, by a master who can get away with it. Tune in after losing an argument with your information designer or your client.

Interiors (http://www.webproductions.com/photo/) is a dynamic slideshow of digital self-portraits by artist Steve Giovinco. To call the work “disturbing” would be an understatement. It’s also quite powerful.

Monocrafts (http://www.yugop.com/) combines powerful visual content with unbelievably innovative interface ideas—extremely inspiring.

One9ine (http://www.one9ine.com/), a web design agency created by designers, not marketers, is gorgeously rich yet entirely functional and easy to navigate. Think the two can’t coexist? Look and see.

Once Upon A Forest (http://www.once-upon-a-forest.com/) is an abstract, deliberately cryptic work of genius by Joshua Davis, who also brings us Praystation and Dreamless.

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S.M. Moalie’s Photomontage (http://www.photomontage.com/) makes us cry. ‘Nuff said.

Marc Klein’s Pixel Industries (http://www.pixel-industries.com/), well known and widely imitated, is a textbook example of the graphic-design- lead approach to web development. See also Marc’s Creative Republic (http://www.creative-republic.com/).

Pixelflo (http://pixelflo.com/), funky and witty, is also a masterpiece of

JavaScript programming.

Praystation (http://www.praystation.com/), Joshua Davis’s site, is dedicated to exploring and enlarging the boundaries of Flash and interface design. If you are learning Flash and beginning to think you know what it can and can’t do, check Praystation. Davis gives away his source code so others can use it in their design projects.

Presstube (http://www.presstube.com/), James Patterson’s personal illustration portfolio, reveals mastery of Flash as well as considerable drawing skill.

Projectbox (http://www.projectbox.com/) is an unusually elaborate, strikingly designed illustration and design portfolio site made in Thailand by 22- year-old Krisakorn Tantitemit. The playful and well-crafted interface makes great use of frames and scripting, and the color combinations are uniquely dramatic and pleasing.

Josh Ulm’s collaborative Remedi Project (http://www.theremediproject. com/) is a bleeding-edge leading light. Requires a modern browser, a fistful of plug-ins, and a fast connection (or great patience).

Mike Cina’s Trueistrue (http://www.trueistrue.com/) is a completely unique, ever-changing, strangely minimalist exploration of line and form.

Volumeone (http://www.volumeone.com/) is Matt Owens’s masterpiece. Updated quarterly, the site explores abstract visual issues through Flash and Photoshop.

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Yenz: The Secret Garden of Mutabor (http://www.yenz.com/) is a navigable space of large, striking images that load quickly because they are entirely vector-based. Created in Illustrator, Freehand, and Flash 3, the site guides you through one rich image field after another. The effect is both mesmerizing and soothing.

ZX26 (http://www.zx26.com/) is a noncommercial Japanese font site, built entirely with tiny animated GIFs and JavaScript.

Still hungry? The following design community sites showcase some of the newest and funkiest work being done anywhere. In addition, most are lovingly designed and cunningly programmed.

Design is Kinky (http://www.designiskinky.net/), created by Aussies Andrew Johnstone and Jade Palmer, features designer mug shots and hosts interviews with the likes of David Carson (not that there are really any likes of David Carson). For similar material, see Australia In Front (http:// www.australianinfront.com.au/).

Kaliber 10000 (http://www.k10k.net/), created by Danish lads Michael Schmidt and Token Nygaard, publishes a special new design project every week and is a superbly designed site in its own right—as you probably gathered from the many times we’ve mentioned in this book.

Netdiver Net (http://www.netdiver.net/) feeds your eyes with links and your brain with close-up interviews. Got a great site? Netdiver might review it if it meets “chief imagineer” Carole Guevin’s criteria: The ‘diver seeks impeccable content as well as superb design.

Japan-based Shift (http://www.shift.jp.org/) , the mother of all design portals, has inspired most of the sites in this section. In addition to its online presence, the site generates real-world design products such as the Gasbook series and the IMG SRC 100 book.

Straight outta Luxembourg, Surfstation (http://www.surfstation.lu/) currently features the tiniest type on the Web. Fortunately the site’s design news, interviews, and playful collaborative sections are easy and delightful to read.

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Three.oh Inspirational Kingdom (http://www.threeoh.com/) brags precision design and special interactive features, as well as advanced and superfunky JavaScript tricks. (For instance, loading an interview or special design feature in a pop-up window causes the original window to be “grayed out” by means of a full-screen layer swap.)

Special mentions:

Joe Jenett’s Coolstop (http://www.coolstop.com/v4.5/) was an independent portal to fine design and original content long before there was even a category for such sites, and continues to fulfill its mission with clarity, focus, and integrity. Its spiritual predecessor was Glenn Davis and Teresa Martin’s Project Cool, still operational, but not the same since its founders departed.

Notice that nearly every site mentioned is a noncommercial, independent site. Coincidence? Read the Time Life Books.

Believe us when we tell you that the sites listed above are not even a fraction of one percent of the best such sites out there. And there is always room for more, which brings us to our valedictory address:

THE INDEPENDENT CONTENT PRODUCER

REFUSES TO DIE!

This book is written for professionals in a competitive market. Consequently, we’ve spent most of our time talking about job skills—present and future. But designers do not live by bread alone—not even when it’s really good bread.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: If the Web is fascinating simply as a medium rife with challenges and rich in possibilities, it is even more alluring when you consider its low barrier to entry. This medium does not merely permit you to publish your own work, it begs for it.

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From a purely selfish point of view, most of today’s best-known web designers are famous for their personal sites, not for their commercial projects (though these are of course viewed and respected). Fame may seem a silly thing to seek, but it sure doesn’t hurt when you’re looking for your next job or your next client or approaching a backer to start your own agency.

The real jazz cats might do studio gigs to put three squares on the table, but dawn always caught them blowing mad bop in crazy uptown clubs. Real web designers jam after hours too—on personal and collaborative content and design sites, online magazines, and experimental spaces.

By creating and maintaining sites that cannot be controlled, compromised, disfigured, or deleted by the indifference or poor judgement of clients or managers, you will always have good work to show for yourself. More importantly, you have the chance to express yourself—to find out what you’re made of when no client is paying you and to find out what you really want to say.

If you were a classical composer, you’d have to pay a symphony orchestra just to hear your own music. And if you were a filmmaker, forget about it. But in independent web production, the only questionable part of your budget is how much time you can afford.

No one is in control of this space. No one can tell you how to design it, how much to design it, when to “dial it down.” No one will hold your hand and structure it for you. No one will create the content for you. What is in you? What thwarted creative potential is burning to get out, grow, and find its audience?

If you do this well, it will reflect back into the work you do for clients. Not only will this help your career, it will also enrich your life and the lives of others. Creating your content, designing it your way, repositioning yourself from vendor to author, you will have made your mark on the medium and perhaps on your generation.

You will have taken your talent to the Web.