A unique book that teaches design and web development principles, using the CSS Zen Garden as a case study.
* this is archived content ported from an older design with minimal intervention
After launching the CSS Zen Garden, I was approached by a handful of publishers interested in whether I’d be willing to write a companion book. I’d previously struck a friendship with one of my earliest influences in web design, Molly Holzschlag and we had talked about collaborating on a project at some point. This still being early in my career, I was hesitant about tackling a full book single-handedly so we decided to write it together.
We split the book roughly in half. Each of us tackled one submission from the site per chapter, using it to illustrate a design principle that we’d explain in detail. Calling in Shaun Inman as our technical editor we spent the better part of seven months writing, editing, and proofing.
The final book was delivered in the spring of 2005 and went on to sell 70,000 copies worldwide. It was translated into over a dozen languages and served a long life as a text for many web design courses while it remained technically relevant.