Web Design Essentials

by Maria Giudice, Anita Dennis

Web Design Essentials is part of Adobe's Professional Studio Techniques series, which features wide-format books that lie flat on your desk as you work through step-by-step instructions and peruse tips on using Adobe's popular software titles. Books in this series are very well written and illustrated. They tend to stay on the front of the bookshelf for many years, long after version upgrades, often remaining invaluable.

This book concentrates on using Photoshop 5.5, Illustrator 8.0 and GoLive 4.0 to create Web sites, pages, rollovers, batched icons, animations, and many other useful, creative, and up-to-date elements. These tips will not only add spark to your Web design, it will also speed up production time. The techniques are contributed by several professionals using examples from their own projects. This "many chefs" style ensures that the ideas are fresh, clever, and fairly simple, yet still yield big results.

For example, Jason Kottke of kottke.org shows a step-and-repeat trick in Photoshop for building 3-D text without any fancy plug-ins. Florian Fangohr of hotstudio.com explains how to use ImageReady to create droplets: batch-processing drag and drop actions. He also gives a short tutorial on how to create "remote" rollovers (also known as "pointer" rollovers) in GoLive.

Some techniques have uses outside the realm of Web design. For example, Noreen Santini (hotstudio.com) charts out Photoshop's blending modes, and Sandra Kelch (theispot.com) offers a demonstration on using the Magic Wand tool to select and replace colors.

The book organizes tasks into three categories of difficulty, though none should prove troubling to beginners. And some of the tips, especially the animations, aren't clear. These caveats aside, Web Design Essentials makes a handy addition to any studio library. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: Selected techniques for using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and GoLive for Web design, including tips on site planning and management, preparing Web graphics and typography, using tables, frames, animations, and rollovers.

Genres: Website Design

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Throughout her illustrious career, creative teams and business leaders have sought the provocative vision and mentorship of Maria Giudice. As founder and CEO of the pioneering experience design firm Hot Studio, Maria built a thriving practice around the principles of human-centered design. Today, former “Hotties” can be found leading teams at Adobe, Google, McKinsey, Airbnb, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and more.

After Hot Studio’s acquisition by Facebook in 2013, Maria led global design teams at Facebook and Autodesk, building digital experiences for millions worldwide. And now, after three decades at the forefront of business and design, Maria has a new mission — building the next generation of creative leaders. Through one-on-one coaching, group coaching, and team-building workshops, Maria unlocks the potential hidden in executives and the people they lead.

A popular speaker at design and business conferences, Maria is also the author of three design books, including Rise of the DEO: Leadership by Design, which has been translated into several languages. Maria teaches design leadership at Stanford Continuing Studies, and also at California College of the Arts, at which she is also a trustee. Maria is a member of several advisory boards.