Cold Hard Code

One of the reasons I founded Cold Hard Code with Jay was to explore interests that weren't part of our day to day jobs. One of these passions for me is design. I — with a lot of help from Jay and some close friends — am the creative mind behind our properties. Cold Hard Code has given me an opportunity to pursue this love.

My only "training" is over 10 years of using Photoshop and an equal time writing markup. I've always held strong opinions on design and style, but I rarely talk about them to anyone but close friends because I don't feel that I have a firm enough base in the material.

So over the last year I've been working on changing that. Starting with this very site I've shaped a style through trial and error as well as more traditional methods: books. Here's a list of some of the tomes that line my shelves now.

We'll begin with Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style. This book single-handedly convinced me as to the power of design books. Of all the books I've read thus far it is this one that I consult most often. I have a dozen pages bookmarked and I consult it often enough that it stays on my desk rather than on my bookshelf.

Although interestingly named, Alexander Lawson's Anatomy of a Typeface was a work I never really found my stride with. It makes a droning sound in my head if I read it for too long. It does, however, contain some very interesting history that I will almost certainly dip back into. In writing this entry I've noticed some passages deeper in the book that I have yet to reach and am looking forward to.

Ellen Lupton's Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs) is one that I consumed in bite-sized pieces while on business in New York City. That being said, I don't remember a lot of the material. A quick glance reminds me that it was very "project" based and flowed well from one topic to the next. It is rich with examples.

Entering the world of Edward Tufte has been one of the more interesting experiences related to this renaissance. I managed to obtain The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition, Envisioning Information and Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. I still have one left to read: Beautiful Evidence. These 3 books have had a significant impact on some of my more recent work. Tufte argues extensively against "chartjunk" and other wasteful use of real-estate in graphics as well as using the lack of color to convey information. I could go on for many posts about what Tufte has to say and still not touch the bottom.

Due for delivery this week is Luke Wroblewski's Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks. This came from a post at one of my recent feed additions: The Designer's Review of Books, who gave it 4 and a half stars. Forms are one of the design elements that I feel steadily improve from project to project for me. I have high hopes that this one will increase that trend.

I'm excited to see what 2009 brings to my style, as a considerable number of design blogs and an Amazon wishlist full of books are waiting for me. I look forward to posting again in a year!.