Wanted: CSS Luminary
Recently, I had a conversation with an editor at a relatively well-known and respected publisher about a CSS book concept they’re pursuing. I don’t want to give too much away about the book itself, since it’s their idea and not mine, but I will say that the concept more or less requires that the book’s author be a recognized name in the CSS and Web design community.
For various reasons, I’m not able to take on the project myself, so we were bouncing around various names of other people who might be a good fit. I shared some of my ideas, but I felt like I was struggling, and after we hung up I felt like I hadn’t really been a big help. That bothered me, so I’m going to put this to you, dear readers: tell me who would automatically make you take a CSS book seriously and consider buying it just on the strength of the name alone. (Remember, I’m not able to take this project, so don’t say, “Why, yours, Eric!” unless you want to be derided as a pointless suck-up.) You should probably list a couple of names, just in case you all pick one person as your primary and he or she isn’t available to do the book, either. After a week or so I’ll pass the results on to the publisher. Even if someone else has already named your top choice(s), list them again. The most commonly-listed names will be the ones who are at the top of the list.
So the floor is open. Let’s hear some names!
105 Responses
Received from twenty4.org » Gurus Wanted
[...] Eric Meyer is looking for a CSS guru to write a book which he himself had to turn down. Head on over to Eric’s blog and submit names of well respected Web De [...]
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[...] CSS? Where are the women of CSS? As a recent thread on Eric Meyer’s site, “Wanted: CSS Luminary” demonstrates, there are only two women even men [...]
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[...] Permanent Link: Yes, where are the women”>Yes, where are the women Eric Meyer had a recent request for CSS gurus for a potential book. I was getting down to th [...]
Received from 2020 Hindsight » The CSS Gurus, by a group vote
[...] -considered CSS gurus? Just check out the names in the comments of this Eric Meyer post. Eric’s Archived Thoughts: Wanted: CSS Luminary I%u2019m going to put [...]
Nick Fitzsimons wrote in to say...
Looks like Tantek might be freeing up some time right now…
Andrew Green wrote in to say...
D. Keith Robinson; Cameron Adams
John Y. wrote in to say...
H
Isofarro wrote in to say...
Dave Shea (I do hope he was one of the guys you initially mentioned!). Patrick Lauke (aka redux) – his stuff is very impressive.
DH wrote in to say...
Dan Cederholm, perhaps a somewhat obvious choice, but his site is invaluable (and as soon as amazon care to deliver it – his book will be too, I’m sure). Andy Budd is another who I think is very knowledgeable as well as always being clear and sensible. Hope this helps.
Matt Pennell wrote in to say...
Shea or Bowman. Andy Budd too.
Paul O’Brien definitely knows his stuff too, although you wouldn’t know it from his site.
Faruk Ates wrote in to say...
Forgetting time-issues on all authors, I’d say:
Dan Cederholm – simplebits.com;
Dave Shea – mezzoblue.com;
Jeffrey Zeldman – zeldman.com;
Douglas Bowman – stopdesign.com;
Andy Budd – andybudd.com;
D. Keith Robinson – 7nights.com/asterisk;
Andrei Herasimchuk – designbyfire.com
A book by one of them would certainly interest me far more than a book by someone NOT one of them (excluding yourself, Eric – does that count as being a suck-up? ;))
Philippe wrote in to say...
Yet another book about CSS ? I wouldn’t let the designers speak, at least no upfront. Something that goes more to the core, as an extension to The definiteve Guide ? Something like, what is possible now, what can be done, but need a little help for IE… Project lead by Tantek Çelick, with some input from Dave Hyatt (Safari), Ian ‘hixie’ Hickson; add Simon Willison or Patrick Griffiths for that little help for IE (js).
Jonathan Batchelor wrote in to say...
Dave Shea, Douglas Bowman and Jeffrey Zeldman are the 3 that come to mind other than you.
ACJ wrote in to say...
• Tantek Çelik
• Bert Bos
• Ian Hixie
• Dave Shea
• Me. :p
Mike P. wrote in to say...
John Gallant and Holly Bergevin.
Dave Marks wrote in to say...
Some of these people might not be CSS Guru’s as such, but given that i read them regularly via their blogs, I would defintly buy anything released by them
Doug Bowman
D Keith Robinson
Dave Shea
Dan Cederholm
Cameron Moll
Mike Davidson
Presumably someone at 37 Signals does CSS – i’d buy anything by them
Christopher wrote in to say...
I’m biased, but I would suggest Christopher Schmitt. ;-)
Trev Morris wrote in to say...
Dave Shea, Jeffrey Zeldman & Andy Budd.
Oli wrote in to say...
All of the above, plus Petr Stanicek (Pixy) and John Allsopp.
Simon Willison wrote in to say...
I’ll second John and Holly.
Greg K Nicholson wrote in to say...
Shea, Bowman, Herasimchuk, Zeldman
Robert Lofthouse wrote in to say...
Andy Budd
Jeremy Keith
D Keith Robinson
Malarkey wrote in to say...
How about a group effort, perhaps a pack of young and hungry Brits (about time stuff like this crossed the atlantic ;) )…
My vote goes to Andy Budd, Simon Collison, Jon Hicks, Dunstan Orchard and Jeremy Keith.
Malarkey wrote in to say...
How about a pack of young-and-hungry Brits in a group effort?
My vote goes to Andy Budd, Simon Collison, Jon Hicks, Dunstan Orchard and Jeremy Keith.
About time some of this stuff crossed the Atlantic ;)
Laurens Holst wrote in to say...
Shea, John and Holly…
Karl Ove Hufthammer wrote in to say...
H
Oliver Roick wrote in to say...
1. Douglas Bowman
2. D. Keith Robinson
3. Dave Shea
nasu wrote in to say...
Zeldman, Shea, Cederholm, Budd, Bowman
Michael wrote in to say...
I second Paul O’Brien.
Shane Shepherd wrote in to say...
I’m pretty new to CSS. I really enjoyed Molly Holzschlag’s book “Cascading Style Sheets, The Designer’s Edge”…being the book I bought before I discovered Eric!
Joseph Lindsay wrote in to say...
Dan Cederholm
Andrei Herasimchuk
D. Keith Robinson
Dave Shea
David Heacock wrote in to say...
My vote is for Molly Holzschlag. Ive struggled with a bunch of books on this topic and found her writing, organization and style to be the best. And I have two of your books to compare, but please take no offense.
esworp wrote in to say...
Patrick Griffiths – htmldog.com – another Brit.
Adrian Lee wrote in to say...
Dave Shea, Dave Shea, and, ah, Dave Shea.
Glutnix wrote in to say...
Tantek, Hixie, Zeldman… Need I say more?
Sergi wrote in to say...
no one said Russ Weakley ???????
lala wrote in to say...
My votes would be for:
D. Keith Robinson
D. Keith Robinson
D. Keith Robinson
D. Keith Robinson
D. Keith Robinson
and maybe D. Keith Robinson or D. Keith Robinson and D. Keith Robinson, but not D. Keith Robinson
.
Alberto Patelli L. E. wrote in to say...
Layout with fixed ‘width’? …I prefer the fluid and proportional layouts, where all columns have an elastic ‘width’. In my opinion, Cameron Adams is the best web designer of the moment, despite one of the columns has always a fixed ‘width’. I see his site very well under WinXP with Gecko, Opera and IE 6: with this browser, the 1 pixel border of Meyerweb.com between the content-layer and the menu is quite *wrong*. I would suggest Eric to bring the cellular phone and give Cameron Adams a ring… :-)
mjh wrote in to say...
1. Zeldman
2. Holly and John
3. Cederholm
Gordon Currie wrote in to say...
I think I would probably nominate Big John (John Gallant) at Positioniseverything.net. He has a great understanding of CSS and most important he participates on most of the CSS discussion groups and is very focused on making things work.
I might also recommend Peter Gifford at Universal Head. He’s very talented and his work ethic is awesome. He’s very much in demand so time might be an issue.
Andy Budd would be a good choice as well.
I might have suggested all the big guns (Dave Shea, Zeldman, Boweman etc ) but these guys are all very busy and I don’t know if they would have time to do a book right now.
Lachlan Hunt wrote in to say...
I would have to say Dave Shea. I find both his writing and design skills second to none, and would definatley buy his book.
It will be interesting to find out what the concept for the book is — it’s a shame you couldn’t give us more information. Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Nick Cowie wrote in to say...
Depends on the project:
If it is more of technical biais, ie converting the reader’s or other designs to CSS – Big John and Holly.
If it has a more creative biais, taking a concept and creating a good CSS based design from that concept – Patrick Griffiths, Cameron Moll or Dave Shea.
Kevin H. Stecyk wrote in to say...
My vote is for Stu Nicholls. You can view his excellent CSS site called Cutting Edge CSS”. If you haven’t already viewed his site, then you should have a look as it is well worth the effort.
mike burnard wrote in to say...
Cederholm, Shea, Storey, Zeldman
Devon wrote in to say...
H
David McCreath wrote in to say...
It would depend on the thrust of the book. For an advanced book about pushing the limits, I’d vote for Doug Bowman. Dave Shea and Dan Cederholm would be close seconds in that category. For nuts and bolts “how to deal with this stuff”, I think Holly and John would be great. For a holistic “using CSS in the process of building a great web site”, I’d go with D. Keith.
Chris Rollins wrote in to say...
If its about the ins and outs of CSS then I’d say Simon Willison, Patrick Griffiths, Russ Weakley, John Allsopp or maybe Ann van Kesteren. If it’s more about creating stunning designs then just look through the Zen Garden for names (Mike Pick, Jon Hicks, Shaun Inman and (obviously) Doug Bowman jump to mind).
Manu wrote in to say...
John and Holly for the skillful explanations… Andy Budd comes to my mind too.
Ben de Groot wrote in to say...
Dave Shea, Cameron Adams, Dan Cederholm, Doug Bowman, Andrei Herasimchuk, Didier Hilhorst, Egor Kloos, Jon Hicks, Andy Budd, Jeremy Keith, Kevin Davis, Russ Weakley, Holly Bergevin
Phoat Spyro wrote in to say...
I think I should be considered to write the book! :P
Dan wrote in to say...
Dave Shea or, stay with me now, Danny Goodman.
Gabe wrote in to say...
Doug Bowman, Dave Shea, or Dan Cederholm
AndyT wrote in to say...
Dave Shea gets my vote.
Also Jeffrey Zeldman and Douglas Bowman.
Matt wrote in to say...
I’d say Dave Shea or Tantek. Howzabout me? :P
Matt Heerema wrote in to say...
hmm… no one mentioned Mike Davidson? Or is he being blacklisted for his anti-validation badge… :)
Jeff wrote in to say...
Dave Shea, Doug Bowman, Christopher Schmitt
Simon Collison wrote in to say...
I’m all for a collective Zen Garden-esque approach. I suppose that isn’t the brief, but it’s a book I’d like to see. It’d be interesting to see how a group pool their ideas in print – and yes Malarkey, maybe us Brits could meet the task – Clarke, Orchard, J Keith, Hicks, Budd Rutter and, erm…me.
If not, then Bowman gets my vote. This is all a bit speculative without knowing the gist of the idea though…
Anthony Bosio wrote in to say...
Dave Shea or Dave Shea or Doug Bowman
Kelly wrote in to say...
Aaron Gustafson’s done some great corporate and educational work (Bertucci’s Restaurants, Mystic Aquarium’s Immerison Project, ride4ever.org, and Liberty Bank).
Andrew Hume wrote in to say...
Molly, surely. I’m surprised more people have not mentioned her.
Kenan Malak wrote in to say...
Tantek Celik or Jeffrey Zeldman
Keith Burgin wrote in to say...
You know what would be interesting would be a book of seperate chapters – each written by a different person, each reflecting that particular guru’s speciality. Perhaps one could get 10-12 CSS Luminaries to each write about a pet project that illustrates the varying uses of CSS and the troubles that had to be overcome.
Just a thought.
Michael Pierce wrote in to say...
For the standard, heavy-hitters:
Zeldman, Bowman and Shea get my vote.
New folks, for me at least:
Andy Clarke, Richard Rutter and Cameron Adams might also work…
bennion wrote in to say...
Blake Scarbrough
Keith Davisson wrote in to say...
Dave Shea
Matt Burris wrote in to say...
I’ll add my vote for Molly Holzschlag too. She has an uncanny knack of explaining things in a manner that makes it easy to digest, and she has helped a lot of people with countless books over the years. She would be well-suited for this kind of project.
Toxikk wrote in to say...
MOLLY!! She is the best ever.
Joe Clark wrote in to say...
It’s true, we really do need more information. There are a lot of CSS authorities with specific expertise from whom to choose, and many of my favourites have not been listed above (and seem to be unknown to typical standardistas).
Plus, since we are talking about writing a book, talent is an asset.
mBoszko wrote in to say...
1. Dan Cederholm (SimpleBits)
2. Cameron Moll (Authentic Boredom)
3. Dave Shea (Mezzoblue, CSS Zen Garden)
4. Jeremy Hedley (Antipixel)
5. [Not Eric Meyer]
And numerous others, but those are my top five.
Mike D. wrote in to say...
Thanks Matt, but no books for me. Major time commitment!
Christine Ladner wrote in to say...
David Shea is the most recognizable name to me. I am a novice, so I only buy books from the most recognizable names, like you & David.
Joe Kaczmarek wrote in to say...
“…who would automatically make you take a CSS book seriously and consider buying it just on the strength of the name alone.” … first thought: Dave Shea.
compuwhiz7 wrote in to say...
As Dan Cederholm and Jeffrey Zeldman have already written books, I think that perhaps Tantek Celik, David Shea, or Douglas Bowman should step up to the plate.
Not that I’d say no to a third Eric Meyer book, though.
Tim wrote in to say...
christopher schmitt
surprised no one listed him
Gilbert Lee wrote in to say...
I say John Kerry; if not him, maybe George W. There you go. Serious!
Curtis Clark wrote in to say...
Big John and Holly
Keith wrote in to say...
Wow, thanks to the folks who mentioned me! A CSS book though? Me? Nah. Not unless it’s titled “Learn CSS Through Trial and Error!” ;)
In my mind Shea, Tantek or Bowman jump to the front when we’re talking about CSS. Maybe Cederholm could do another, I just started “Web Standard Solutions” and it’s great. I also like the idea of a group book…those are always fun reads.
Andrew Stevens wrote in to say...
I’d buy anything written by Todd Fahrner or Owen Briggs.
Dave Stevens wrote in to say...
I’d recommend Dave Shea, the guy is a legend. I’m not sure of Derek Powazek’s CSS knowledge specifically but his thinking would surely be of help, and his book “Design for community” is one of the best I’ve read in that field.
plagiats wrote in to say...
dave shea. no doubt.
Jimi wrote in to say...
Dave Shea or Jeffrey Zeldman. But i’d be surprised if they could tell me anything that isnt already in your books. Unless it’s a book about getting standards to play ball on all browsers.
*glares balefully at IE and Safari*
Ross wrote in to say...
David Shea, Andy Budd or Jeffrey Zeldman
Nathan wrote in to say...
Big John! Over a year ago, I begged Big John to write a eBook similar to what http://www.projectseven.com has done, but focusing soley on all the hacks needed today. Details how and when to implement them, in step by step fashion. The info is out there, but it’s all over the place. I want a convient reference guide, as I stumble through webdesign trying to make my site look right in any flavor!
Nathan wrote in to say...
I am refering to Big John from http://www.positioniseverything.net, who is active and exceptionally helpfull on the CSS-discuss forum.
Sarah wrote in to say...
Aaron Gustafson, outstanding work!
Paul wrote in to say...
Dave Shea, absolutely.
Keith wrote in to say...
My vote would go to either Dan Cederholm or Douglas Bowman. Both have a very good writing style.
Russ wrote in to say...
Dave Shea, Dan Cederholm or Douglas Bowman.
I know I go one right :)
Alex wrote in to say...
Dave Shea or Jeffrey Zeldman.
David wrote in to say...
Daniel Glazman
Lea wrote in to say...
I second Russ Weakly. Those -tutorial series in Max Design have been the most thorough, approachable, and easiest to understand writings on the web. He splits every section into managable chunks with diagrams!Russ
Shelley wrote in to say...
I also recommend Molly. I would like to add Meryl Evans, Meg from Mandarin Design, and Makiko Ito, just off the top of my head.
Jean wrote in to say...
My vote goes to Sue Sims and Jeffrey Zeldman
david gee wrote in to say...
Tantek Celik is the only person I’d really be interested in as the author of another CSS book. There are plenty of “light” CSS books out there which are really design books with an emphasis on CSS. I’d like to have something more along the lines of a “comprehensive reference” available, and the only person I’d trust with that task is Tantek (or Molly, but she’s already written a book, no?). Not to say all the other folks listed aren’t great, mind you…
Alex Aguilar wrote in to say...
Dave Shea or Douglas Bowman
Sander wrote in to say...
Hixie
Sebastian wrote in to say...
Eric Costello
Marcello Cerruti wrote in to say...
Here is my list: some people that, as far as I know, have never written a book (though they should):
* Patrick Griffiths
* Russ Weakley
Because of their ability (above all Russ) to write the most clear, comprehensive and in depth articles.
* Dave Shea
* Simon Willison
* Peter-Paul Koch
Do they need any presentation?
* Ian Hickson
* Tantek Çelik
Same as above (do they need any presentation?), furthermore an insight from the W3C CSS Working Groups
* Holly Bergevin
* John Gallant
These guys should be a must for any serious CSS book, because of their deep knowledge of CSS, bugs and bugfix: real world CSS guaranteed!
* Literary Moose (don’t know his name)
* Seamus Leahy
Pushing CSS to their limits. A touch of their examples is best showcase of CSS power
Matt wrote in to say...
Christopher Schmitt, for many reasons one of which being he has the coolest t-shirts.
Andy wrote in to say...
Molly‘s Cascading Style Sheets – The Designer’s Edge is the most accessible CSS introduction out there. If you want a complex subject explained so that it suddenly clicks with the reader, she’s the one to do it!
Josh S wrote in to say...
Didier Hilhorst, of course!
Michael Romero wrote in to say...
After reading “Web Standards Solutions”, I would definately reccomend Dan Cederholm. I happen to like his approach to CSS. I think, honestly, that it is a lot more real world than some of the other people I have read (I think he respects its place as a tool in the real world of design rather than the be all end all you’re stupid if you’re not using it attitude that some might take), and I think that makes him ideal for an author in the real world of CSS useage.
Lucian wrote in to say...
Bill Gates. It might just force him to “get it”.
Nevel wrote in to say...
A book by Tantek would be great, and I’d say Zeldman, although he already published a nice piece of work already.
Received from Dutchcelt's blog
Best at CSS
Well ‘the List’ is floating around the net and I might as well chime in.
But really, how the hell would I know? If I consider the question carefully I realise