24 Ways to impress your friends

Andy Clarke has been called a lot of things since he started working on the web ten years ago. His ego likes words like "ambassador for CSS", "industry prophet" and "inspiring", but actually he is most proud that Jeffrey Zeldman once called him a "(triple talented) bastard".

Andy took ten months of his life to write the best-selling Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design, but his passion is amazing web design. He loves designing for the web, writing about design, and teaching it at workshops and conferences all over the world.

Now he is pulling all of those passions together to create For A Beautiful Web, a unique series of creative web design master classes for web designers and developers that cover topics including visual design and best-practice use of technologies such as CSS, mark-up and Microformats.

Photo: Patrick H. Lauke

Articles by Andy Clarke

• 23 12/2009 Ignorance Is Bliss

  Andy Clarke shares a case study highlighting the benefits of progressively enhanced web design. Ever wondered how to convince your clients to let you use cutting edge web techniques? It may be simpler than you think.

• 23 12/2008 Contract Killer

  Andy Clarke rides into town to remind us of the importance of having a proper contract in place between those providing a service (usually us) and our clients commissioning the work. Projects that don’t run to plan are a fact of life, so make sure you’re prepared.

• 14 12/2007 Underpants Over My Trousers

  Andy Clarke looks to the world of comic books and graphic novels for inspiration in web design. Personally, I look for design inspiration is Christmas wrapping paper, which, as it turns out, is a less successful technique. On the whole I’d recommend Clarke’s approach above mine. Lesson learned.

• 15 12/2006 A Message To You, Rudy - CSS Production Notes

  Andy Clarke details an approach for embedding production notes inside your document – a useful aid to project management and team communications throughout the development phases of any project. Sounds like Santa isn’t the only one who’ll be getting notes this Christmas.

• 16 12/2005 "Z's not dead baby, Z's not dead"

  Andy Clarke dusts off the CSS z-index property to take control of the depth of his positioned elements. Why not try it out for yourself and see how it all stacks up. Santa’s not the only thing in your stack this Christmas. Erm … ok, I’m outta puns.