David Siegel

Once upon a time, HTML was strictly a markup language, with no ambitions toward visual elegance. Then the designers got involved. David Siegel, as much as any Web designer, embodies the heretical designers who worked to get HTML to bend their way. Siegel invented the one-pixel spacer GIF, a way to use graphics to achieve an intended layout.

Why did he do it? "In my world, the designer drives the train." Other designers must agree -- his Creating Killer Web Sites was the bestselling Web book of 1996.

Now Siegel says new tools, such as style sheets and DHTML, may finally give designers the control they need, without having to make hacks on HTML's original structure. Even so, he says, the Web remains a visual wasteland.

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Job
Web designer; author, "Creating Killer Web Sites"; chief sturgeon at Studio Verso; Web design columnist: High Five Site of the Week

Education
Master's degree, digital typography, Stanford University

First computer
A CP/M machine in 1978. "No hard disk." Then an IBM PC, followed by a Macintosh. "I waited. I held out. I had a 128K to play with, and a Lisa I played with a lot at Stanford. But I held out for the 512. That was my first real, proud computer, the 512K Macintosh. And of course I painted that computer granite."

To purchase "Creating Killer Web Sites," click here.

First time on the Internet
1993. "A friend had a SLIP connection in San Francisco. I got on there and started to go to the European sites ... research sites, and I said 'I'm surfing,' and he said, 'You're surfing.' It's so cool. I have been totally addicted since that day."

Pessimistic statement about the Internet
"The Web is a visual wasteland. Come on. How many great Websites are there? Let me tell you, it's pretty bleak."

Optimistic statement about the Internet
"I'm very excited about the democratization of the Web, its ability to wipe out lots of big intermediaries that were causing problems. If you look at the real world, we're doing a lot of things the hard way. The Web is going to make a whole lot of things easier."

To purchase "Creating Killer Web Sites," click here.