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Jason Santa Maria

Personal blog · jasonsantamaria.comdesignweb

Jason Santa Maria's personal blog at jasonsantamaria.com covers design and web. Since 2008, 32 different Hacker News readers have linked it 36 times, most often “Make Yourself Presentable ”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-08-31, and you can follow it by feed.

Visit the blog
36mentions?
32HN people?
2008–2026first – last linked?
Links on Hacker News per year · peak 10 in 2009

Designer by day, designer by night. I live and work in Philadelphia under a pile of books.

Most-linked posts?

  1. /
    4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-10-07
  2. Make Yourself Presentable
    4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-09-15
  3. A Real Web Design Application
    3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-07-26
  4. Baseline Grids on the Web
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-10-23
  5. CSS Is Still Awesome
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-08-31
  6. Sketchbooks aren't about being a good artist, they're about being a good thinker
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-08-09
  7. A New Day
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-06-22

What Hacker News says?

  1. ericaheinz · 2011-10-17
    Jason Santa Maria did/managed the design work. http://jasonsantamaria.com/articles/instapaper-4

    Comment linking /articles/instapaper-4

    on “Introducing Instapaper 4.0 for iPad and iPhone”
  2. duck · 2010-07-26

    Submitted A Real Web Design Application as a story · 89 points

    HN discussion
  3. mbrubeck · 2010-02-02
    http://jasonsantamaria.com/ started using this format slightly before Dustin. I'm not saying anyone copied anyone else - just that it was probably invented multiple places. And of course, before blogs took over the web, a separate design for every page was quite common. Look at JWZ's old "stories" pages for a particularly horrible example. :) http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/toothbrush.html http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/zomb…

    Comment linking /

    on “Life Below 600px”
  4. grinich · 2009-08-09

    Submitted Sketchbooks aren't about being a good artist, they're about being a good thinker as a story · 58 points

    HN discussion
  5. splatcollision · 2011-04-11
    No doubt, but for 90 percent of the needs to build effective web communications (aka web sites), colored boxes, images, and text will do just fine... Especially with robust CSS3 support. Care to list what a web design application really needs? It would be a big help. I've kind of referenced Jason Santa Maria's "A Real Web Design Application" article ( http://jasonsantamaria.com/articles/a-real-web-design-applic... )…

    Comment linking /articles/a-real-web-design-application/

    on “Adobe Creative Suite now in subscription form”
  6. boundlessdreamz · 2009-10-23

    Submitted Make Yourself Presentable as a story · 32 points

    HN discussion
  7. jim-greer · 2009-11-22
    Jason Santa Maria did a great job for the inital design of Kongregate, and Happy Cog did very nice HTML/CSS. Jason was with Happy Cog then, is solo now. I'd recommend both of them. http://jasonsantamaria.com/ http://www.happycog.com/design/kongregate/

    Comment linking /

    on “Ask HN: Can someone refer me to a designer that doesn't suck?”
  8. ironkeith · 2009-05-05

    Submitted What’s Golden (rule of thirds) as a story · 14 points

    HN discussion
  9. danw · 2009-09-09
    I think others may have done the design per article pre- http://www.jasonsantamaria.com/

    Comment linking /

    on “You're Killing Me, Zappos”
  10. duck · 2013-06-06

    Submitted The Space Between the Notes as a story · 5 points

    HN discussion
  11. bkbleikamp · 2009-12-10
    A couple that come to mind: http://subtraction.com http://cubancouncil.com http://madebyelephant.com http://jasonsantamaria.com http://markboulton.co.uk http://hicksdesign.co.uk

    Comment linking /

    on “Ask HN: Who are the top UI designers on the web today?”
  12. speckx · 2026-08-31

    Submitted CSS Is Still Awesome as a story · 4 points

    HN discussion
  13. ikhare · 2009-11-19
    Ever since I read Jason Santa Maria's article on his "rethinking" ( http://jasonsantamaria.com/articles/a-new-day/ ) I've been thinking about doing something similar with my personal site, where the frequency of posts has reduced over time. I agree with the comments here that the smashing article went overboard; what particularly annoyed me was the use of different colored words for emphasis instead of bold or itali…

    Comment linking /articles/a-new-day/

    on “The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)”
  14. thecosas · 2012-12-19

    Submitted Jason Santa Maria is leaving A List Apart as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  15. elithrar · 2011-01-02
    It seems he hasn't read Jason Santa Maria's article on presentations: http://jasonsantamaria.com/articles/make-yourself-presentabl...

    Comment linking /articles/make-yourself-presentable/

    on “The best presentation is the one never shown”
  16. japhyr · 2012-10-23

    Submitted Baseline Grids on the Web as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  17. joelburget · 2010-10-06
    Jason Santa Maria is the only designer whose rss feed I'm subscribed to. Check his porfolio for some projects you'll probably recognize. http://jasonsantamaria.com/

    Comment linking /

    on “Ask HN: Your favorite web application design/UI?”
  18. andrewdavey · 2010-12-08

    Submitted A Real Web Design Application as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  19. run4yourlives · 2009-10-07
    It depends though... If you're a brand name like say, Jason Santa Maria ( http://jasonsantamaria.com/ ) you can sure charge the premium. His experience alone warrants the extra charge.

    Comment linking /

    on “Yes, Websites Cost More Than Fifty Bucks”
  20. sjs382 · 2010-09-15

    Submitted IE9 and the Lost World’s Fairs as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  21. thecosas · 2012-12-19
    I wonder if the project hinted at in his departure from TypeKit announcement ( http://jasonsantamaria.com/articles/leaving-typekit ) has something to do with this as well :o)

    Comment linking /articles/leaving-typekit

    on “Jason Santa Maria is leaving A List Apart”
  22. mpweiher · 2026-09-02

    Submitted CSS Is Still Awesome as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  23. brianwillis · 2010-12-29
    I've never understood the programmers that write off design as fluffy stuff for the "creative" people who wear black turtle necks and berets. As if design was somehow beneath them, or as if it's wallpaper that you can plaster over a project once the code is written to "pretty it up". To answer your questions: Why are you interested in learning more about design? Because I want to spend my career making people feel t…

    Comment linking /portfolio/

    on “Ask HN: Hackers Who Design?”
  24. thankuz · 2011-02-04

    Submitted Sketchbooks aren't about being a good artist, they're about being a good thinker as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  25. Goosey · 2010-03-25

    Submitted Make Yourself Presentable as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  26. tortilla · 2009-09-15

    Submitted Make Yourself Presentable as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  27. bd · 2008-12-05

    Submitted Jason Santa Maria asks designers to share their first websites as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  28. antiform · 2008-06-22

    Submitted A New Day as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  29. treadump · 2025-06-13

    Submitted Large Language Muddle as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  30. getdavidhiggins · 2015-01-27

    Submitted Ditching Twitter as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion

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