Over at Mezzoblue, Dave Shea introduces a wonderful space in which we can explore and experience the intersection of beauty and innovation. His CSS Zen Garden offers examples of aesthetically-pleasing layouts constructed with clever techniques intended to showcase the power and potential of skilled CSS design.
One consistent HTML document serves as the foundation for multiple design iterations of the description page. New versions are created simply by importing different CSS files. Each of the five themes use basic and advanced styling techniques to create noteworthily unique effects. Each theme should be carefully studied and examined.
Anyone is welcome to browse and enjoy that which already exists. In the true spirit of a communal garden, experienced practitioners (graphic artists) are invited to make their own contributions, helping to grow, enhance, and cultivate the ideas and examples contained within.
Dave noted in an email response that he’s tired of seeing such a huge gap between the talented and artful design crowd and the web-standards-based structure crowd. I couldn’t agree with him more. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: sites built with web standards need not be ugly. We need more examples which show the integration of beautiful design and solid structure. Mezzoblue’s Zen Garden is certainly one of them. It’s this kind of stuff which inspires me to the core and makes me want to contribute.