When we are learning a new process in a different media it is helpful to look with “fresh eyes” at good examples of what we are trying to accomplish. The well known CSS Zen Garden was created by Dave Shea as a demonstration of what could be accomplished with Web design using CSS. Designers were invited to contribute original graphics and a cascading style sheet to interpret the document. The result is a collection of demonstration pages from designers all over the world. Look for the link to “View all designs” for the collection.
Another outstanding site is the Web Standards Awards site, which also features peer reviewed work that was judged for excellence of design as well as web standards- XHTML/CSS based code. There have been nearly 100 sites given the award over the years of the site – which has now stopped making awards since many sites now demonstrate quality design coding.
CSSBeauty is another project focused on “providing its audience with a database of well designed CSS based websites from around the world”. It focuses on showcasing designers’ work and has become a portal to the CSS design community.
I encourage you to explore these sites and the work of talented designers as a way of finding inspiration about the possibilities of web based design as well as see examples that are primarily XHTML and CSS based projects.
