If you’re thinking about putting together a pure CSS driven site and need inspiration, I’ve compiled a short list of my favorite CSS showcases. I use these sites not only to inspire visual ideas, but also to learn more creative and practical ways to use CSS. I often find myself digging through source code of sites in the showcases discovering good (and bad) CSS techniques.
- WebCreme – I first noticed webcreme after they featured SEOmoz in their showcase. They don’t post a large volume of sites, but the sites they do post are usually top notch.
- CSS Beauty – A winner in our web 2.0 awards, CSSBeauty is a showcase with tagging and categories to help you narrow down what kind of sites you want to see.
- CSSMania – I hadn’t heard of cssmania until it featured both SEOmoz, the Web 2.0 Awards, and my personal blog. CSSMania is updated daily with a large list of css-driven sites and also features a rating system.
- CSSRemix – A newer CSS showcase, simple and easy to peruse.
- CSS Zen Garden – The ultimate css inspiration. If you have your doubts about the flexiblity of using CSS over traditional HTML, check these guys out.
If standards compliance and flexibility aren’t enough to motivate you away from old school HTML techniques, perhaps creating a beautiful site using CSS and getting listed in these showcases will. Not only do they send fair amounts of traffic, they offer great exposure to the web development sphere of the internet.
UPDATE – I almost forgot, tomorrow is CSS Naked Day. Unfortunately SEOmoz won’t be participating simply because I think it would confuse and scare our users, but it’s a cool idea anyhow.
