Wow, the Zen Garden has done it again… The latest 3 designs are possibly my 3 favourites so far. Oceans apart isn’t anything groundbreaking but it’s incredibly elegant design very well executed. Start listening is a wonderful meeting of 50s advertising, wild west typography and modern design garnish. Lush. Finally, Springtime has a great feel to it with a novel use of horizontal tiling to allow the centered page to dominate the unused space. All round, great entries.
I’d been a little unimpressed lately with the proliferation of International Compliant design in one or two designs. CSS lends itelf to commercial-style design with straight lines and flat colours. That’s great for the industry (and it means that we can earn ourselves a living) but a site like the Zen Garden should be an opportunity to really try and push the boundaries - turn out pages that are interesting as well as elegant. There are enough examples in the Garden already that show that CSS can make it in the commercial world so it’s great to see some interesting designs coming out of the woodwork.
