Slight Change of Direction with Nice Stylesheet
Almost all so called “CSS galleries” would be better labeled “digital art galleries”.
As I’m sure all of you know, I launched my own CSS Gallery a couple weeks ago. If you were around at the time I published the first designs, you probably noticed that the gallery had some of the same designs that you currently see on every other showcase site, e.g., Veerle’s Blog, and Web Designer Wall. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with these designs. In fact, they are amazing if you ask me, but they are everywhere! Having these designs in my gallery does nothing for my site except show that I can go around and publish the same content that everyone else has already published 10 times over.
I Needed to Differentiate Nice Stylesheet From the Others
After being introduced to a good blog article on what CSS galleries are actually showcasing, it really got me thinking. I thought the article was spot on and it described exactly how I started Nice Stylesheet. Aside from publishing some of the same stuff that is already plastered everywhere around the net, I had already started doing something else the other galleries often do, and that’s lean more toward sites sites that put emphasis on graphics rather than what they’re actually doing with CSS. Don’t get me wrong, I think of myself as an artist and I love seeing these sites that do show off graphic design skills, but first and foremost I would like to provide inspiration for what can be done with CSS, not what you can design in PhotoShop.
After discussing this with my good friend Armen, he agreed and thought this was a good idea to try and differentiate the site from everyone else. Armen even came up with a great tag line for Nice Stylesheet: “because form without function, is failure,” that I quite like.
Oh Great! Now You’re Not Accepting Designs With Graphics?
Wow, wow, wow, hold on there cowboy! I never said that I wasn’t going to be accepting graphic intensive designs into the gallery, I just said that I would like to provide more designs that showcase CSS skills over PhotoShop skills. This definitely doesn’t mean that I’m boycotting any designs that use graphics.
I’m Looking For Original Designs
With that said, I’m looking for original designs that showcase exceptional CSS skills. If that description fits your design, head on over to Nice Stylesheet and submit your design. Currently I’ve got quite a few designs in the queue to be reviewed, so please don’t get discouraged if your design doesn’t make it on the site immediately. It could take a while and if the number of submissions continues to grow at the current rate, I’ll have to consider updating more than once per week because it’s already getting a little overwhelming and the site hasn’t been live a month yet.
Talk Back
What are you thoughts on my strategy? Do you have any ideas to improve on my thoughts above? Do tell.
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I definitely prefer that idea. Afterall why call it a CSS gallery if it’s not focusing on the CSS? I would never submit anything to these CSS galleries as my design can be pretty poor most (if not all) of the time. However I know my CSS and XHTML.
Posted on Thu Nov 15, 2007
Brian: Yeah, I agree. I just need to do a little more promotion for it. I haven’t done much as of yet. Funny thing is though, NiceStylesheet is getting the same traffic levels that Random Jabber has and is almost up to the same number of RSS subscribers. Go figure.
SarahG: Yep, that’s right Sarah. Everyone calls it a CSS gallery, but majority of them display more graphic ability than they do CSS ability. I think that it’s good to get a mix of both worlds I guess. I don’t want all kinds of designs where it’s just a simple two column layout but the author has placed some awesome graphic as the main background. The reality is that the CSS isn’t special (just basic) but the graphic is great, but that’s not what I want in the gallery. Sites can definitely have images in them, but it’s all in how they are used. I just don’t want to discourage someone from submitting a site because they may not have the same graphic talent as the next person. A site can have images or not have images and still provide CSS inspiration, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be aesthetically pleasing.
Posted on Thu Nov 15, 2007
I like the idea Deron. Something else I would like to see you do is find those little guys out there. Everyone has and links to the big guys, but how about showcasing some of those that do the job, but no one has heard of.
Posted on Sun Nov 25, 2007
Sara: Yeah, I definitely agree with you. That’s exactly what I would like to do. Find the “little guys” out there. The question is, how to do that?
With all of the sites online today (number is way into the billions) I KNOW there are a ton of great designers out there, but it seems we only see the same old sites in the design showcases. Hopefully I can change that.
Posted on Sun Nov 25, 2007
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My name is Deron Sizemore and I am a web designer, web publisher, blogger and serial internet entrepreneur living in Lexington, Kentucky.
I think it’s great!
With that, Nice Stylesheet can easily get up there.
Now all you need to do is get it out there.
People need to know about it.
I’ll do another post about it in the near future - people have to know about it.
And there’s not much else to say - you’ve got it.
Now people just need to know about it.
Posted on Thu Nov 15, 2007