The Royal Family

[Tom]

What should we say?

"Content is king" (eg Wikipedia)
"Technology rules the world" (eg Google)
"Community is queen" (eg Myspace)
"Graphics is the face which launched a thousand ships" (eg ????? - is there an example of a website owing its Royal position to its sheer beauty? - it was Helen of Troy who lauched a thousand ships)

[David]

As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it would be difficult to get a consensus on this one but many believe that CSS Zen Garden (http://www.csszengarden.com)would be somewhere near the top. It showcases many beautiful CSS designs although the default site design is a little weak. It's certainly worth looking at some of the alternate designs and if nothing else, it will convince you of the power of CSS. The markup for each of the designs is the same.

[Tom]

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is an old idea (as in de gustibus non est disputandum - "there is not to be discussion regarding tastes") which came to the fore in the nineteenth century and remains popular. But it has not been dominant in the history of aesthetics and is at odds with Zen Buddhism. The later is closer to the wabi-sabi idea (which is said to be 'the soul of japan') and combines a love of structural simplicity (akin to CSS) with a taste for 'the patina of ages'. The later is not much apparent in web design, yet, but could perhaps be found on the Cadtutor site! It has an elegant underlying design approach but the leaping fish is an 'ancient' element. Perhaps that is why it is there.