Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Blueprint CSS for the Non-designer

I know that I'm not the only developer that sucks at graphic design.  When I'm hacking on a project or attempting to actually finish something useful I always use a CSS website template while doing it from somewhere like Open-Source-Web-Design.org.  I like things to look pretty. Even if it's in development.

That's where Blueprint CSS comes into play.  I've used it on 2 little projects so far and it's marvelous.  It provides a very simple set of rules to follow to lay your site out in a grid-format, much like how a newspaper is laid out (for those of you that actually still read newspapers). 

The downside is, you still have to have a sense of style. 

Some links to help are: 

Photoshop Tutorials: http://psdtuts.com/
Get a feel for what good design is by Allan Branch's Flickr stream of good designs he comes across: http://flickr.com/photos/ispypurdydesigns