The blog of web designer and developer Jonathan Snook, Snook.ca has one of the most interesting designs I’ve seen in the past couple of months.
The design is clean and simple, yet no space is wasted. My 1024×768 pixels of screen resolution are filled, leaving no extra space around the design’s edges. I can only speculate what it looks like on a bigger monitor, as it doesn’t appear to be a liquid layout. However, if I resize my browser window to 800×600 the header looks a little odd (see below image).
The drop-shadow image seems to have been pushed under the logo for some reason. Meanwhile the rightmost column is cut-off. So it isn’t a liquid layout, though some elements must be absolutely positioned.
The archives have been done in a cool and different way (as you can see by the image to the right). You have the categories and yearly archives in one easy to see spot. However, I can imagine that the yearly entries will get out of hand eventually, assuming Jonathan Snook continues to blog for a few more years. I try to avoid putting date-based archives in my blog template, but I keep them available on a dedicated page for those who need them.
The books Mr. Snook has written are showcased in one of the sidebar columns (Amazon affiliate URLs of course), and he has Text-Link-Ads in the opposing column. These are his sole means of monetization, as I don’t see any AdSense blocks (or anything of the sort) lurking about.
I also like the way the blog index shows the five most recent posts, and five recommended ones. It’s unusual, and a pretty good idea. It doesn’t look too “blog-like” either, as only the post titles and a very short excerpt are shown.
Jonathan Snook has a great design, and I hope it lasts awhile (you know designers, they like to redesign their blogs more often than necessary. 
).
Before we go, however, you just have to see the footer.
