Blog Design - a Collaborative Approach

This is a meta post about blog design.

I am working on several blog design projects on my own at the moment and recent chatted by email with OnBackground about some general ideas he had. I have a few ideas about what makes a blog look good aesthetically, or look like garbage, but my field is lawyering. If you have ever seen a lawyer's ad on TV, you know just how (un-)talented most of us are when it comes to the art of cool design. We are clumsy, so our ads look and sound like flying cinder blocks at best.

SO....

Who has seen cool design in other blogs, including blogs that have content you don't like? Not just political blogs - blogs about knitting or chess or travel or puppydogs? What is the baddest blog design that you have seen in a while?

Here are a few blogs that caught my eye for aesthetics only:

Putting People First

Captain Sacrament

Vestal Design Blog

Cold Fury

ljc fyi

What blogs look great to you? Would love links and/or URLs. Thanks in advance for your feedback re this.

UPDATE: Samizdata looks breathtaking in my opinion.