[rfc-i] Timely Spec Restyling Proposal from W3C

["Martin J. Dürst"]

Given all the intense discussions last week about how to move forward 
with new format(s) for RFCs and Internet Drafts, I'm glad to be able to 
forward this timely proposal from W3C, in the hope that it will provide 
some additional stimulation for our discussion.

I'm sorry if this proposal is slightly late is some parts of the world, 
it's already Monday here but it should have gone out on Sunday.

Acknowledgments got to Fantasai for the explanatory text below and to 
Tab Atkinson for the new design.

Regards,    Martin.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Spec Restyling Proposal
Resent-Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2012 22:38:07 +0000
Resent-From: spec-prod at w3.org
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2012 15:37:33 -0700
From: fantasai <fantasai.lists at inkedblade.net>
To: spec-prod <spec-prod at w3.org>

Hello spec-prod!

The CSS Working Group has finally prepared a spec restyling proposal that
we feel captures the mission of the W3C. I've sent a preview as applied to
several of our CSS specs to www-archive:
 
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-archive/2012Apr/att-0000/css3-images
 
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-archive/2012Apr/att-0000/css3-flexbox

Below is an explanation of the motivations for our changes:

Futuristic Look
   In keeping with W3C's mission to "lead the Web to its full potential",
   we wanted to emphasize that W3C is creating the Future of the Web.
   To show that, we chose a deep space background, which gives the design
   its futuristic feel. To preserve sufficient contrast with the background
   in keeping with the WCAG, we chose a bright yellow text color.

Passion and Creativity
   People have the impression that creating specs at W3C is a boring,
   beaureaucratic, process-laden process. They rarely get to see the
   passionate dedication to a better Web that our Members bring to our
   discussions, such as the vibrant discussions of longdesc and video
   formats in the HTMLWG. To better reflect the passion and creativity
   of the standards process, we propose a new W3C logo creatively
   designed with animated flames.

Diversity and Dynamism
   Symbolizing the diversity and dynamism of the Web, we chose animated
   rainbow horizontal rules to set off headings from the body text.
   A defining characteristic of 90s web design, this also gives us a more
   modern, up-to-date look by hooking us into the "retro" trends of some
   of the latest and most fashionable designers. (And by choosing the 90s
   rather than an earlier decade of visual design, we expect to remain
   ahead of the curve for awhile. Future-compatibility being one of the
   design principles of CSS, we felt this was an important consideration.)

Under Construction
   Of course we wanted to address the concerns that people don't take the
   "under construction" nature of our specs seriously, referring to Working
   Drafts and Candidate Recommendations as if they were a done deal. To that
   end we added an "under construction" logo to the background of the text.
   So as not to interfere with the readability of the spec itself, this logo
   is only placed in the marginal gutters on either side of the spec. But to
   make sure that even people landing on ULRs with fragment IDs see it, we
   gave it a repeat-y value so that it shows up on all sections of the spec.
   (Of course for REC, the "under construction" styling would be removed.)

Preserving Symmetry
   Tying the design together, and upholding the the classical ideals of
   symmetry--which represents our commitment to logical design decisions--
   we center-aligned all the text.

We hope you like the new design! As you can see, we've already deployed
it on all of the CSSWG editor's drafts:
   http://dev.w3.org/csswg/

We look forward to seeing the new design adopted W3C-wide~

For the CSSWG,
~fantasai