Thinking outside the grid

Molly Holzschlag wrote a thought-provoking design article that put me in the mood to comment on an article for the first time in quite a long while. I agree with Molly's basic premise, web design can be more exciting if designers drop old table-based layout conventions and look to design outside the grid more.

Molly's comparison of graphic design to urban planning is interesting. Old world cities, while being difficult to navigate, possess a certain charm and are far from boring.

Web design today as a whole is a bit on the rigid side because of reliance on table-based layouts. I'd love to see more of that "old world" charm make it's way into web design.

I suppose that this all starts with my design work :)