And so another CSS reboot comes to an end. This time around, there have been some real treats in store for design fans but with the sheer number of rebooters this year, you might have missed a few. So here are a selection of my favourite reboots of Spring 2006.

Red

Earth and fire, red is an under-utilised colour amongst web designers. So it's a pleasure to see that those who did choose red were also amongst my favourite entries.

Rob Goodlatte bats off with a wonderfully warm and worn entry; the palatte chosen work well with the style of the site. Kyle's firey entry roars with it's bold background and colour scheme. And Prabhath embraces a more earthy design; natural and personal, Prabhath was also one of the few to have gone with a fluid layout.

Other notable entries: codesign

Green

From one colour of nature to another, though green does appear to be more popular amongst developers. That said, this shouldn't be such as surprise; whilst red is bursting with emotion and boldness, green is altogether more calm and relaxed which, perhaps, makes it more appealing to designers.

Fortyeightdesigns is one such lovely entry; the balanced colour scheme work well with the classic textures and the slightly curvy layout works a treat. Snook has gone in the other direction with his use of green; more edgy than earthy, it has a matrixy, old-school programmers feel to it. And like that programmer favourite, vi, it's crammed with little secret commands that might escape you on your first encounter. Freshbranding makes the most of it's name with a design that has a fresh, clean feel. It's, perhaps, a common studio design but one that's been pulled off well.

Other notable entries: Zooiblog, BusinessLogs, FortyMedia, ThannyLe

Dark

As much as designers like to consider themselves creative and different, it's always funny to see common trends. Light text on dark backgrounds has always been one of those cyclical themes that pop in and out of existance and it appears it's now time for it to reappear. However, dark colours do look good and are relatively easy to pull off so which is why it's had a good turnout this year.

It's probably no surprise to see Bryan's entry feature well. His last design was immensely popular and having done this 21 times before, he's a bit of a veteren to this redesign game. It's also nice to see that he hasn't forgotten the food banners. Alex Graul's entry at m.ossy also caught my eye. A Lovely use of columns and contrast, it's an impressively minimalist design pulled off with class. David Longworth has stopped blogging but he hasn't stopped designing; the reboot for Orange Tape Studios was another one of those simple designs that has been executed well. Background, colour scheme, type and layout have all contributed to a strong design.

Other notable entries: Totalspore, BrokenKode, EchoFaith, Niggle

Light

And from the shadows, we step into light. White has always been an extremely popular choice; whilst grey on black does look cool, it can become a bit of a strain on the eye when you're reading for long periods and thus, it's good to see sites embracing a more content friendly design. Natalie's clearly gone for such with the readable type and generous content area; whilst she's perhaps gone a bit overboard on the homepage, the internal pages are lovely to read. In redesigning his blog, Jeff has clearly gone back to the grid. Both internally and on the main page, Jeff has masterly utilised columns so as to present information with clarity and cohesiveness and nary a hint of confusion. DesignSnack's redesign is reshuffling and tidying of the previous look and feel. It's now less of a gallery and more of a Digg for designs; however, whilst its exterior is aesthetically pleasing, it's lacking from a design and functional viewpoint. I'm not convinced it's a successful reboot but sadly, I'm also a sucker for visual sweetness something which this design is coated with.

Other notable entries: Jorge Quinteros, Yoram Blumenberg, Derek Punsalan, Matt Brett, Intellicode, Twisted Intellect, WebJillion.

Well, 2005 has now come and passed. Bring on 2006! Looking back though, it has been amazing how much has gone on and how many little things which I now take for granted have managed to creep their way in.