Two of my favorite web design blogs closed their doors this week. Two of the sites which have most educated and influenced me in the ways of standards compliant design are no more. I am absolutely loathe to say goodbye to Dunstan Orchard's 1976design blog and John Oxton's Joshuaink.

I was fortunate enough to spend some time with Dunstan in Austin at SXSW this past year. Just enough time to tell him how excited I've been about so much of his work and to congratulate him on his new book and his new job. Dunstan was also one of the innovative minds that brought both NiceTitles and Ajax LiveSearch to the blogosphere at large.

I've never met John, but was absolutely thrilled to have him as an occasional visitor and commenter here at Receptacle. I certainly hope that an archived version of Joshuaink finds it's way to the interweb, as it was easily one of the most gorgeous layouts around. I was sure to steal every tidbit I could from that site, from input element background styling to faux png transparency.

Dunstan has left his site up for perusal, but John's Joshuaink address currently returns nothing but a link to his flickr page.

I have no doubt that John and Dunstan will continue to influence Web Standards and design, in whatever capacity they choose. Thanks for letting me rip you off, guys.