E-mailers – Do we have to sacrifice the design?

E-mailers, every time they are mentioned panic sweeps across the room. Will there be too much imagery, will the branding be lost, will it even get through at all or lost for all eternity to the mighty Spam Box?

One of the major limitations of e-mailers is a lack of consistency between email clients and their support of CSS, after all CSS is the only lifeline designers have when working with web to prevent all of their creative dreams being shattered. Take for example something as simple as "background-image:", it's a simple command, it's widely used across the web on almost every website. However, because email clients such as Outlook (post 2007) and Windows Live Hotmail we can't use it. I understand there are security implications and measures in place to avoid virus' attacking the recipients computer but there really must be a simple action that could prevent computers being brought down with a terrible illness whilst still remaining aesthetically pleasing to the user!

I recently came across an article which, quite clearly, laid out the varying rules and regulations when using CSS in email design. So, what this would suggest that the task of juggling the dos and don'ts is ever increasing and should you wish to design and implement a stunning, yet compatible e-mailer then the task is much larger than you first thought. I know from personal experience that the approach to designing e-mailers is much more basic than designing for websites and it actually hinders the creative look of the design as well as making it a challenge to follow through the branding of the client (unless they very helpfully have a solid block colour as their website background!).

So with all of this information on board, go, go and create beautiful emails but remember... Outlook (post 2007) WILL ruin all of your hopes and aspirations!