This nifty site has patterns that are pure CSS. It used to be that you would have to do patterns like these as tiling images. The author of the page allows for contributors, but the submission guidelines at the bottom indicate an interest in performance is more important than looks. All of the styles have a small byte size. It is amazing what CSS can do these days!
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Start with the content. Sometimes designers and developers forget that this is why people come to your site to begin with. Craft it lovingly and serve it to your users with a minimum of distraction, like a well-plated dish; don’t just heap it all together like it’s a buffet. You worked hard on your content… celebrate it — Aaron Gustafson