when you are considering a look and feel for your web site, the first thing you should look at is what your competition is doing. you've got to know what you are up against. begin with the overall style and then move toward specific issues like layout (sidebar or no sidebar?), spinning logos, and the color scheme.

once you've done your research, it's up to your tech guy who "knows" photoshop (hopefully you haven't hired a real web/graphic designer...they are far too expensive and are always whining about the client not appreciating their art) to build a site that looks pretty much like your competitors' sites. after all, if the work is already done, why should you need to do it again?

now, i'm not talking about stealing here...that's illegal and dishonest. i'm talking about borrowing the best elements (e.g. beveled buttons that light up when rolled over) of the various designs and making them your own. copy one site's color scheme, take another's sidebar style, and that third site's illustration style on the splash page would look quite nice on your splash page. it's really quite easy and saves a lot of development time that could be utilized playing quake.

here's a quick example. for my web site, i took elements of the fray and glassdog, melded them together, and voila, the result is pure 0sil8. have a look.