A pattern for creating a MOSS WCM website

Recently I have been working on MOSS WCM websites. I have developed a successful pattern to create branded websites where the design team doesn't need any specific SharePoint knowledge or experience to create great looking layer(<'div'>) based sites.

1) Created a Site Defintion based on either the STS Blank Site Definition or the base Publishing Site Definition.

2) Create a feature stapler to staple new fuctionality to the new Site Definition. By using a feature staple we can remove the complexity associated with creating Custom Site definitions.

3) Create a "Masterpage Feature"; this feature adds a new (<'div'>) based masterpage extending minimal.master, and a alternate .CSS file to the _catalogs/masterpage library as "ghostable" files.
The feature assigns the .master and .css to the site.
Because the files are set as ghostable all changes affecting sites using this def can be made to a single instance of the .master and .css file in the Feature folder. (This alternate .css file is the last .css rendered in the CSS hierarchy; this means the creative designer can create all their own classes that relate to the .master and effectively ignore all of the OOB SharePoint styling)
This feature also removes the default Page Layouts and stylesheets that get put in the "Style Library" library by default.

4) All creative resources can now be deployed using a Solution to the 12/TEMPLATE/IMAGES/ folder and referenced in the .CSS file


Result; we now a have beautiful a div based site, and the creative designer doesn't need any SharePoint specific knowledge.