Preventing Ugly SharePoint Sites

I just saw the ugliest SharePoint site but I can't tell anyone what or where it is. But it got me thinking about SharePoint branding and about how there's no need, absolutely no need, to create an ugly SharePoint site.

If you've ever even spent some Googling time with the word SharePoint, you've had to have stumbled upon Heather Solomon's sites. She's the undisputed SharePoint branding guru, in my opinion. Other up-and-comers are helping to ease the way for the rest of us who are trying to avoid or prevent ugly SharePoint sites.

Here are a few sites of experts I've found recently:

Stu King runs the Design Drifter site, which has some great how-to's on branding and design.

Randy Drisgill's blog has some interesting design tips.

Marcy Kellar's always-interesting articles and posts provide hefty food for thought in the area of SharePoint and design.

I'd love to see a link to some ugly SharePoint sites or even better, to some great SharePoint sites. And if you have any favorite SharePoint branding and design blogs and bloggers, let's see 'em!