I'm in the same position as you. And I've been trying to do this without much sucess. And then I found this book and it really has the very basics down pat: ht

I'm in the same position as you. And I've been trying to do this without much sucess. And then I found this book and it really has the very basics down pat: http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-Williams/dp/0321534042/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292437264&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-Willia... After you finish that, you'll be able to put together great wireframes and layouts. For the color part I'm reading a book on color theory. The very first thing I learnt in this book was that there is a reason that beginners cant work with color - because they cant "see" true color. This takes a while - google for "Color constancy" These are the very basic steps that I wish someone had pointed me to ... everyhting else builds up from here.