Hi Rob,
I disagree with you. Content does not equal a DNN Skin. Neither do panes.
The middle of the site is made up of PANES, and those Panes contain Modules, and those Modules just happen to still contain the default Template's content.
Have I misunderstood you?
I belive I have done this exactly "DNN skins are made from dozens of individual objects that can be placed and styled wherever and however you like." yet your comments suggest you think otherwise. Does the default DNN skin place the search bar where this one is? No. If I had copied the default skin and built a design around it, then wouldn't I have had room for a logo? Yet I don't, and wish I did have room for a logo.
- I took my original design,
- took out the placeholders for the original content management system it used to use
- pasted in the user controls
- added the control panel
- added 8 panes for content
Please view the source and you can see that this is not copied from the default skin. Also, you could look at the first link that shows the design in it's original form on it's original CMS. (And you can see that, Alas, the design hasn't changed Nearly Enough! 
At least, I wanted it to be different from my orginal, an improvement over it)
As to the panes, I include the usual Left, Right, and Center panes, since in my experience many of my clients rely on them for layout, since they are not familar with using tables for placing things beside each other, for example, 3 photos side by side with captions beneath.
However, I also added these panes:
- a top pane and bottom pane above and below the Left/Center/Right.
- a side pane for the left hand side, down the blue.
- a footer pane in the grey footer bar area.
- a banner pane above the top pane, because it seemed the only place for it -- I'd love to have a better place for it, though. Any suggestions?
I did not add a pane below the login and above the nav, but I left a TD there just in case I need to revisit it.
I also did not add a pane below the left hand side, at the bottom of the ribbon. But, it seems like a good spot for "Something", since most pages will have a longer Right side than the Left side/ribbon is.
What I dislike about this design is:
- Still fixed width instead of fluid
- Still does not have flexibily or any room for DNN Logo object, banner, etc.
Rob,
I wonder if maybe you meant to reply to some other post?
"There's no simple solution here other than to learn how to build a DNN skin from scratch. Once you've done that, youl'll be able to pick and choose what DNN components you want to use, place them in your template, and style them as required."
I've done that...on this design and others... I don't know how you could think otherwise if you looked at the example links. Unless either you did not look at the links, or you think the Content in a Pane counts as a "Skin".
Please post links to designs that you've done that meet your definition of a good DNN skin. Perhaps that will help clear up my confusion about your post.
Extreme,
Here's what I've done as a workaround for the white background on the content table that overlapped the ribbon's shadow: I made a background image of that bit of shadow, then made that div use it. Klunky, but it's there.
Does anyone have a better solution for the white background issue?