It is not easy to start an intranet from scratch. There are a handful of things which can be very useful when you try to start to implement a SharePoint Intranet project. I would like to show you which components can help you to make a fancy design concept (Theme, MasterPage, PageLayouts, DisplayTemplates, Navigation, …) and how to get this design into your SharePoint SiteCollections (Packaging and Deployment). Also I will show you that the search plays a big role when building up an intranet, for displaying your content. 

Get to know which little pieces can make a big improvement, when trying to make a better design of your standard looking intranet.