Joomla does not give you many options for designing the front page of your site.  The standard Front Page component has certain options which just don't work well for some kinds of sites.  It shows Joomla's roots as a community portal, and there is not much you can do easily to make it look better.

So, several 3rd party components have been developed to give you much more power for your front page.  iJoomla  (www.ijooomla.com ) has several components that can really give your front page a totally new look.  I use their magazine component on one of my sites, and I love it!

But, if you are looking for a free solution, you'll want to read this article on Joomla Prodigy's site.

It uses a free mambot / plug-in to give you much more control over your front page.  it isn't WYSIWYG, and the iJoomla extension are much friendlier, but it can give you a lot more control over your front page.  And the price is right!