Some advice on designing my own theme. Starter themes and Frameworks – which to

I’ve been designing websites for a few years on a freelance basis. Self-taught. I primarily design basic brochure style websites and usually use tools such as Dreamweaver/Notepad++ for coding the HTML and CSS, and I use Fireworks/Photoshop for graphics. I’ve become quite familiar with the grid960 system recently and have enjoyed using it to aid in my layout.

Recently I’ve been getting in to WordPress themes as I want to start offering CMS driven sites.

I’ve had a good look around the web for starter themes and frameworks for WordPress. I have come across many posts and read lots of comments but I’m still a bit confused about things so figured I’d come straight to the forums for a few answers.

What are the fundamental differences between a starter theme and a framework?

Theme designers, how do you go about your work? Do you use a starter theme? If so what is your preferred one? Do you use a Framework such as Thesis and build from there? What are the benefits of this?

Thanks for any help/info, greatly appreciated.

Dan

[No bumping. If it’s that urgent, consider hiring someone.]