I'm setting up my first Drupal site and wondering if Panels or Blueprint (or another?) module is the best way to set up the basic layout of each page (or category of pages). Seems like Blueprint has some cool features but the CSS knowledge requirements might be beyond my skill level.... Panels seems pretty straight forward, but is it as SEO friendly and as fast as Blueprint is suppose to be? I'll be restricting access to different parts of the site, any conflicts with Taxonomy Access Control? Thanks!
PANELS is best modules for all ur requirements. It required CSTools If u need any help, do let me know. Regards, Rahul.
You are messing together two different things. Blueprint is a theme, and Panels is a module. You can use Panels with Blueprint. And by default even Panel Pages don't completely take over the look of your site: they render in "content" section of your page template. That means you need to have sidebars, header, footer, and whatever regions you will come up with, in your theme.