Newbie here, sorry in advance.
Create form based modules. Designer could throw some tags into a module, then those tags would create input form fields that content could be entered into.
Ex. Module Name: homepagead1
<div style="font-size:24px;">$U_headline$</div>
<div style="color:#009966">$U_subheadline$ <span style="color:#000000;">$U_subheadline2$</span></div>
<div style="font-size:24px;"><a href="$U_link$"><img src="$U_image$" alt="$U_alt$" width="32" height="32" border="0"></a></div>
This would then give you 4 or 5 form fields that a user can enter content into... image urls, text, html, etc.
Then be able to place this module, $%homepagead1%$, module anywhere throughout the site.
I concepted something similar at work with some developers and it has proven to save time and develops the brand via standardization of presentation. Plus when people see the WYSIWYG editor they get happy and change the standards you have set to 72pt bold red...blinking... this would tame the beast :)
Thanks
TK