Re. menu redesign - I was tentatively looking at doing the same sort of thing with my own custom discs, but didn't get too far (back to the Alien Appendix grindstone ;-) )
I did find this guide, which seems to have some very useful directions - there's no getting around the problem of seamlessly editing the menu text and subpics, which is going to be a pain, depending on your 'shop skillz (if anyone can help you here it's Moth3r, who did a man's job on his pwnage disc).