Steve:
As someone who was recently looking for hosting I got some great tips from my brother. First and foremost listen to what other people have to say about the host you're looking to sign up with. You don't want to sign up at a place like APlus where almost all of their users are not satisfied.
You can get reviews of most hosting companies here:
http://www.webhostingunleashed.com
A good article which is a quick read is written by the guy who runs web hosting unleased...
http://www.webhostingunleashed.com/w...y-webhost.html
As for hosts, my brother just signed up with TextDrive.com and he loves them. As of right now I can't just due to having too many other bills to pay, but from what I've heard a lot of developers use TD. Another host which has gotten great reviews is media temple.
As for design, I can't comment. I work on my designs myself or if you ever saw my blog (it's down right now) my brother designed that.