Fig2sty allows you to generate fancy layouts with LaTeX. The basic idea is to draw layout definitions interactively with XFig and transform this definition to a LaTeX style file. You can then use LaTeX to typeset your text into arbitrarily shaped polygons (frames) within the layout; the setup can also include background figures derived from your fig.

The package may be downloaded from the web; it is included in many (if not all) Linux distributions.