If you like bling on your desktop, Robert over at thraxys has some suggestions for prettying up your Org files. The first involves replacing the heading stars with various types of UTF-8 bullets. He recommends ◉, ◎, ⚫, ○, ►, and ◇ but there are other possibilities. These changes require the org-bullets package.
His second suggestion is to add UTF-8 glyphs to the TODO keywords. Take a look at his post for some suggestions. This is easy to configure with a stock Org mode installation.
I prefer a more austere presentation for my Org files but lots of people feel otherwise. If you’re one of those people, head on over and take a look at Robert’s post.