Blank pulls what I think are the best practices from the Hugo discussion list. Of course my picks are arbitrary and opinionated but they should give you a sense of what can be done.
Blank is a bit more than a theme. It's a complete sample, it's an introduction, it's best practices. All that and less. Blank purposely minimizes the styling. If you can use this as a starting point for your layout, then this project is a success.
Blank is inspired by the work of the HTML5 Reset WordPress Theme team. It also uses Andreas Viklund's Origo and Basic Reader styles.