Once the servers are in place and the hardware is in, it's time to start building some systems. I haven't found that there was any particular disc that should be used to install the OS, but unless you're encountering a Virgin Power On, then I'd recommend doing a fresh install of the OS. Most people already know this, but whatever you install from, always make sure to use the latest Combo installation patch on the system (as of this writing, 10.3.7) and not the Delta, incremental upgrade. Apple has released some skunky patches to their OS and it seems that there is a general rule that the even numbered OS X patches are like the odd numbered Star Trek movies (don't give me that, if you're reading this, then you're almost definitely a fan) in that they're really not very good. My theory on this is that they get off on the right foot with the .1 release because they have a lot of time to get it right, but .2 is rushed because they have a schedule they're following and then .3 is just fixes to .2 with .4 being a rushed patch and so on. Make sure you don't use 10.3.6. That was a really bad patch with a lot of problems. 10.3.7 has proven to be very good, although future patches will hopefully make things better.
Under no circumstances would I install the Classic Environment. Everything a user needs will work in OS X now and the Classic system is really and truly bad. During our transition, there were several users that required this for one reason or another and it made life hell for me and my staff because a lot of things just won't work at all no matter what you do to them. Use Classic at your own risk and don't say you weren't warned!
While you can have all your accounts have full access and set up a machine to work just how OS 9 did in accordance to really only having one true user account, I would recommend the Windows approach where there is a single, all-powerful Administrator account and you create other accounts with less power. We have a decent amount of turnover at our company and being able to set up a new user account like this has proven to make things a lot easier. I would also recommend limiting access to certain applications (such as Font Book--no good, Explorer--buggy in OS X, Mail--not needed with Office) and games that you think aren't needed. Sometimes this will make things difficult as most users don't like being limited, but figure out some way to explain what is in your best interest is really in their best interest.
One small note about the user system in OS X is that it really isn't very good and is downright frustrating to a certain degree. The whole Log In/Log Out system wasn't very well set up and there are some permissions issues that will drive you nuts. For instance, you will often have to manually set user permissions for some preferences files (such as Quark) in order to get them to work right. For basic functions, it is an "okay" system, but don't be surprised if you run in to these problems or others that are looming on the horizon.
Once your OS X is installed and all patched up, it's time to install some applications. Office X is easy, since you can drag and drop it from and installation disc. For the Adobe Creative Suite, just run the installers with your Administrator account (assuming you used this method for user accounts) and it is quite automated. Once done, patch everything up. There are critical patches for both InDesign and InCopy you must install, including the nefarious 3.0.1 or its later revision 3.0.1 (i.e. the August 2004 update.) Why Adobe did this no one knows, but it's the later 3.0.1 that you need to install. If your machine is an editor's machine, then install InCopy instead of the full Creative Suite at this point. It's very much the same except that the disc will work on both Windows and Apple, but Font Reserve Server Client won't, so the joke is on all of us.
Now set up Font Reserve Server Client on the machine. I generally use the Custom Install and install everything including the plugins for the software that is running on the system. Anything that doesn't run on the system I leave unchecked. I have no solid reason for doing it this way, it just seems cleaner. For a designer's machine, the plugins will drop in the InDesign plugin directory just fine. While you're at it, get the InCopy plugins for the Bridge Workflow off the InCopy disc and drag them in to the plugins directory for InDesign. Without these, you won't be able to export stories for InCopy users to edit. For an InCopy machine, get the latest plugin for InDesign from the Extensis website and put it in to the InCopy plugins directory. Despite the weirdness of this, it seems to run just fine.