Need help with the simplest, most readable Irssi theme possible

I'm trying to make the simplest, most readable Irssi theme possible,
inspired by ircII: https://gist.github.com/1593316

I have some questions though if that's okay:

1. How do I make channel messages into "<nick> message" as opposed to "<
nick> message"?
2. How do I wrap <> around the nicks in the channel nicks list?
3. How do I make joins, parts, channel modes and server modes dark grey
(%K)?
4. If I do %8%K, does that mean %K will appear as light grey if the
terminal is white?

--Dwayne