I'm doing a 3 tier chocolate cake for an 80th birthday. This is only my 3rd tiered cake!
They basically left the design up to me the only thing he asked was if I could do "80" on the cake or around the cake. I mainly work in buttercream but have recently started with fondant for accents. I really need some help coming up with an idea (any pics would also be great) of how this cool look really elegant and chocolaty with incorporating the 80 theme. Also i know that tiered cakes look best with some sort of topper-do i need to do something like that? what should i do?

For the topper make molded choco or fondant/gp or cookie #s 80.
Put kabob sticks or extra long toothpicks in (when depends on the medium you choose).

Use lattice; dots; etc for decos. Lattice can be piped in choco or make fondant strips. Dots;circles etc can be cut from fondant w/cookie cutters or the lg end of cake tips. Sort of like this: http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=26850

Maybe one of the tiers could be done something like this: http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1271604