For informational purposes, here are some of the site themes and designs I’ve taken inspiration from in coming up with my new layout.
Gallerise by Themes Kingdom
It’s not responsive (increasingly critical!) so it doesn’t behave nicely when the window width shrinks, but I love this theme’s alternative to a splash/slideshow at the top of a website. I hope that my version can have slideshows or gifs to make it even more eye-catching, but for now, it’s an exciting, unusual start.
Legend! by Dzyngiri via TemplateCreme
The thumbnail doesn’t show it very well, but I love this responsive theme, especially the ‘team’ section at the bottom – I think it does a great job of introducing everything on one page, in a single column. The colours used to break up the page are a bit scorching, but by using blocks instead of lines you get an interesting exercise in contrast and focus.
TXT by HTML5 Up
It’s not a wordpress theme, but I adore this design – most particularly the use of icons, and the line/text delimiters. Of course, its test text being based on the Text Adventures I adore doesn’t hurt… There are many lovely themes on their site – definitely something that I’ll be giving a second look.
I’m not sure yet exactly how I’m going to construct the website, but I’m sure I’ll be taking much more inspiration from awesome designs such as these.