My advice: Google.
Come back with specific questions on how to build your theme (are you stuck with PHP? Do you not know how to use Photoshop? etc) when you’ve tried it yourself and gotten stuck with something identifiable.
I’ve actually spent a couple days Googling and researching this. I’ve also been trying to tweak the codes of plugins and downloading various themes to try to figure out how they work.
I haven’t found a good tutorial in this research that focuses on this single issue. Maybe I’ve missed it (hence the request).
Yes, it’s a fair point my question wasn’t specific enough. But that’s intentional because I’m NOT looking for somebody to solve a problem for me — I’m specifically looking for tutorials giving an overview on front page manipulation is properly done (from a PHP perspective) after not finding good ones in my own Googling.
Again, if there’s something that specifically focuses on customizing the front page, that’d be appreciated. I understand the loop and how it applies to the front page. What I’m hoping for is something that’s more of a walkthrough of a customized front page in the way I’ve identified.
You practically wrote your own tutorial. Go through each of the 4 items you listed, use the Multiple Loops page as a reference and call each of those.
Once you’ve written the PHP it’s a matter of calling them in the right order in your theme. If you need help learning HTML/CSS or design to create a WordPress theme, try walking through some basic design tutorials, HTML tutorials, CSS tutorials, and WordPress theme tutorials.
You described what you want, so lay it out that way! There’s no tutorial for your specific needs (if there is you’re going to be hard pressed to find it). Open up Photoshop or Gimp, design, slice & save, write your HTML/CSS and place it into your theme. It’s that straightforward. Learn by doing.
