I have a translation and writing company. I currently use a Wordpress blog as my co website, and I’ve just redone my logo and all that good stuff. Here is what I’m looking for, and I will value your opinions. Mind you, I don’t mind paying for a template that is exactly what I want. But there are so many free ones out there that we can consider those first. But suggest either.
The brief:
White space. I am going to put up minimal headers. I want it looking really, really clean.
Space for a header.
Space for a large(ish) graphic to the left or right. I’ve had designed a picture of an Art Nouveau lady that I’d like to feature on the homepage.
Depending on your definition of “large(ish)”, Twenty Thirteen fits your criteria. There’s a 260px sidebar you could put your image in. It will be included in the WordPress 3.6 release, which is due soon.
If you want to try it out in the meantime, create a test blog on WordPress.com - it’s already available there.
Twenty Thirteen really prefers a single column layout. Widgets live best in the footer, where jQuery Masonry bricks them together (but it supports a sidebar, if you really insist). Header images have a fixed width and height, and will be cropped at smaller resolutions, so the best choice is an artistic header where not 100% needs to be shown all the time (it ships with three).
Again, not really what I’m looking for. I want to put widgets on the side and maybe have some call to action graphics on the side, too.