Photography Directory / Portal Template $450

Feel needs to be modern professional design web 2.0ish look - site needs have more of an arty portal / newsy feel to it rather than just a list of links - so the links forums and articles (maybe including an image from the article) and classifieds feeds need to be well integrated and NOT sprawled down the page like your standard blog - logo has already been designed

the url http://www.photographysites.com

Desired Style:
modern professional design web 2.0ish - arty portal / newsy feel - see brief for detailed description

Accepted File Formats:
see the brief

Photographysites.com is a very busy photography portal / forums site which i intend to extend into new areas

I am adding a CMS system and classifieds teasers for which will appear on the front page

Manin Concept - so i am looking for a new design which will accommodate the current information top sites by categories and forum posts in addition to articles (there will be more detailed site reviews and probably other articles) and classified recent listings and links to various categories.

Site listings - i am open to the idea of not showing lists of sites on the front page maybe some type of graphic or a smaller list of sites + a graphic - surprise me

Design

Feel needs to be modern professional design web 2.0ish look - site needs have more of an arty portal / newsy feel to it rather than just a list of links - so the links forums and articles (maybe including an image from the article) and classifieds feeds need to be well integrated and NOT sprawled down the page like your standard blog - i like the way many of the templatemonster designs make good use of space - check them out for what i mean - but i don't want it to be tooo heavy on the big chunky graphics - i want to ensure the site is fast loading - its a busy site

it will use the new logo i have had designed see here http://www.photographysites.com/newlogo - the colors for this can be adapted so don't be constrained by the colors in the sample - i prefer the version with the tag line

it needs to be designed in a way to accommodate ads - such as skyscraper large banner or square in the key areas - eg above the fold and on the left hand side - maybe some other areas - also places for smaller banners to link partners and other advertisers - i don't want the front page overloaded with ads - please use your discretion and make sure ads places are clearly labelled in the design

it must also have a menu system across the top so i can link to my other sites (eg blog - photo gallery - free web Host) or oher areas on the site (forums - classified - Site Reviews)

general design to be adapted to secondary page - with appropriate ad areas, menus and integration with forums, classifieds and articles.

Other Points to Consider

No flash - its too slow for many users

bear in mind that i will need to use a header and footer for skinning the classified / forums / articles

you need to design and provide html for the front page and secondary page so it can be adapted to our template system.

graphics need to be supplied in vector format capable of being imported as vector into Xara Xtreme Pro (ai - works fine) - this is in addition to gifs or whatever needed for the standard html page

good luck

i reserve the right not to appoint a winner if no satisfactory design is found - though this has never been my experience for past contests i have run here and i want this done relatively quickly