Going from Comp to Custom Theme Best Practices....

Hey!

I am very new to Drupal and v7 is my first Drupal experience. I have been using the Lynda Tutorials and they are fantastic, but I have additional questions. I am looking for tips on best practices when creating content based on a custom theme comp.

The story is, I am working on a custom site based on comps delivered by my client. In the Lynda lesson for Custom Themes, the content for the custom theme is provided in a B&M file. Works great for the demo but, not for the real application of the of the process. My question is, when you are looking at the comp, and you have divided it up into regions and blocks for the layout, what is the best way to create the content based on the regions? For example, the index page (or front page), I have a header that includes a title bar at the top and a full image with social buttons overlaid on the image. Below that, a nav bar across, with page content below the nav bar. Now, that page content is broken into blocks like featured and 3-col call-out area below that, followed by the footer. I hope you can 'see' the page from this description.

So, what I have done is created content using basic page type for the featured content. Now, the call-out area, would I create a basic page for each of the call out columns? Then create a call-out block? Add them to the block? Then to the page? I know that 'Views' comes into play here somewhere, but not sure how yet.

Does this make any sense? What is the best way to create the content to make it work for the comp? I am basing the theme on the client provided HTML/CSS. I have tried to find books on this but the theme books focus on what to do with the layout, not how to fit the content. Should I designate the block areas on the comp as content types, create the content types and finally adding the content as that type, then create the block? Its the step by step process that I am fuzzy on.

I appreciate the advice!! Hope you have a great day!!

Lisa Rose