Initial layout issues

I really like the idea of using ropes - they tie in nicely with the subject and also as shown you can include menus in them and also they would be a good place to have adverts (as they are used to advertise on in real life!)

However, something was really not sitting right with the layout of the my first attempt and I think the answer lies in the title - so I am now playing around (again in rough) with some ways of sitting the title within the ropes better;

Hopefully this will work better; once I am happy with the layout I will work on the ropes and the look as a whole.

I am thinking of maybe making the title and the ropes one and the same - we'll see how it goes but by the end of the day I need to be moving on to the next stage of the process as there are only a few days left.