Please take a look at this, advice needed.

I am new to Zencart but have PHP, CSS, XHTML, JS experience.

Please can you take a look at this image and give me some advice on the most reliable way to implement the elements that will be controlled by Zencart.

http://www.returnvoid.co.uk/08-12-09_design_idea.jpg

I figured if I can get to grips with the homepage then I could tackle some of the more in-depth pages like the shopping cart and listings pages etc.

I was thinking of coding the site as I normally would in PHP, XHTML an CSS then adding the relevant codes to the Zencart controlled elements?

Is this possible? Advisable? Is there a better way of doing this? Am I going about it completely the wrong way?

Hope you can give me some advice, thanks in advance,

Luke

I was thinking of coding the site as I normally would in PHP, XHTML an CSS then adding the relevant codes to the Zencart controlled elements?

First, don't you have any idea how to reduce the size of a screen shot to reasonable proportions?

Second, your assumptions are wrong - Start with the tutorials/FAQ (link at the top of this page) in the Customizing your Zen Cart. Pay particular attention on the Template Overrides.

Kim:

First, don't you have any idea how to reduce the size of a screen shot to reasonable proportions?

Rather uncalled for, what do you care if I waste my own bandwidth?

Before I go any further what would you consider reasonable proportions? Is 800 x 600 acceptable or can I push the boat out and go for 1024x 768, or would you prefer me to offer a variety of resolutions and leave it upto the end user to decide?

As for your other suggestion, I have taken a look at the documentation but will revisit it.

What a warm welcome to the forum.

Actually, screw that, I'm just going to hop over to Magento as their documentation is in order and they actually offer a very in-depth, thoughtful walkthrough targetted at designers like myself.