Home page designs

I've been working on the home page design. I have a basic concept, but am trying to refine the details. Here are the different versions I have so far. I'm partial to version 2, although none of the permutations of it are completely satisfying to me. All images open to larger versions in a new tab/window.

Version 1.5a (large title and menu, delineations of space with straight black lines):


Version 1.5b (large title and menu, delineations of space with black lines, menus in a box):


Version 2.1 (small title and menu, delineations of space with straight black lines):


Version 2.2 (small title and menu, delineations of space with straight grey lines):


Version 2.3 (small title and menu, delineations of space with straight grey lines, lines are slightly thicker with a bit of shape to them):

I also thought about lining up the images in the side menus, but I'm not sure about it.