Drupal core and contributed modules offer a variety of ways site-builders can customize content and page layout. But sometimes we need more than out-of-the-box functionality.

In this session, we'll walk through a process of identifying unique layout needs, the various options Drupal core and contrib offer us, their pros and cons, and how we as themers can customize them, as well as a few strategies for optimizing page layout regardless of what output method we use.

Drupal output options include:

• Regions + Context + theme tpl.php files
• Display modes + Display Suite
• Panels
• "Nearly Headless" Drupal

There are a number of factors to consider when choosing a method, such as:

• "Global" vs. content area - e.g. will you need variety in global regions like the header, or do you really only need to worry about main and supplemental content?
• Fixed vs. flexible content placement - e.g. does your client want the ability to move content from region to region on the fly?
• Simplicity vs. complexity - e.g. how much is your site trying to do? Do you have a lot of modules outputting their own markup?

This talk is aimed specifically at themers and frontend developers, so we will include code examples and dig into some of the nuts and bolts of how things work. It's also somewhat interdisciplinary, as we'll cover some site-building plus touch on some backend / developer concepts and techniques.

Note: This is initially marked as "intermediate," but I can adjust it to a beginner level if that would fit better into the overall track.