I want to try to tackle this again. The goal is to increase the functionality of the visual index by using it to create a 'visual hierarchy': instead of all the image thumbnails being the same size, controlled variation is added to bring emphasis to different projects.
The simplest way I can think of adding this is by increasing the thumbnail size to something quite large, ex. 600px, and then choosing 'full px' - the thumbnails (uploaded with their own unique image sizes) can be uploaded within their exhibits and made 'inactive'. - as to not show up within the exhibit.
The end result is to look something like this
It would be really nice if the thumbnail images actually could reorganize based on the browser window size, so that all images 'float' to the left and have a set padding, instead of adhering to a grid. This would be similar to my blog;
(try rescaling browser size)
I am not even sure where to start with php, I know how to do this quite easily with css - no problem, but am unsure of how to edit the php accordingly. Of course It could be made available to the rest of the community, I think it would be a really interesting way to display the content on the main page and increase the functionality of the visual index.