Question

I have a series of posts in a custom post type. They each have a featured image (thumbnail)and an excerpt.

I want to display 4 items on the home page, with the first item formatted differently from the other 3, such as in the attached image. How is that done?

Answer 1

You can use a counter for this. See sample below

 <?php
  $inc = 1;
  $the_query = new WP_Query();
  $the_query->query("posts_per_page=4");
  if ($the_query->have_posts()) : 
  while($the_query->have_posts()) : $the_query->the_post();
  if($inc == 1){ 
   //first post here
   //do stuffs here
  }
 else{
  //the rest of the posts
 }

 $inc++; //counter
 endwhile; 
 endif; 
 wp_reset_postdata();
 ?>