Magazine Style Overview Page

Hi,
I used to be a Joomla user but wanted to switch to WordPress as it seems more intuitive.
But because of that I am stuck in Joomla thinking pattern – for example the following problem:

I want to create a landing page where I see squares (with background images) that represent featured articles as well as external links.
Optimally I would be able to sort these squares as I want or select to order them chronologically.

What are some starting points I can google to archive that? What concept would you recommend?

Thanks a lot!