Landing Page options

My standard home page has a lot of information and options on it and I am considering creating a simpler ‘Landing Page’. I have been looking at various plugins and wondering if I actually need one or if I can set up what I would like without resorting to a plugin – so basically asking for a little advice.

I would like the home/landing page to be a simple browser-wide page with no sidebars – just a logo/picture with some large font intro text, smaller intro text a ‘Proceed to Main Site’ button, maybe a ‘Simple Search Box and a login box – the sort of thing that Landing Page plugins appear to offer.

I would like to know if the GD settings (e.g., GD Homepage permalink) would allow me to do this: a) with a landing page plugin; or b) by creating a page within GD without using a plugin?

Also, if I wanted to have an option “Don’t show me this page again”, for those people who are happy to go straight to the main homepage in future, would this need to be done with a plugin (using cookies?) rather than by creating a page in GD?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

I am running GD with Buddypress, BBpress.

Admin details to follow …