Hi Zarah,
You can link the images to any blocks that you have in your course.
Here is another try with Moodle 2.8.3+ using the theme Shoehorn.
In the image below 'Course tiles' are not enabled (Themes > Shoehorn > General).
'Course tiles' enabled (Themes > Shoehorn > General).
I used a label as a divider to have two columns. With Custom CSS you may be able to manipulate the height and width of the label.
With kind regards,
Hartmut