Layouts where content hugs the boundaries of illustrations are common in print and rare on the web. One of the reasons non-rectangular contour-hugging layouts are uncommon on the web is that they are difficult to produce.
They are not difficult to produce anymore.
And once again I have a flashback to (the now offline) The Box Office, a project I made a long long time ago (2005) to mimic some of the stuff one can do with CSS Shapes