Flow Storytelling Template

Currently there isn't an option to open the Storyview template with the menu closed, but I believe we have a feature improvement item for that so we'll add a "+1" to that.

And, also, there isn't a built-in way to have the Project Hero image shown in the title area/square above the menu, we can add that as a feature request as well for a future update. See below, though, for info on usimng CSS in the theme to make this happen.

In terms of "In the title block in the left menu (screenshot below) is there any way to have the course image appear rather than the colour? I didn't find a native option for this, so I tried adding my own CSS. While inspecting the page, I've been able to hide the colour to show the image behind the colour, but when adding my own css to match when I inspected the page, it did not work (css below)."

You were on the right track.  Colors sit ontop of the image using that approach so you need to make the right area transparent.

The CSS you want is

.background.menu_bg.bg-primary {
    background-color: transparent !important;
}

NOTE: You may have to clear your cache to see it working.