Golden hour, drawn in code

The idea

I wanted a home page that feels like a place, not a brochure. So the first thing you see is a Florida lake at golden hour, and the things on the grass are the navigation.

How it works

There are no image files in the scene. A small script paints the sky, the sun, the water and the palms onto a canvas about two hundred pixels tall, then scales it up so each pixel stays sharp. Every color comes from my brand palette. Where two bands of sky meet, they blend with a dither pattern, the way ink does on a risograph print.

• Click the sun and it sets. The whole site follows it into dusk.
• Tap the water for ripples. Sometimes a fish jumps.
• Move your cursor and the shoreline shifts, so the scene has depth.
• The laptop, notebook and kayak are real links, so a keyboard or screen reader can use them too.
• There is a chocolate lab asleep under the palm. Tap it and its tail wags.

What I learned

Constraints are a gift. Five colors and square pixels made every decision easier, and the result looks like nobody else’s site.