The Descent is a concept site for an aquarium of the deep. I wanted the first few seconds to feel like the moment you lean over the edge of a boat and look down.
So the whole site is one long dive. You start on calm white. Scroll, and an octopus swims up to meet you. The name settles right on the water line, half above and half below, while a little ship drifts across the top. Keep going and it gets darker, deeper and stranger, all the way down to an anglerfish with its light on.
Most aquarium websites are built for kids. Bright primary colors, cartoon fish, bubbles everywhere, every section shouting for attention. They’re fun, but they all look the same, and none of them feel like the hushed, blue wonder of actually standing in front of a tank.
I wanted The Descent to feel like that moment instead. Engaging and interactive, so it still feels like play, but calm, clean and a little bit expensive. Think gallery, not theme park. Lots of white space, one confident typeface, a palette taken straight from the water, and the animals doing the talking.
The octopus and the water line
The octopus is a film you scrub with your scroll, so you swim with it. Then THE DESCENT lands on the water, black above and white below, with the ship and a depth meter on the side.
Going under
The water rises, the page goes dark, and an anglerfish swims out of the black. It plays on its own when it fills the screen. Scroll while it swims and it speeds up.
The exhibits
Two columns of cards drift past. Hover one and the big title turns into its story: a sonar sweep, the depth, a captain’s log and a few facts.
Philosophy, events, tickets
Calm white for the philosophy, glowing jellyfish behind the events, then white water floods back up for tickets, with the octopus resting at the bottom.
Plan your visit
A short film made of five people at the aquarium, each with one line: Say hello. Walk under sharks. Reach out. Then everything you need for the day.
Book your dive
Pick a day, a time and who’s coming, and the total adds up as you go. Times show how many spots are left.
On a phone
The dive works the same in your hand. The nav folds into a Menu button that opens a full screen navy menu.
The exhibits swipe sideways, and pressing and holding a card opens its story as a sheet from the bottom.
Designed and coded by me, with Claude in the loop. No templates, no page builder.
Claude CodeBuilding the site with me
HTML + CSSThe pages, the type, the water
JavaScriptThe scroll story, the octopus film, the waves and the ship
HiggsfieldThe creatures and the filmsTake the dive yourself.
The whole site is live. Scroll slowly.