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No.90 · Cards

Approach Card

A project card whose hierarchy responds to distance: from afar it's only a title; as you come closer the title steps back and the details arrive from the side you approach.

The prompt

Written for the variant you picked above: Pair

Design a portfolio/project card whose hierarchy is driven by distance rather than hover. One CSS variable, --p (0 = far, 1 = close), controls the whole layout. Compute it from a single window pointermove listener: the distance from the pointer to the card's rectangle edge (0 inside), mapped through 1 − d/220px and a smoothstep, then eased with a 0.11 lerp in a rAF loop that stops when settled. When --p first rises above 0.04, record which side the pointer came from (--dir = ±1). At p = 0 the card (21:27, 18px radius, #121015 with a hairline ring) shows only a mono index and year at the top and a very large Instrument Serif title sitting at the bottom. As p rises, the title scales to 50% from its top-left and translates up into a slot under the meta row (the travel distance is measured once with a ResizeObserver), and three details — summary, tech chips, a 'Read the case study →' line — each run their own clamp((p − 0.35 − 0.12k)·2.6) progress, fading in and sliding 22px from the approach side. A radial light gathers on that side, the ring strengthens, and a hairline along the bottom scales with p as a quiet proximity gauge. Keyboard focus sets p to 1. Each card takes an accent colour for its light and gauge. Selected variant — Pair: Pair: two cards side by side (wrapping on narrow screens) — Masar (accent #b9cce4) and Wally (accent #e8a24a) — so with the pointer between them both half-open.

Notes

Interaction
Approach the card and it reorganises itself continuously; focus it with the keyboard for the full detail view. It's a normal link.
Motion
Continuous: a lerped proximity value drives transform/opacity through CSS calc(); staggered detail entry from the approach direction.
Accessibility
The whole card is one link containing all text in reading order (title is an h3), so screen readers get everything regardless of --p. Focus opens it fully; reduced motion jumps straight to each target value.
Responsive
Fluid width up to 21rem with a fixed aspect ratio; the title's travel is re-measured on resize.
On touch
On devices without hover the card renders in its fully-open state.

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301 components