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Recipe R02

The Glass Portfolio

A portfolio under glass: the work first, the proof in numbers, and one way to begin.

Designers and engineers who want the portfolio people actually send, with atmosphere that never outruns the work.

The page, section by section

  1. 01

    A field of glass tiles behind the name gives the first screen a material without a photograph; the light follows the pointer and holds still under reduced motion.

  2. 02

    Hero pointer

    Glow Pointer

    A frost glow scoped to the hero makes that first screen feel present. It stops at the hero, so the rest of the page keeps a readable cursor.

  3. 03

    Opening line

    Highlight Sweep

    One sentence is swept once, as if someone were underlining the point, then the page gets on with the work.

  4. 04

    Selected work

    Hover Reel

    Projects as a list you can read, with the image arriving beside the row you are on, instead of a grid of equal cards.

  5. 05

    How to work together

    Glass Card

    The offer sits on one glass card: what you take on, when, and the single action.

  6. 06

    The invitation

    Tidefill

    The same button in the hero and on the card fills like a glass being poured, so the invitation is recognisable wherever it appears.

  7. 07

    A shorter statement the reader can mark themselves, kept apart from the opening sweep so the two gestures do not fight.

  8. 08

    The practice

    Ledger Cylinder

    Years, projects and how many you take at once turn past as you scroll, so the numbers are a passage rather than a row of statistics.

  9. 09

    Work and contact

    Intent Label

    Pointing at a project or the email says what will happen — open the case, copy the address — before you commit to the click.

The build brief

Paste it into Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT with the component files, and ask for your own version: your name, your work, your product. It names each component and where to copy it from.

# Build brief: The Glass Portfolio

A portfolio under glass: the work first, the proof in numbers, and one way to begin.
For: Designers and engineers who want the portfolio people actually send, with atmosphere that never outruns the work.

## Direction
- Night glass: ground #05060c, frost #b9cce4, cream #efe8dc. Glass appears twice — the hero field and one card — and nowhere else.
- Instrument Serif for the name and the two statements. Geist for reading. Geist Mono for labels, years and counts.
- Each pointer stays in its own section: a glow in the hero, a sweep on the opening line, a highlight on the case line, an intent label on the work and the contact. They are stacked, never nested.
- In-page links scroll smoothly inside the page. Reduced motion jumps. Real projects, years and counts. One invitation, repeated: start a project.


## Why this is the portfolio to send
- Lead with a name and one sentence. The glass is the room, not the subject.
- Show four projects, not twenty. The reel is a contents page; the case line is the one argument you expand.
- Repeat one button. A second style makes the page look assembled.
- Put the numbers after the work, where they confirm what the reader has already seen.

## Page map
1. Hero: Glass Tiles. A field of glass tiles behind the name gives the first screen a material without a photograph; the light follows the pointer and holds still under reduced motion.
2. Hero pointer: Glow Pointer. A frost glow scoped to the hero makes that first screen feel present. It stops at the hero, so the rest of the page keeps a readable cursor.
3. Opening line: Highlight Sweep. One sentence is swept once, as if someone were underlining the point, then the page gets on with the work.
4. Selected work: Hover Reel. Projects as a list you can read, with the image arriving beside the row you are on, instead of a grid of equal cards.
5. How to work together: Glass Card. The offer sits on one glass card: what you take on, when, and the single action.
6. The invitation: Tidefill. The same button in the hero and on the card fills like a glass being poured, so the invitation is recognisable wherever it appears.
7. Case line: Highlight Cursor. A shorter statement the reader can mark themselves, kept apart from the opening sweep so the two gestures do not fight.
8. The practice: Ledger Cylinder. Years, projects and how many you take at once turn past as you scroll, so the numbers are a passage rather than a row of statistics.
9. Work and contact: Intent Label. Pointing at a project or the email says what will happen — open the case, copy the address — before you commit to the click.

## Components
Copy each component's files from its page (Code tab) into your project before you start, and use them as given: change props and content, not internals.
- Glass Tiles: https://tryvitrine.dev/components/glass-tiles (A wall of thick rounded glass tiles with light moving behind it; each bevel catches the passing beams as bright lines hugging the tile's edge.)
- Glow Pointer: https://tryvitrine.dev/components/glow-pointer (A crisp arrow with softly rounded corners and a slight glow around it — light, not a shape.)
- Highlight Sweep: https://tryvitrine.dev/components/highlight-sweep (A second cursor — not yours — that glides in and drags a highlight across the line that matters, left to right: the box grows behind the words and they turn the accent colour with a crisp edge that travels with it.)
- Hover Reel: https://tryvitrine.dev/components/hover-reel (A project list where a picture blooms under the cursor, follows it, and rolls to the next image as you move between rows.)
- Glass Card: https://tryvitrine.dev/components/glass-card (A card set into a small wall of glass tiles with light moving behind it, its content on a clear pane at the bottom.)
- Tidefill: https://tryvitrine.dev/components/tidefill-button (A pill that fills like a tide: liquid rises from the bottom with a rolling wave, revealing the ink-coloured label exactly where it reaches.)
- Highlight Cursor: https://tryvitrine.dev/components/highlight-cursor (A coloured arrow that highlights the line of text it's on: the line sits in a rounded box — a dark wash of the accent with a hairline accent edge — and its words take the accent colour.)
- Ledger Cylinder: https://tryvitrine.dev/components/ledger-cylinder (Stats painted in giant condensed type on the inside of a cylinder that turns as you scroll — the walls loom as they pass.)
- Intent Label: https://tryvitrine.dev/components/intent-label (The cursor says what a click will do.)

## Build
- Next.js (App Router), TypeScript, Tailwind CSS. No extra UI libraries.
- Write real content for this site: real names, dates, numbers and sentences. No lorem ipsum, no "Feature one".
- Compose the sections in the order of the page map. Keep each component's own spacing; add page rhythm with consistent section padding.
- Mobile first: every section must work at 375px wide without horizontal scrolling.
- Respect prefers-reduced-motion everywhere; every Vitrine component already does.

## Before you ship
- Run `/template-tells` (https://tryvitrine.dev/workshop/skills/template-tells) on everything you wrote yourself: copy, sections, styles.
- Run `/responsive-audit` (https://tryvitrine.dev/workshop/skills/responsive-audit) at 375, 768 and 1280.
- Run `/accessibility-pass` (https://tryvitrine.dev/workshop/skills/accessibility-pass).
- Run `/performance-pass` (https://tryvitrine.dev/workshop/skills/performance-pass) on a production build.
- Run `/technical-seo-audit` (https://tryvitrine.dev/workshop/skills/technical-seo-audit) and `/seo-auditor` (https://tryvitrine.dev/workshop/skills/seo-auditor) before launch.

Direction

  • Night glass: ground #05060c, frost #b9cce4, cream #efe8dc. Glass appears twice — the hero field and one card — and nowhere else.
  • Instrument Serif for the name and the two statements. Geist for reading. Geist Mono for labels, years and counts.
  • Each pointer stays in its own section: a glow in the hero, a sweep on the opening line, a highlight on the case line, an intent label on the work and the contact. They are stacked, never nested.
  • In-page links scroll smoothly inside the page. Reduced motion jumps. Real projects, years and counts. One invitation, repeated: start a project.

Why this is the portfolio to send

  • Lead with a name and one sentence. The glass is the room, not the subject.
  • Show four projects, not twenty. The reel is a contents page; the case line is the one argument you expand.
  • Repeat one button. A second style makes the page look assembled.
  • Put the numbers after the work, where they confirm what the reader has already seen.

Featured

01Glassbreak ButtonA solid plate that fractures from one impact point, cracks racing outward as the shards drift apart.04Liquid GlassA capsule of glass that bends what's behind it, carries a specular highlight around its rim toward your pointer, and squashes like a drop of liquid when pressed.07Phosphor Glass ButtonA liquid-glass pill that senses you coming: its rim light turns to face the cursor and the pill leans in to meet it.08Iris ShutterAn async button with a camera iris for a status light — blades close and turn while it works, then open onto the result.
81Atmosphere CardSmoked-glass link cards: colour pooled in the corners, slow contour currents underneath, a field that leans toward you.93Eclipse Event CardAn editorial event plate with an oversized date and an orbital eclipse bleeding in from the right, alive with slow drift.94Specimen CardAn object mounted under glass: hover lifts the pane with a sweep of reflection and swings out a paper catalogue tag.
95Silk FieldDomain-warped light that pours like liquid silk, with an optional glass lens that refracts the flow under your cursor.106IsobarA living weather map — contour lines traced over a drifting pressure field, with your cursor as a system of its own.
151Prompt ComposerA chat composer where attached files tuck into its top edge like tabs in a folder — they rise from behind it when added and sink back when removed. Send turns into stop while the reply streams.157Aura FieldA writing field where colour only exists while the AI is touching your text: the edge becomes a turning band of light and the words are rewritten in place, one by one, out of a soft blur.
205Halftone CTAA tall CTA banner where slow gold paint drifts beneath a fixed halftone grid, visible only through the dots.
212Nocturne Sign-inA single quiet column on near-black with a breathing seam of frost light behind it — email, password, magic link, nothing more.222Sigil Sign-inA split sign-in whose left half grows a geometric mark from your email — the same address always draws the same sigil.
275Voices CarouselA testimonial exhibition: one large quote at a time on frosted glass, crossfading between voices without ever resizing.
279Feral TitleA brutal condensed wordmark — heartbeat in the dark, letters slam in, a gash tears through and the word bleeds.
301 components