Responses by Thomas Aufresne, front-end and back-end developer; Glenn Catteeuw, creative director and designer; Rogier de Boevé, creative developer; Kurt Drubbel, 3-D optimizer; Paul Guilhem-Repaux, 3-D art director; and Romain Rope, sound designer.

Background: Hashgraph Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm backing founders in blockchain and AI. The site is aimed primarily at founders, investors and partners in the emerging technology space: people who need to quickly understand what Hashgraph Ventures stands for and why it is different.

Most venture capital websites are fairly traditional: clean layouts, partner profiles, portfolio grids and a predictable visual language. Hashgraph Ventures wanted a site that would stand out in its scene and immediately signal that it operates differently.

Design core: The core feature is the underwater journey. The experience starts above the surface and gradually pulls users deeper into a more immersive world. That progression creates a sense of discovery and makes the site more memorable than a conventional venture-capital website.

At the same time, we were careful not to make the concept too literal. We didn’t want to rely on gimmicky underwater creatures or typical ocean references. Instead, we used atmosphere, light, depth, particles and movement to create a more premium interpretation of the ocean.

The interface was kept minimal and restrained. A lot of websites rely on oversized typography, but we wanted the UI to feel more controlled, allowing the underwater world to carry the emotion while the content stayed clear and credible.

Favorite details: We’re particularly proud of the particle system used throughout the site, which mimics organic underwater currents and reacts dynamically to the mouse. With WebGPU, it was possible to have each particle dynamically react to the custom lighting and simulated caustics, creating a sense of depth that feels genuinely immersive.

Challenges: Finding the right style for how we visualized the humanoid body. We went through several iterations—from outline-based approaches to different particle systems—before landing on a highly interactive particle style. It needed to feel elegant and connected to the underwater world, without becoming too sci-fi or too literal. The final direction gave us something that felt immersive while still fitting the premium tone of the brand.

Technology: The site was designed in Figma and Blender and developed as a custom front-end experience using GSAP, Nuxt.js, Theatre.js, Vue.js and WebGPU. It was generated as a static site and deployed through Netlify, using Sanity as the CMS.

This was the first time we experimented with WebGPU on a project. We wanted to push the visual quality beyond what we would normally attempt in a browser-based experience, especially for the underwater atmosphere, particle behavior and sense of depth.

The immersive underwater experience was created using real-time graphics, shader work, particle systems and browser-based animation techniques. We choreographed the camera movement and transitions with Theatre.js, helping the site feel more cinematic than a traditional scroll experience.

A lot of attention went into balancing visual quality with load time, responsiveness and usability so the experience could feel cinematic while still functioning as a practical website.