Responses by Tom Dawson, creative director, HNDRX.

Background: Kiko’s Playground emerges as an interactive portfolio website designed to showcase the professional work and personal experiments of Kiko Wu, a dynamic creative. It’s tailored to connect with a diverse audience of fellow designers, potential collaborators and prospective employers, offering a glimpse into Kiko’s creative approach.

Design core: During the discovery phase of the project, we knew Kiko wanted a space for an interactive playground to showcase design experiments, ideas, inspiration and expressions. We toyed with the idea of a sketchbook where the user could collaborate with Kiko by doodling over the content with the mouse. Eventually, we landed on the idea of an interactive gallery. We took inspiration from the art gallery experience, the uncanny feeling that paintings are watching you. Kiko’s Playground can be explored like a large interactive canvas as the artwork follows the cursor around the screen.

Favorite details: We are extremely proud of the way the microinteractions come together like a well-orchestrated symphony as users scroll through the website.

Challenges: We knew that Kiko was a badass designer, and they had chosen us for our attention to detail, microinteractions and brand expressions. The most challenging aspect of the website was working out how to create a platform that was fun and engaging while pushing the work to the forefront. We struck a harmonious balance—where every interaction complements and doesn’t compete with the work. The animations are there to amplify, ensuring Kiko’s work is always center stage.

Divergent paths: It sounds contradictory given how proud we are of the solution, but we would have loved to have had more time to explore the different directions we could have taken the playground. To create something truly original, you need to step away from the computer, look beyond the digital landscape and engage with your physical surroundings. Being given creative freedom opens up an infinite world of possibilities and being able to experiment with different technology—such as matter.js, three.js and Spline—is always high.

Technology: The build was facilitated by GSAP, JavaScript and Webflow to develop the website. Big shout out to the Lenis smooth scroll for the buttery scroll experience.