Chicago Current

Transform a print editorial originally published in Mountain Gazette into an engaging digital experience that showcases both photography and frontend craft.

Needed to create smooth scroll-driven animations while maintaining performance despite heavy imagery, and tell a compelling story that keeps viewers scrolling through the entire 9-mile journey from River Park to downtown Chicago.

An immersive scroll-driven photo essay with modern frontend techniques:

• Immersive scroll-driven photo essay with 6 narrative sections
• Parallax image reveals and scroll-triggered animations using Framer Motion
• Smooth scrolling with Lenis for a premium, natural feel
• Optimized image loading with blur-up placeholders and lazy loading
• Responsive design adapting from desktop parallax to mobile-optimized layouts
• Reduced motion support for accessibility (prefers-reduced-motion)
• Performance optimized — Lighthouse 90+ despite image-heavy content