Cosmic horror newspaper engine for an Amsterdam art collective

Name: Cosmic horror newspaper engine for an Amsterdam art collective
Availability: InStock
Author: webhouwer

by webhouwer·Mar 2, 2026·2 points·0 comments

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AI Analysis

●●SolidEye CandyCozy

Bespoke cosmic-themed newspaper design with modular CSS and vanilla JS lightbox, but it's a custom WordPress site for a niche institution.

Strengths

•Intentional design system using CSS custom properties with thematic naming (--madness-purple, --eldritch-mist) creates cohesive visual language
•Particle.js ambient background effects and vanilla JS pinch-to-zoom lightbox with swipe nav demonstrate craft without dependencies
•Content intensity metadata system (Irreverent through Damned) gives visual hierarchy that serves editorial intent

Weaknesses

•No technical innovation beyond careful WordPress templating; custom themes for institutions are standard practice
•Extremely narrow audience: art collective site with no indication of reusability, extensibility, or tool-building intent

Post Description

Built a custom WordPress theme from scratch for The Unsafe House, an art collective in Amsterdam. We publish provocative essays, visual art, and cultural critique, so the design needed to feel like a forbidden newspaper from another dimension.

Content gets rated on an intensity scale: Irreverent, Profane, Blasphemous, Heretical, Damned. Each level gets its own visual treatment.

The design system runs on CSS custom properties named things like --madness-purple, --eldritch-mist, --cosmic-void, --abyssal-blue. Particle.js handles the ambient cosmic dread in the background.

Also built a pinch-to-zoom artwork lightbox with swipe navigation in vanilla JS, no dependencies.

No page builders. No Elementor. Just PHP templates, 14 modular CSS files, and vanilla JS.

Let me know what you think!