THE DRIFT is a modern editorial magazine built as a CMS showcase — a front page with a lead story, category grids and a most-read sidebar, and a long-form article template with drop caps, pull quotes and inline figures. Designed and built end-to-end with a strict two-page brief, an asymmetric 12-column grid, and one accent color used sparingly against warm off-white paper.
Role — Design, front-end, back-end.
Brief — Build a two-page publication that demonstrates CMS architecture and editorial craft: a magazine front page and a single article template, both driven from one blog collection.
Approach — I resisted the urge to add pages. The whole system had to earn its rhythm from a single collection and a strict grid. I built one hero block, three card variants (large, medium, list-row) and three real section headers, then let typography and white space do the rest. Playfair Display sets the tone; a 4-pixel heavy rule between sections signals "publication, not app"; a single accent red is reserved for hover states, bullets and the pull-quote border — nothing else.
Outcome — Nine seeded long-reads across three sections, an article page with drop-cap paragraphs and italic pull quotes, a most-read sidebar with automatic view counting, and a newsletter band that reads like a masthead ad. The site loads in under a second and passes end-to-end tests on the first iteration.
