I design and build websites that look good and actually work.

so this is the finished product — a fully coded restaurant website but with an f1 motorsport theme. dark background, red accents, the formula 1 logo up top, and a checkered flag bar at the bottom. everything was done in html and css, nothing fancy.

What It Is

this started as a class assignment where we got this basic html template called "Black Goose Bistro" and had to customize it. we had to change the background color, swap the header image, change the h2 colors, and rewrite the text. i decided to go all in and make it f1 themed instead of just tweaking a few things.

The Problem

the original template was super plain — just a generic bistro page with a cream background and a goose logo. the challenge for me was making it actually look cool while only using basic html and css. no javascript, no frameworks, nothing like that.

What I Did

i went with a dark background (#1a1a1a) and used the f1 red (#E10600) for all the accents. swapped the goose logo for the formula 1 logo and inverted it to white so it shows up on the dark background. rewrote all the content to be about a racing-themed lounge with sections like "Race Day Catering" and added race day brunch hours on sundays. basically made it feel like a completely different site.

i did everything on this one — came up with the concept, picked the colors and fonts, wrote the content, and coded it all. it was a solo project for class.

started with the original Black Goose template. i knew right away i wanted to do something with f1 since that's what i'm into. looked at the actual f1 website and some race posters for color inspiration. went with the dark + red combo because it felt right for motorsport. swapped the logo, changed all the css properties, rewrote the text, and kept testing it in the browser until it looked good.

honestly pretty happy with how it turned out. it doesn't even look like the same template anymore. it shows that even with just basic html/css you can make something that looks legit if you put some thought into the design choices.

original template was from class (Black Goose Bistro exercise). f1 logo belongs to Formula One World Championship Limited. everything else — design, code, content — was me.

this is the site you're on right now. 7 pages total — home, work, three project case studies, about me, and contact. built to show my work in a clean way that makes sense.

What It Is

a portfolio website i made for my class at TMU but also something i actually want to use going forward. i needed somewhere to put all my projects together in one place with proper case study breakdowns.

The Problem

i didn't really have a professional online presence before this. i had work scattered across different platforms and files but nothing tied together. needed to figure out how to present my projects in a way that tells the full story, not just screenshots.

What I Did

started on wix with a template but ended up building the final version as a custom html site hosted on netlify. each project gets its own page with the full breakdown — what it is, the problem i was solving, my process, and the final result. tried to keep it clean and easy to navigate.

designed the layout, wrote all the content, set up the hosting, and connected my custom domain. the whole thing from start to finish.

looked at the assignment rubric first to figure out what pages i needed. started messing around with wix templates but wanted more control over the layout. ended up going with a hand-coded approach instead. mapped out all 7 pages, wrote out the content for each case study, built it all in one html file with css and javascript for the page switching, and deployed it to netlify with my domain.

ended up with something i'm actually proud to share. it's live at matthewdiecidue.com and i can keep adding projects to it as i do more work. it also taught me a lot about hosting, dns, and domain setup which i didn't know much about before.

all content, design, and development by me. hosted on netlify with a custom domain.

a working online store at thestartinggrid.ca where i sell f1-themed soccer jerseys that i designed myself. it's got a product catalog with filtering, clean product pages, and the whole checkout flow works. the design uses a warm cream color palette that lets the jerseys stand out.

What It Is

an online store that sells formula 1 soccer jerseys — basically i took f1 team branding like alpine and aston martin and designed them as football/soccer jerseys. it's kind of a mashup between the two sports which i thought was a cool concept nobody else was really doing.

The Problem

there wasn't really a product like this out there. f1 merch is usually just team hoodies and caps, and soccer jerseys are their own thing. i wanted to combine them but i had to figure out both the product design side and then actually build a store to sell them.

What I Did

designed the jerseys first — alpine ones for franco colapinto (#43) and pierre gasly (#10), aston martin, and a few others. then built the whole shopify store around them. went with a simple warm aesthetic, set up the product pages with prices at $50 each, added filtering so people can browse, and kept the nav simple — just home, catalog, and contact.

this was 100% my project. i came up with the idea, designed all the jerseys, built the website, did the product photos, and wrote all the copy. it's my own brand that i run.

the idea came from seeing how popular soccer jerseys are as streetwear and thinking f1 teams could work in that format too. i'm more of a hockey guy myself but the soccer jersey style just fits perfectly for this kind of merch. started sketching out jersey designs and seeing what team branding would translate well to a soccer jersey format. once i had a few designs i liked, i set up a shopify store and started figuring out the layout. went through a couple iterations of the color scheme before landing on the warm cream look. shot all the product photos, uploaded everything, tested the checkout, and launched it.

the store is live and working at thestartinggrid.ca. it's been cool seeing people actually check it out. this project taught me a ton about e-commerce, product design, and how to build a brand from scratch. definitely my biggest project so far.

everything is by me — jersey designs, website, branding, product photos. the f1 team logos and names belong to their respective teams, i used them for the fan merch designs. store runs on shopify.