Kate Matthies Portfolio
A portfolio and inquiry site for my wife Kate's custom gifts and apparel business—fully custom keepsakes, team gear, and apparel, no templates.
The spark
Kate makes fully custom gifts, apparel, and keepsakes—every piece made to order, no templates. The work was selling itself person to person, but it had no public home. So I built her one: a portfolio that shows off the craft and makes it easy for people to start a custom order.
What it is
- A portfolio site for Kate's custom work—gifts, apparel, keepsakes, and team gear, all made to order.
- A gallery built to show the range of the craft, from one-off keepsakes to full team orders.
- An inquiry flow so prospective customers can describe the custom piece they want and start a conversation.
- Subtle 3D touches that give the site dimension without upstaging the work.
Stack
- Next.js with TypeScript and the App Router.
- Three.js with React Three Fiber for 3D visual elements.
- Framer Motion for animation and Resend for inquiry emails.
- Deployed on Vercel at katematthies.com.
What I learned
- Building for a real client—even one you're married to—is different from building for yourself: the site has to represent her taste, not mine.
- For a craft business, the work itself carries the site; the design's job is to frame it and stay out of the way.
- A guided inquiry flow beats a generic contact form: asking the right questions up front makes every conversation start warmer.