Pici is an independent, Italian-inspired pasta restaurant in Nottingham run by two well-respected local chefs. I designed and built their website in Webflow before the restaurant opened.
Freelance @ Pici Nottingham
Key highlights
- Launched ahead of the restaurant opening — established digital presence from day one
- Minimalist design that lets the food and atmosphere speak
- Custom animated photo montage hero — high visual impact, optimised file size
- Still live a year later, restaurant fully booked since opening
The problem
Pici needed a website ready for launch, but this wasn't a brand-heavy project. The restaurant's appeal is the food and the atmosphere — two chefs doing things properly, self-funded, no gimmicks. The website had to reflect that: confident, minimal, and elevated without being pretentious. It also needed to hold its own against high-end independents like Onda in Manchester.
Approach
I worked closely with the founders through regular check-ins during the design process to make sure the direction felt right. The brief pushed toward restraint — strong typography, limited colour palette, letting the photography do the heavy lifting. The challenge was making "minimal" feel intentional and premium rather than empty.
What I did
- Visual design (full site)
- Webflow development
- Creative direction for the hero montage
- Image optimisation and performance tuning
One decision, explained
The hero needed to capture atmosphere without video. I created an animated photo montage — around 12 images cycling with a 200ms delay, layered in slightly different sizes and positions like someone dropping printed photos on a table.
The tricky part was keeping the file size manageable. I used the APNG format to get the animation quality I needed without bloating the page or breaking on older devices. It gives the site a distinctive, tactile feel that a static image or standard slider wouldn't achieve.
The outcome
The site launched alongside the restaurant and has been live for about a year. Pici has been fully booked since opening and the website has picked up consistent praise on social media. The build quality is noticeably stronger than my earlier work — cleaner code, tighter details.
Reflection
If I had more room, I'd have pushed the creative direction a bit further. But the restraint was right for this project — it reflects who the founders are and how they run the restaurant. And it still sits well ahead of most competitors in the space.
Full page designs
