Website Design Portfolio
I'm Richard L. Trethewey, owner of Rainbo Design. I have more than thirty years of experience with computers, and have been making my living online since 1981. I have been programming computers since the early 1970s. From 1982-1984, I helped design user interfaces for the control panel system used by online forum managers ("SYSOPs") on CompuServe. I have been designing websites since the late 1990's, and have applied my experience in user interface design to create websites that are easy for people to use and which are effective sales and presentation tools for my clients. The first line of my web design contract says it all, "My goal is to delight the client."
These are examples of the websites I've designed. They range from small informational websites
whose only role is to inform the user, to decidedly for-profit e-commerce websites
capable of transforming the casual visitor into a satsisfied customer using a state-of-the-art
security system for handling credit card transactions and other private information.
Dharma Objects Yoga & Meditation Tools
This Minneapolis-area company wanted an easy-to-use ECommerce website built on the popular osCommerce
shopping cart software in order to sell their yoga and meditation tools. Another client in a related
business referred them to me. I was able to build the site and have them up and running, complete with
a merchant account for accepting credit cards securely within just a few weeks. They plan to redesign
a second site and add my search engine marketing services soon. osCommerce is a great tool for
operating an online store because it's well-tested and supported, and it comes with complete administration
controls so that you can operate the site on your own.
DME Shop
Wheelchairs & Mobility Products
This medical supply company hired me to create this full-blown ECommerce
website offering mobility assistance products like electric wheelchairs, scooters, walkers,
canes, and other medical supplies. The shop features several categories of products, and
relies on my Rainbo Cart software that is easy to install and maintain.
David James - Modern Abstract Impressionist Art
San Francisco artist David James needed a custom website to
showcase his art on the Internet. He had a very specific method in mind to
do this, using a visual gallery on the site's main page that allows users to
browse his art and see both the full image and a detailed close-up of the
textures he employs in his unique use of various media to create his art.
This client recently added my search engine marketing services and has significantly
increased the traffic to his website.
Spiers & Associates Management Consulting
This management consulting company in the Minneapolis area needed a website
to convey competence, professionalism, and a sense of today's marketing trends to help to
promote their services. The site is simple and clean, but with a bit of sparkle to help
convey a sense of humor and a personalized approach to serving their clients.
48th Avenue Productions - SF Theater Group
This small theater group based in San Francisco asked me to build a
small website for them. As you can see, I took the promotional materials for their latest
production and turned it into a front page graphic. I also added my simple Rainbo Cart Lite
shopping cart software to their site so that they could sell tickets and advertising
premiums on their site. We're still discussing whether or not they want to add a
BLOG. If you live in the Bay Area, be sure to check out their site for news on
upcoming productions.
Rock Collecting Gallery
This was a challenging, but fun web site to build. The client is a rock hound who
has been collecting interesting rocks for much of his life. Now in his retirement, he's interested
in sharing his interests using my Rainbo Gallery automated photo gallery software with hopes of possibly creating a rock
museum here in the San Francisco Bay area someday.
Tibet Arts: Tibetan Art & Jewelry
Tibet Arts is a small business in St. Paul, MN that offers a unique collection
of Tibetan art, jewelry, rugs, and crafts. They wanted a small website to provide information about
their store and to offer some of their products through an online catalog. So I created a complete
e-commerce website that lets them do that with a popular software package called osCommerce. ocCommerce
gives small businesses complete control over their online offerings with easy to use controls and
complete security.
Cosmic Co.
Cosmic Co. is a leading producer of custom-made specialty packaging. They make
boutique-quality packaging for merchandise of all kinds, serving client companies from
coast-to-coast. They had an existing web site that needed extensive internal software repairs, but the
original design company disappeared. I was hired to repair several problems in the custom version of
the osCommerce e-commerce software that supported their wholesale client and order processing MySQL databases,
and to eliminate nagging problems in their web design and EMail set-up. This project involved moving their entire website - including the web pages,
custom PHP software, and MySQL database, to a new web hosting company without any interruption in
service. I continue to provide them with maintenance and new programming services to
keep their website updated with new pricing and security services, and we are just starting to
create a new website design.
Russian Hill Bookstore - San Francisco
I created this site for one of San Francisco's treasures, a used bookstore that
features much more than just books. Like many retail stores, this client needed an online presence
to help potential customers find concise and accurate information about her store - its location,
driving directions, and contact information, as well as providing an attractive display of all
of the different product lines she offers. The site's simple presentation is complimented by a news and information
BLOG that keeps everyone up to date about new arrivals, special events, and other promotional announcements.
David's Biscotti
This is another site repair job. I was originally hired for my Search Engine Optimization
services, but the job grew to include some basic re-design. The client had designed the site himself
using Yahoo! Site-Builder which caused some problems with slow-loading pages that were difficult to
change. I took the original design and brought it up to current technological standards as well as
making it very competitive in the search engines.
Lewiston Hall Guest House
I made this site for a recently-built hotel in the Gulf Shore region of
Alabama. The client took some nice photos for the site that I edited and enhanced. Then I added a custom-made logo, and
did some research on local amenities to create this site that advertises their comfy resort
hotel. It was a rush job contracted for the local manager who wanted to have something impressive
for the corporate representatives who were due to visit. The site was up and running within 48
hours of confirming the order, and it was essentially complete within 5 days.
Van Go Painting
A painting contractor in a small town in the San Francisco area wanted to expand
its marketing reach to the larger cities on the penninsula and hired my Search Engine Optimization
services, which included a redesign of their simple website. I updated the look of the site with
their existing marketing materials and made their participation in a quality assurance service program
much more prominent to help assure potential customers. They now rank in the top 5 for all of their
target markets and have a new professional look on their website.
The Serenata Company
This independent film producer needed a simple website to showcase his company's latest
productions. The goal was to present an urban background with a philosophical flair. I was happy to accomodate
the client's request for specific design elements - like the film border for the top logo and the quotations -
to make the site of his dreams become a reality in just a few weeks.
Greg Brown, San Francisco Psychotherapist
Greg Brown has a psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco area. He wanted a
website that would be warm and inviting, and would let him share his approach to psychotherapy.
The site includes many pages of information to help potential clients become familiar with
the services he offers through his thriving practice.
Cheryl A. Clarke Fundraising
My job here was to give fundraising consultant and noted author Cheryl Clarke's existing site a facelift. The client had initially
designed her own site using Microsoft Word, which was really unsuitable for the professional
image her site needed to convey. The primary goal was to homogonize the website's appearance
to match the client's stationery and other promotional materials to help establish a
brand image in the mind of her potential clients. The site also serves to announce her
scheduled speaking engagements, which I update periodically.
Retorts.com
Retorts.com was built to suppliment this industrial corporation's existing site by presenting
a library of white papers for the food processing industry. It's a very simple website that
keeps their potential clients informed on the technological advancements in sterilization
equipment and promotes the client's industrial sterilization equipment manufacturing business.
Dr. David Pakter: Rainbow Integration
This physician from the San Francisco area wanted me to redesign his website to enhance the connection
between the Yoga instruction he offers through his alternative medicine practice and the
local San Francisco environment. The site is one of my Advanced Website Design Packages,
and it includes several pages of essential information about Dr. Pakter's practice, as well
as an automated online slide show of his Yoga demonstration that he can edit and expand on
his own without any further assistance.
Senait Agonafer Ethiopia Ministry
This client had a specific design in mind and provided all of the
graphics, so all I did in regard to the design was to handle the technical aspects of
actually creating the site. But the reason I am proud of this site is that it
included multimedia features that required transferring an audio recording from cassette
tape into a digital media format, as well as transferring a video on VHS cassette into
a digital media for online presentation. In time, we'll update the graphics and the
overall design, as well as facilities for accepting online donations, but its in good shape
for a site I created in 10 days.
Antique-Antiques-UK
This antique dealer from the UK originally signed up for my search engine optimization services, but
as a part of the process, I helped enhance the appearance of the site. I added some small design
details to the product displays to enhance their appearance. This client's modest-sized antiques business in
the United Kingdom is now a rival for top search engine positions in many categories of antique
furniture and brings in new clients from around the world.
Rainbo Online Book Reviews
Rainbo Electronic Reviews is a site that publishes reviews of popular books, books
on tape, children's books, cookbooks, computer books, software, and DVDs and home videos. Its a great
example of an Advanced Site package. With its hundreds of pages holding the back-issues of the
monthly reviews in each category, the site has to be easy to maintain, with a straightforward and
logical structre so that readers can navigate it easily. If you want to create an information portal
website, my 25 years of experience in creating user interfaces combined with my web site designs
insures that your audience will spend more time absorbing your offerings and less time
figuring out how to find the information they're looking for.
inPacifica.com - Pacifica CA Guide
This site offers news and information about my former hometown of Pacifica, CA which is
just south of San Francisco. The site includes a searchable directory of local businesses as well
as a directory of local government offices, schools, churches, and organizations. The site's growing
popularity is a testament to the ever-increasing numbers of people who turn to the Internet as
their primary source for all kinds of information.
Rainbo Animation Art
My first website, started in 1996. This site is my flagship ecommerce web site,
and as such it serves as the proving ground for all of my e-commerce website design and search engine optimization
services. I don't use any SEO or E-Commerce technique for my clients until I've proven it to be successful on this site.
My design gave customers in over 20 countries in Europe, the Pacific Rim, and the Middle East the confidence that
they could trust us with their credit card information even though they had never heard of us. My website designs
include critical steps you need to take to convince potential customers to trust your website.
StopSPAM.inPacifica.com - Stopping SPAM
I created this simple site to help people find information on combatting some
of the plagues of this new Age of Technology. It contains information on stopping SPAM in your EMail,
stopping telemarketers, stopping computer viruses, identity theft, spyware, and adware. Its a perfect example of
my simplest design package. It only has 6 or 8 pages. It doesn't need any sophisticated support
because it just publishes information and links to other valuable sources of information.
Voices of Veterans Archive
This is a new site I just built to help a local organization promote their project in which
they interview military veterans on video. This site will be their online home for making the interviews
available online and for communicating with the veterans community. It will use a variety of web technologies
to catalog and display these video and audio recordings. It's just getting started, but they have plans to
contribute their efforts to the National Archive.
Techniprint Business Cards Online
Techniprint is a business printer in Phoenix, AZ. The owner wanted to expand
their services to local businesses to allow companies to provide online business card ordering
for their staff. I created a complete online business card design system that allows customers
to choose backgrounds and layouts from pre-built templates, or to upload their existing business
card design and order new cards to be printed. The system includes online preview of all design
changes and SSL-secure online order processing.
Alhamra Wholesale Gift Packaging
Alhamra Company is a custom wholesale packaging and printing company here in
the San Francisco Bay area. They needed an E-Commerce site that offered secure online ordering
as well as an attractive showcase for their products and services. I created the site based on
the customer's specifications, including installing a complete shopping cart system, credit card
verification system, inventory control, and contact form. The owner has suspended the site due
to a recent change of careers, but hopes to reopen soon.
Acer Limousine Service
This is another client who needed to have his existing site design refreshed
as well as search engine optimization, but had to close when his wife's job required a move. I streamlined the site's internal coding so that
it worked well with all browsers, and was more search-engine friendly. The site ranked
very well for its targeted search terms. I also added a customized online reservation form
that let clients request reservations for limousine services from anywhere in the world.
Red Oaks Trading - Altimeters.net
This client also originally wanted my search engine optimization services,
and asked for some help enhancing the appearance of his website. I took his ideas and
expanded them into a more dramatic visual effect without disturbing the factors of his own design
that were working for his business. He didn't end up using my services, but I still think my redesign
of his site is attractive.
5405 Cumberland Road
Minneapolis, MN 55410
Call me at 612-408-4057 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central time to get started today!
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