Capo Lavoro: Purveyors of Website & Web Application Design

Lincoln & Lexi – Couture Since Day One

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:55:10 +0000

Megan Fisher, enterprising 21-year-old owner of Lincoln & Lexi, a line of proprietary children’s clothing and accessories, came to us with a missing piece to her overall market entry strategic agenda: The Web. While her business will primarily work out of homes in small to medium sized gatherings, she wanted to also take hold of her own web real estate.

We designed the colors and overall schema around her logo. It conveyed rounded edges, sleek style, and a more elegant pairing of colors than one might expect from the ordinary children’s clothing line. All of these design elements came together to form an overall look that we turned into a shell to mask the powerful Wordpress blogging engine beneath.

Wordpress will allow Megan to easily update the images and text of her website on her own, a key feature request, leaving only minor graphic enhancements and style changes left to us in the future.

Eventually, online sales will become a component of Megan’s web strategy, of which will be showcased at that time. We are excited to have worked with this budding entrepreneur from our home state, we eagerly look to see how her business will unfold.

Services Utilized:

Adobe Photoshop Mockup Designs
Table-less HTML & CSS theme coding
Ajax Image Carousel
Wordpress backend engine
Affordable SMB Hosting

RSVP – Downtown, Iowa City

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:45:12 +0000

Niki Neems, owner and manager of RSVP in downtown Iowa City, came to us in need of a new fresh website, and more reliable hosting.

RSVP, purveyors of pretty paper products and sundries, had a modest website, however it was outdated and less user-friendly than desired. With a vision of creating something more direct and static, with the ability to link up to their featured associations and social media outlets for the latest info, we went to work.

The new website design contains less content, more of a mission statement than product gallery, and links directly to their Facebook and soon with live tweets from their Twitter account, displayed automatically for the latest product and sales information.

With us, RSVP also gained access to website hosting through our parent company, Immobiliere Global, LLC. This in affect doubled the amount of disk space and bandwidth allotted to them each month for visitor traffic, fileserver and email services, and also came at 1/5 of the price per month. We are currently in the process of empowering RSVP with a robust newsletter service, of which we will feature upon its completion.

Services Utilized:

Adobe Photoshop Mockup Designs
Table-less HTML & CSS coding
Javascript roll-over image affects
Newsletter System- Coming Soon

Sports Column – Downtown, Iowa City

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:02:54 +0000

Billy Bryce and Todd Barnes purchased the Sports Column Bar in downtown Iowa City in the last year, and they have been making several improvements to the space, atmosphere, and personality of the bar. With new specials, new themed nights like Country Night, a new menu of delicious food, it became apparent it was time to also make the step to the internet as well.

They came to us after hearing about our work on another local client,’s website and with a modest budget we began work.

An emphasis on ease of use, and content primarily based on upcoming news, events, and new contests such as their new “Win $25,000″ contest.

Services Utilized:

Adobe Photoshop Mockup Designs
HTML + Tableless CSS Coding
Ajax Menu Navigation
jQuery “prettyPhoto” Image Carousel
PHP + Ajax Contact form
AJAX Smooth Scrolling on menu’s

Monroeville Convention Center

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:55:19 +0000

Lance and Craig, General Manager and Director of Sales respectively, over at Monroeville’s largest convention center came to us with a task: To have a website designed, coded, and live before the New Year. The website was to portray the modern expansive feel of their center, be user friendly, and showcase upcoming events for vendors, exhibitors, and attenders. The result? See for yourself.

Services Utilized:

Adobe Photoshop Mockup Designs
HTML + Tableless CSS Coding
Ajax Menu Navigation
Ajax Image Carousel
PHP + Ajax RFP and Contact forms
Download-able service forms

M.C. Ginsberg: Nature’s Art

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:40:11 +0000

We’ve done it again: another restyling for the home page of the M.C. Ginsberg: Objects of Art of Iowa City’s website. With the seasons in transitions and the leaves changing, we felt this would be an appropriate feel for the banner image of the home page. We took a stock leaf and water droplet stock photograph, gave it some autumn amber hues, and included a simplistic ring that features the natural beauty of the diamonds alone. This should last until the winter months arrive, and the holidays are under way.

M.C. Ginsberg – FryFest Focus

admin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:09:19 +0000

Participating in the world’s largest hawkeye celebration on September 4th, M.C. Ginsberg: Objects of Art called upon us to put a FryFest focus for their jewelry and timepiece website.

FryFest, a celebration of all that is Hawkeye at the University of Iowa, has a special emphasis on former Coach Hayden Fry. The festival will be located at the Iowa River Landing in Coralville, right next to the Marriott and will feature the re-naming of 1st Avenue to Fry Way, big name bands, local retailers, celebrities from all over the nation, and even Coach Fry himself!

After contacting the FryFest team, we gained permission to utilize their logo and other graphic work to maintain the feel of the campaign for M.C. Ginsberg’s banner. To blend everything together, we mimicked the white and yellow feel of their graphics in Photoshop by putting to use a Cloud render containing these two exact color matches. Using blending tools we set the graphics as well as a picture of Coach Fry into the piece. We were sent high resolution renders of some of the custom designed jewelry that will be featured at M.C. Ginsberg’s booth at the festival, and were able to place those prominently as well.

Share Wine Lounge

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:42:07 +0000

The upcoming new hotspot off the pedestrian mall in downtown Iowa City, Share Wine Lounge & Small Plate Bistro aims to provide an elegant atmosphere, and an excellent selection of wines by the glass or by the bottle. The goal: to have a website that matches the atmosphere of the physical space, remains simplistic, and implores you to Sip, Swirl, and Share.

Update: 10/04/2009

ShareWineLounge.com now showcases the new website designed by Capo Lavoro. It features slight crosshatch side panels with black accents and a clean content container. All text is very legible in the container, and images take on new life. Some pages feature a rotating image banner, while others display a static image.

We built their new website from the ground up to be clean, simplistic, and user friendly. The website features easy navigation, emphasis on content and images, downloadable PDF formatted breakfast, lunch, dinner, and wine menus, map and driving directions, as well as an online reservations form for easy dining accommodations.

Services Utilized

Table-less HTML/CSS coding
AJAX image rotator
Photoshop graphic manipulation for the banner and navigation bar
PHP coding for contact us form + online reservations feature
Hosting provided by our Server Farm in Chicago

Hotel Vetro

admin — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:15:51 +0000

Going on four years since a major update to their website, Hotel Vetro: Studio Suites and Conference Center decided it was time to get a new look and feel.

They wanted something new, something sophisticated to match their metropolitan feel, something fresh. They are going to get all that and more, with Capo Lavoro.

More Coming Soon.

Update: 08/31/2009

HotelVetro.com now reflects the new website designed by Capo Lavoro. It features an elegant background schema that coincides with their logo, a fading image reel on each page featuring highlights of their amenities, and a sliding pull-down menu at the top of any given page allowing quick access to booking information.

We built their new website from the ground up to be on par with their physical location in terms of style, with a large emphasis on increasing visitor usability. We increased the the size and visibility of the navigation menu, put photos center-stage with smooth fading between each, and made it a snap for their web visitors to make a reservation from any page.

Services Utilized

Table-less HTML/CSS coding
AJAX image reel and pull-down menu
Photoshop graphic manipulation for the menu and navigation bar
Graphic design for Iowa City Info image reel + Romance Package design
PHP coding for contact us form
Hosting provided by our

M.C. Ginsberg Summer of the Arts Revamp

admin — Thu, 28 May 2009 19:16:38 +0000

Desiring another scheduled revamp, M.C. Ginsberg’s in downtown Iowa City decided it’s time to bring on that summer vibe! They commissioned us to provide the banner for their jewelry and art for the body website.

Using Adobe Photoshop, we created a warm harvest feel background with bright text that matches the Iowa City Summer of the Arts colors. We created a green band behind the text to give it more emphasis. To bring the focus back to the fact that this location specializes in antique jewelry and custom jewelry design, we through in some large loose gems and diamonds.

Wilson’s Apple Orchard – Take A Walk, Eat An Apple

admin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:23:53 +0000

Wilson’s Apple Orchard, run by the Goering family, is an icon to the local communities from the young of age to the old. Wilson’s Apple Orchard is one of the first field trips that many local students can remember, and the fresh produce they offer is top quality. They were ready to take the plunge into the world wide web and we were ready to help every step of the way.

We did the full immersion set, including:

website design
coding
AJAX user interface enhancements
PHP contact form

They now have a full web presence, simplistic and more brochure in function showing clientele what they offer, how, why, and a method of getting in contact.

Having a website can be one of the most profitable decisions you undertake for your business, increasing the awareness and being able to offer new and different types of services based on an internet-saavy customer base. If you are considering making the plunge, we invite you to take a look at examples of our work like what we have done for the Wilson’s Apple Orchard! We are ready to assist you in every way to make your transition to the web more enjoyable.