FREISBERG — PORTALS FROM SMÅLAND, SWEDEN

Deep woods.Good light.Large portals.

40 years of programming, 30 of them on international, multilingual portals. Built on a farm in a forest clearing, five kilometres to the nearest neighbour — and surprisingly good internet.

40

years programming

30

years multilingual portals

27

languages in the largest portal

1

person to talk to

SKOG

WHAT I DO

Whole portals. From empty directory to running service.

01

Complete portals from scratch

Concept, data model, frontend, editing tools. No half measures and no page-builder leftovers.

02

Multilingual & translation workflows

Languages that carry the structure from day one instead of being bolted on — including a workflow for whoever maintains it.

03

Databases & backend

Clean structures that still make sense after ten years and a million records.

04

SEO structure across languages

hreflang, sitemaps, proper URLs per language — so Google understands what people already do.

05

Brand, palette and illustration

Logo, palette, a picture language of its own — and everything it becomes in print and at large format. Reduced, geometric, with room to breathe.

06

Hosting & operations

Servers, updates, backups, monitoring. You get a website, not homework.

SPECIALITY

One site. Twenty-seven languages. One person.

Multilingual is where most projects get expensive — because it arrives last. I build for it from the first line.

From the start

Language lives in the data model, not in a plugin layered on afterwards.

Translating without fear

Content and translation run separately from the code. Nobody touches a file to change a word.

Fallbacks that make sense

A missing translation breaks nothing — the page falls back cleanly to the next sensible language.

Legible to Google too

Every language with its own URL, hreflang and sitemap. Otherwise only people who already know you will find you.

SPECIALITY

One palette. Every format. One hand.

Code and appearance aren't two trades here. Someone who knows the data structure designs the surface differently — and someone who drew the mark fits it into the grid more cleanly.

Palette and type

A palette that holds on screen, in print and at large format. Written down as values, not as a feeling.

Logo and brand

From the mark to the letterhead to the business card. A system everything else follows from, not a single picture.

Beyond the screen

Stationery, print, signage, vehicle and large format. The same brand, at another size and on another material.

Interface and use

How something feels, not just how it looks. Short paths, and buttons where people look for them.

This page is the example.

None of it is a mock-up: the same colour values run in the stylesheet, and the same typeface sets both the headline and the small print.

  • Paper #F5F1E6
  • Ink #161614
  • Coral #E4572E
  • Blue #2E86AB
  • Mustard #F2B33D
  • Jade #1FAA8F
  • ArchivoHeadlines, stretched to 125 % width
  • JetBrains MonoFigures, labels, marginalia

SELECTED WORK

Eight projects that actually exist.

ALL LIVE · CLICK TO OPEN

EXHIBIT 01 rail.world

Train connections worldwide

A large route database of legs, changes and night trains — kept by travellers, not by a booking engine.

Brand · Portal · Database · 27 languages

EXHIBIT 02 nachtzug.net

Every night train in one place

Timetables, compartment classes and fares for night trains worldwide. Independent, no paid placements.

Brand · Portal · Database · Operations

EXHIBIT 03 kupe.social

Journeys that cross

Finds people whose route runs parallel to yours for a while. For solo travellers, without swiping.

Brand · Illustration · Community · Operations

EXHIBIT 04 railnest.net

Sleep where the train stops

Curated places to stay within a five minute walk of the platform. Measured footpaths, not straight lines.

Brand · Website · Editorial · Operations

EXHIBIT 05 railworld.se

Railworld AB

Company site and umbrella for several rail travel platforms. Trilingual, illustrated, very tidy.

Brand · Illustration · Company site · 3 languages

EXHIBIT 06 brwa.se

Byggnads Snickare BrWa AB

A carpenter's site in Småland, Swedish and German. Small, fast, brings in enquiries.

Brand · Website · Print · Vehicle

EXHIBIT 07 skogslya.com

Architecture for animals that live outdoors

Modular wooden houses on a shared grid — sleep, connect, heat, feed. No plastic, no chemicals, no kennel.

Brand · Palette · Product site

EXHIBIT 08 weltreisebaer.de

A bear collecting countries

Travellers take him along and send a photo. New countries are entered by his owner himself — map, counter and page follow along.

Brand · Website · Maps & stats · 4 languages

ABOUT

Forty years of code, briefly.

I started when programs were still thought through on paper, because machine time was expensive. I kept the habit — it still saves the most money.

For thirty years I have built international portals: many languages, many records, many years of uptime. The company behind it is Railworld AB in Älmhult. The work usually happens somewhere else: on a remote farm, deep in the forest.

1984

First lines of code. Never stopped for longer than a few weeks since.

1996

First international portal. Multilingual becomes the through-line.

2022

Moved to Sweden. Shorter walk to the forest, longer drive to the shop.

Today

Railworld AB in Älmhult — own portals and client projects — concept to operations, all from one pair of hands.

Interested? Then write to me.

Tell me in three sentences what you have in mind. I will answer honestly whether I am the right person for it — even when the answer is no.

hej@freisberg.com

NO PHONE · USUALLY A REPLY WITHIN A DAY