In early 1994, after 5 years at Apple Computer, Ms Dennis was granted a 6 week paid sabbatical. She joined an Earthwatch expedition in Zimbabwe where she camped in the bush and helped to track, radio collar and dehorn black rhinos in the wild. There she applied her photography and computer skills to assist in setting up a rhino hoof print database, website and expedition slide show.

Upon her return from Africa, in the winter of 1994, Black Rhino Design was officially launched, with the goal of seeking more design and website opportunities through work with corporations, non-profit organizations and small businesses.

In 1996, her first client was a local Bay Area women's sports catalog company called Title 9 Sports. Deborah convinced the company's owner to venture into the budding online shopping world and designed and built their first online presence for the web. In 1999, she upgraded their website design and ecommerce architecture.

In 1999, she launched a second self-funded trek to Southern Africa in search of the last remaining truly wild black rhinos who live with no conservation status, fences or borders in northwest Namibia She met and stayed with Save the Rhino Trust volunteers, who diligently work to save these rhinos from poachers and loss of their wilderness habitat.

Since its founding in 1994, Black Rhino Design has designed websites and provided graphics and photography services for companies in the Bay Area and around the world.

Black Rhino Design founder Deborah Dennis brings a valuable combination of design and production skills. Her career in design began at Apple Computer, where she designed, produced and illustrated print and online publications and designed an early intranet website. In 1999, she joined a silicon valley startup, which was the first web-based travel booking site, called GetThere, where she managed the production and design of travel websites for Fortune 500 clients such as American Express Travel, The Trip.com and British Airways