As we approach the fifth calendar year in which Raka has existed (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and soon 2008!), we have been reflecting on 2007 and some of the great projects that went out our doors. From our continuing relationship with VIA to our newer relationships with Hill Holliday, Kemp Goldberg, Fenway Sports Group and other great agencies, we’ve been able to work with some great teams and clients on a multitude of projects. Other clients, like HomeGoods, CA, Water Street, White Rock Distilleries, Proxy Networks, StudyPoint and the Fit Report have all made major impacts on us this year and helped us to achieve a larger level of growth than ever before.

As we say goodbye to 2007 and hello to the possibilities of 2008, we want to take a minute to thank everyone with whom we have worked. We learned something from each engagement and hope that we were able to help make your marketing communications as successful as possible. We’ll see you in 2008!

Raka launched a new Flash microsite for HomeGoods this month, with the mission to give customers ideas on what to get for the different types of people on their holiday shopping list. It was a very fun project and the end result is one of our most complex sites ever.

Check it out in our portfolio!

Raka launched a new website for StudyPoint today that showcases their services as well as their new name and brand. The site is complete with a Flash map, interactive timeline and blog, as well as pages for each local office.

Additionally, we launched some banners for Cognos, which we completed with our partner Hill Holliday, based on the national campaign that they’re rolling out at this time. We have also unveiled some new TD Banknorth banner ads and are making some updates to Harvard Pilgrim’s blog “Let’s Talk Healthcare”.

In August, Matt Barry joined us as a full time developer and this month also saw the addition of Aimee Hillebrand as a full time designer on the Raka team. Welcome aboard Matt and Aimee!

In the last few weeks we have been hard at work over here at Raka. In addition to launching a new website for Northview Hotel Group in mid-July, Raka today launched a new website for Proxy Networks. Each site had a different focus, goal and industry to appeal to, yet each engagement was met with the same proven process that we use on each project we take on. New updates to the back-end administration system for PromoCentric have been launched, as well. We completed an overhaul of the content on Fertility Centers of New England, to make it more search engine optimized (Google rankings immediately improved upon launching the changes). Several homepage animations for HomeGoods have been created by Raka as we continue our relationship with TJX, and we continue to make updates to the Company C website. We’re hard at work on new websites, animations, demos and brands, so check back soon for more news!

Raka won a Horizon Interactive Award for the EDT Digital Shredder Demo that we created. Using Flash, video and custom 3D modeling and animation, we created a cohesive presentation that goes through the benefits of the Digital Shredder and its applications for corporations and the United States government. We are very excited by the recognition from this international competition.

Additionally, we launched two Flash pieces for TJX on their HomeGoods.com website. Integrating video and imagery proved to be a challenge with file size, but we pulled it off without a hitch and created serene, inviting animations that create the perfect mood for HomeGoods shoppers.

We also created a custom design and web application for Access MediQuip, the “first, largest and most experienced national provider of outsourced medical implantable device management solutions to the healthcare industry.”

Also, we updated our portfolio to reflect some of the more recent projects we have been working on. Check out the new stuff!

Things are heating up despite the weather getting colder than it was in January! Recently, we’ve launched animated banners for Analog Devices, DuPont, Hood and Rosenberger’s Dairies. We also launched a website with VIA called Kick Start Maine (funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), aimed at getting kids thinking about college sooner rather than later. We also created an animated online contest for Heluva Good. We delivered an animated tutorial presentation to Heinemann Publishing and launched a new website for United Staging & Rigging, as well as a revised version of Vigilant’s 3D wine cellar design application. We created a CD-ROM version of the successful Freedom MedTEACH application that we designed for Freedom Fertility Pharmacy and Serono. We’re continuing to work with Brandeis University, the Franklin Pierce Law Center, PromoCentric, the VIA Group and others and will have new portfolio pieces to show off soon! Happy Spring!

So far in the first quarter of 2007, we have produced some of our most diverse (and fun!) projects ever. This month, new sets of animated rich media banners for TD Banknorth were sent out from here to the world. On top of that, we animated a case study for the VIA Group detailing the work they did for Infinity Broadcasting. We launched a new site called the Fit Report, a unique fashion business headed by Don Witkowski, CEO of Sixty USA and a former President of Donna Karan, Michael Kors and Nautica. We also have a lot more projects launching in the next few days, so check back soon…

Happy New Year! This month we launched a CD-ROM for Guardian Industries as well as a banner campaign for Heluva Good and also created an HTML email for Bowen Advisors. We’re just about ready to deliver two websites that we created for Brandeis University and we just signed on to create the new website for the Franklin Pierce Law Center. 2007 is off and running!