For the holidays, Raka designed a Flash game that is fun for all ages. Dan, our creative director, has a little bit of a problem when it comes to collecting iPods and the boxes they come in. With that in mind, we decided it would be appropriate to help him get his iPods organized digitally and at the same time have some addicting fun. Play it at www.rakacreative.com/holiday and have a safe and happy holiday season!

For the second year in a row, Raka developed and animated a holiday microsite for HomeGoods that showcases the best gifts for the type of person for whom you’re shopping. Built in Flash with fun animations throughout, the site allows users to click on “cards” to open them and find savings and gift ideas. The information and images within the cards is dynamic and can be controlled by HomeGoods by editing a simple file themselves. Take a look at this HomeGoods Gift Giving website and have fun getting some good gift ideas!

Raka recently helped launch a new campaign for the VIA Group. To correspond with some huge outdoor ads in SoHo in NYC, we built an interactive take-over of their website, complete with a video player, magnifier to look at the ads, an RSS feed styled to look like graffiti, and a new website called “The Water Cooler“. This viral site, which can be found at www.openwatercooler.com, is meant to be a platform to start a conversation. Users can anonymously post thoughts, questions, answers, jokes, or whatever they want in an uncensored environment. Built in Flash and written in ActionScript 3 with a MySQL database, Raka architected the application from the ground up and ensured stability and speed of loading, even when a great many people are connected. The site was a hit and gained a lot of interest, helped in part by a shout-out about the campaign in the New York Times.

Working with Liberty Mutual’s marketing team, Raka developed the homepage for Liberty Mutual’s corporate website. Challenges like a short timeline, the constraints of their content management system and tying in our front-end applications (like the Quote accordion system on the right side of the page) with their back-end system did not deter us from launching a great site on time with some advanced functionality. Our role included the HTML, CSS and Javascript programming, Flash animation and ActionScript programming, and elements of design. Check out the new homepage here!

Raka recently launched an interactive tool called “Perfect Match” for Pearson, the second largest publisher in the world. The microsite is designed to help users find an educational book on a particular subject after answering several questions. Driven dynamically by XML, with the ability to be edited by Pearson staff, the interactive sales tool is simple, effective and makes it easy for educators to get information on the subject they’re most interested in, and then access Pearson’s existing online store to buy the book at the end of the process. See it in action here.

This week, Raka launched a new website for Locum Leaders. A clean, corporate look is enhanced with vibrant photography centered around the theme of travel. “Locum tenens” is a term used for physicians who are temporarily filling a position. Locum Leaders helps fill these positions with doctors who are looking to spend time somewhere new (winters in Florida, summers in Seattle, etc.) while still doing what they do best.

After building a brochure site, we then styled dynamic content pulled from a third-party database through a web service and gave the ability for Locum Leaders’ clients to view current jobs, apply for them or contact Locum Leaders for more information. Some smooth and simple Flash animation completes the homepage, while some carefully configured search engine optimization will help make sure that everybody looking for locum tenens positions will find Locum Leaders. Take a look at www.locumleaders.com to see our latest launch!

Raka recently completed our role in the development of the new Liberty Mutual corporate website at www.libertymutualgroup.com. Working with the Liberty Mutual marketing team as well as their advertising agency Hill Holliday, Raka played many roles in the completion of the new website. We handled programming of all the HTML pages, other technical development, design and Flash animation, all within the confines of their existing content management system, and every time we delivered within tight time constraints and technical limitations.

Additionally, we have recently worked on Flash pieces for the Liberty Mutual main site at www.libertymutual.com, and our design, development and animation skills were also put to task on their Coach of the Year and Responsibility Project websites. We look forward to our continued relationship with the great team over at Liberty Mutual.

Raka recently completed an interactive presentation for computer giant Dell. Working with Dell’s agency Hill Holliday, Raka animated several screens that walk the user through several website processes. Housed within a custom XML-driven shell that Raka built, the presentation can be easily updated for additional chapters, or to remove outdated ones.

We also designed an animated version of Dell’s wave of lines, a large part of their brand in recent months. Using traditional animation coupled with advanced ActionScript code to control the flowing of the animation, the wave of lines ads texture to the background while screenshots, stock photography, navigation and explanatory text stays in the front as the main focus of the piece. Once completed, the piece was delivered to end users on a USB key that contained all the elements of our application, set to launch automatically when inserted into a computer’s USB drive.

This week Raka launched a new Flash website for TMS Architects. Using a custom content management system, the TMS team can update the news, copy, and portfolio images without any technical knowledge, even handling the final cropping and sizing of photos through a simple web interface. With sleek animation, smooth transitions and a focus on large photography of their beautiful work, the new TMS website will showcase with style this talented firm’s architectural achievements. You can view the new website at www.tmsarchitects.com.

Launched today, Raka designed, animated, developed and wrote the script for an interactive presentation and a set of banner ads for Nuance’s PDF Converter 5 software. The interactive presentation can be viewed here and is a great example of Raka’s creative and technical teams coming together to create a beautiful, usable and functional piece that drives home the our clients’ messaging. Complete with text animation, video, voice over and tours of the software’s features, this engaging demonstration will become a new showcase piece for both Raka and Nuance.