Raka turned 5 today! We first formed the company on July 1, 2004, and have been going strong ever since. Thank you to all of our clients, partners, employees, families and friends for making this day possible. We look forward to the future and many more years of creating the best interactive experiences on the web.

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!

Today was our first day in our new office space at 30 Penhallow Street in Portsmouth, NH. It’s a few feet away from Market Square, the center of town, as well as very close our favorite restaurants, coffee shops, stores and waterfront. We were in our old space at Islington Street for over 3 years, so it was sad to say goodbye, but we’re very excited to be downtown in this incredible new space. It’s three times the size of our previous office, with exposed brick and beams, great architecture and lots of light. We’re going to have a great time settling into this creative environment.

The photo above is the Raka team on our last day in the old Islington Street space, just before we took down our sign. Stop by the new space and say hello soon—we’d love to show you around!

Today, Raka won a silver medal for Self Promotion in the Horizon Interactive Awards!

The award was for our very own Raka website that you’re looking at now. This international competition recognizes the best website and interactive applications each year. As always, we are thrilled for the recognition from our peers.

In 2007, Raka won a bronze award for the EDT Digital Shredder demo.

From our news item on November 11, 2004:

“…we have launched this version of our own website (which we promise to expand into a more robust presentation as soon as we can!)…”

Nearly 40 months and over 100 clients later, we have. Welcome to the new and improved Raka website! Check out the new case studies, portfolio quick views, team pages and information on all of our services.

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 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!

Another wunderkind(er) joins the fold! We’re very happy to welcome Charlie Howell, late of Bresette + Company, formerly of wunderkind studios. Charlie’s mix of fresh design, animation and 3-D chops will help propel Raka towards our goal of world domination. It was a really busy day for us, because we also launched Summer Art Circle, a new community site for summer associates at New York law firms, focused on patronage of the arts and all they have to offer in New York.

Raka is pleased to announce the addition of Zang Garside as Partner and Director of Technology for the studio. The former Director of Technology for Wunderkind Studios in Portsmouth and Alchemy Creative Studios in Boston, Zang brings over ten years of experience in interactive technology to Raka. Read more about Zang.

It’s been a busy few months for us here at Raka. We’ve worked with over 25 clients this quarter on projects ranging from logo design and branding, to total website redesigns, to Flash tours and ads. In addition to that, we have launched this version of our own website (which we promise to expand into a more robust presentation as soon as we can!) and moved into a beautiful new office space in the heart of downtown Portsmouth, NH!

We are having a great time working with our clients to bring their marketing to new levels and will have new projects to show off soon. For right now, check out this light version of our site and peruse the work we have selected to highlight – it is a general representation of some of the best work we have done in the last couple of years. There is plenty more out there, and we’ll be adding it soon, so check back often!

Back to work…