The new year at Dynamo has already gotten off to a great start. We’ve got some great projects in the pipeline (you’ll be finding out about those soon), we’re making strides on our work-in-progress, and we’re busy planning our annual team retreat in February. With this planning comes a chance to reflect on what we have accomplished in 2009 as well as what opportunities lie ahead. Since we had a number of significant milestones in 2009, I thought I’d share a few of my favourite with you.

We launched the Dynamo blog. We had been searching for a better way to let visitors to our site “inside” the studio - and for our team to be able to have a proper voice online. Launching the blog has allowed us to capture and post information as it happens, in a less formal manner then a typical site. Creating our own blog also allowed us to fully develop our custom blogging engine, which has allowed us to enrich our interactive offering and toolset.

We got into e-commerce in a big way. Though we had executed online donation forms and integrated third-party solutions before, 2009 marked the year that Dynamo launched our first fully integrated, feature-rich e-commerce solution. The best part about it was that we were able to hold true to our design-centric mentality and not sacrifice creative for functionality. The first example of this, Yellow Bird Project, has already led to major online recognition and a number of other e-commerce projects now on the go (and coming down the pipe).

We embraced open-source development. Most of our web work this year was built in Ruby on Rails, and our e-commerce work on the ‘Spree’ framework. We’ve been able to reap the benefits of open source related to cost and community, and we’ve given back with a number of extensions and plugins that have helped other developers around the world. 

We hired some amazing people. We created a real emphasis on customer service and industry knowledge with the creation of our first senior Account Director position, and we found just the right person to fill it: Fréderique Lefebvre. Fred brings with her years of experience in online marketing and relationship management, and we couldn’t be happier about Dynamo’s progress in this regard. We also created a new Senior Designer position, and after interviewing a full slate of great people, we were overjoyed to welcome the incredibly talented Jenna Holcombe (direct from Philly!) to our team. We also had our most successful stage experience yet, deciding to pluck Guillaume Bourousse (‘Boris’ to most of you) from the bowels of Project Management interndom and make him a full-fledged Dynamonian. All of the new team members have made major contributions to Dynamo’s success (and the success of our clients) all year long.

LOOKING AHEAD...

In terms of work, we’re already knee-deep in a number of great projects ranging from interactive strategy for a large non-profit to some exciting e-commerce work across the border. As part of our commitment to innovation, we’ll be releasing a number of iPhone apps over the year (some for clients, some as part of in-house development), and we’ll continue complement our web initiatives with full-spectrum, online and offline communications tools - from interactive strategy, social media campaigns, brand identity, packaging, printed collateral and advertising.

In 2010, we’ll be marking Dynamo’s official ten-year anniversary. We’re still in discussions about what kind of event will be most appropriate (and most fun), so stay tuned to the blog to find out more.

With a wonderful year in the rear-view mirror, we couldn’t be more energized about what lies ahead. Thanks to everyone who made it possible.

Alex - Dynamo's Interactive Director.
Alex's holistic mission at Dynamo is to push the team to create beautiful, usable work online, and to exploit new technological and experiential avenues. He is preoccupied with keeping the studio at the forefront of an industry travelling at light speed.