Hyper Island Official Blog

Interview: "eCommerce will be frictionless and as simple as possible."

2012-01-25T12:06:00.001+01:00

We sat down with Jarno Vanhatapio, founder & creative director at nelly.com and Richard Woodbridge, sales manager på nelly.com and founder of members.com to pick their brains on eCommerce.

Who are you?

Jarno - I am the founder of nelly.com, today I work at the company as Creative Director. Before that I was actually working as a construction worker.

Michael - I am sales manager at nelly.com and founder of members.com. I have a background within online gaming.

What's up and coming in eCommerce at the moment?

Jarno - Mobile is the number 1 thing, it's here now and it's gaining ground.

Micheal - What we do with members, flash-sales. It's grown in US and Europe, and now it has reached the Nordics. Flash-sales is usually time-limited and volume-limited. A great offer, and a very reduced price.

What is the one most important thing within entrepreneurship to you?

J - Stamina. To be able to do boring stuff, that needs to be done, and not only the fun stuff.

M - Engagement and dedication, that is the single most important thing!

What single advice would you give to start ups within eCommerce today?

J - It's not what you think it is. Go in with an open mind.

M - Think big.

Predicting the future is always difficult - but if you would say one thing regarding the eCommerce industry in 5 years what would it be?

J - Frictionless, in every way. Payments and distribution will be as easy as possible. You will be able to make the purchase wherever and whenever.

M - The simpicity, everything will be very very easy. eCommerce will also take over more of the traditional retailing.

Jarno & Michael are working with our eCommerce Business program in a module right now!

"Focus On Mobile" Master Class in London

2012-01-16T17:34:00.001+01:00

Hyper Island is proud to introduce an exclusive Mobile Master Class for those working in traditional media (e.g. TV, Radio, Film, and Production.)

The course is taking place in London on 26-28 March, 2012. During these intense three days, you will explore how Mobile is impacting creativity, communication, and the way digital audiences work today.

This Master Class is subsidized by the European Commission (MEDIA) which means that the cost of attending for the 3 days has been heavily reduced to €999 (this includes hotel, breakfast and lunch.)

Besides having a great learning experience, this is an excellent opportunity to meet with like-minded individuals from all over Europe and to exchange best practice ideas and learnings.

Limited availability. Learn more and register here.

Campaign Magazine Master Class Diary

2012-01-12T15:14:00.003+01:00

Katherine Levy at Campaign Magazine (twitter) joined Hyper Island’s Tailor-made Boot Camp Master Class with LBi and wrote about the experience. Head over to our Master Class site to read about her experience (direct PDF link for the busy/lazy here)!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+01:00

Merry X-mas!

2011-12-24T12:12:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from everyone at Hyper Island!

Meet Design Strategist Drew Smith of Creative Mornings/London

2011-12-21T10:39:00.000+01:00

To stay ahead of your game, you need to constantly transform yourself. Meet Drew Smith, an Australian guy who dreamt about being a car designer and became a brand strategist. Now based in the UK, he works at the consultancy Sense Worldwide and runs CreativeMornings/London.

What is your background/who are you?

I grew up in Sydney, Australia knowing from a very young age -try 6- that I wanted to be a car designer. Given that my mum’s an artist and my dad’s an engineer, it was pretty much a certainty that I was going to become a designer!

After high-school, I did a degree in industrial design and moved to the UK in 2005 to do my Masters in Automotive Design. After graduating I went to work in an automotive design strategy consultancy in Germany before landing my dream job at Sense Worldwide, a creative strategic consultancy in London.

Tell us about Sense Worldwide!

At Sense, our clients often come to us with a problem –communications, branding, product or even with their entire business- and have no idea where to start on solving it. First, we help them properly define what the problem is and what a successful outcome is. Then using a people-centered approach we embark on a creative journey to find a successful solution, taking our clients on this journey with us.

What do you think is significant for the industry today?

In the last 12 months, we’ve been looking beyond simply offering innovation consultancy to our clients; innovating within a category is simply the cost of business these days. Now clients are realizing that they need to be more than just excellent, they need to change or transform the conversation that’s going on in their sector to stay ahead. Iterative improvement is no longer enough; transformation and creative destruction is what’s really driving the market leaders.

What is innovation to you?

Innovation is one of those words that’s used a lot these days. Walk into any bookstore and you’ll see hundreds of books on the topic. To me it’s being as excellent as you can be in your category through constantly refining your. Innovation is constantly testing new ideas, breaking them and rebuilding them in a way that allows you to be a category leader.

What do you think young talent is looking for in companies today?

From a personal perspective, I think it's the kind of organizations that recognize that the way we express ourselves and, therefore, our creative output is incredibly varied. Working in an organization that is responsive to this is incredibly important for morale and for building the kind of flexible, dynamic and project-specific teams that will suit clients best.

I also think that, increasingly, it’s the agencies that offer a truly bespoke, project-specific approach to defining methodologies, strategies and deliverables that are going to be most attractive to young talent. It helps satisfy our urge for creative exploration and also appeals enormously to clients who are disenchanted with the sausage-factory approach that some agencies fall into the trap of.

Finally, agencies that respect our external activities and welcome them into the work environment are winners. In my case I run an event called CreativeMornings/London and Sense Worldwide provide some sponsorship towards the event and allow me a bit of time to build the CreativeMornings presence in London. It helps me maintain a broader perspective on creative practice and also helps develop the networks that Sense draws upon for its work. It’s a win-win situation.

What kind of leadership or what kind of leader do you think the industry will need in the future?

In my experience, where young creatives need the most leadership is in helping them see the big picture. Universities tend to allow students to wallow in the detail of what interests them and they become masters of detail. This is a great attribute when working towards the thorough understanding of culture that can lead to breakthrough strategies. But when you have a finite period of time or budget to develop and deliver a grounded strategy, you need to be able to extrapolate that detail into a long-term vision. It’s this big picture thinking that’s so valuable in agency leadership.

Also, I think that now more than ever, the ability to provide ongoing mentorship is crucial. We need leaders that can continue to educate young creatives by example. A university education leaves so many creatives not fully formed and lacking the confidence to be as great as they can be. By passing on the passion and experience that has elevated our leaders to where they are today, they give the new generation the confidence to step up and maximize their potential.

What’s your favorite car brand?

I swear that this has nothing to do with the fact that you guys are Swedish but my first two cars were Volvo! They had a brand that resonated so strongly with me, one built on a subtle, beautiful functionality. Their old cars like the PVs, 140s and 240s are not sexy but there’s a profound level of consideration inherent in their design which is deeply attractive. More recently they’re an example of how a brand can completely lose their way (the recent S60/V60 models) and make a triumphant return to what made them great (the Concept Universe).

Meet Crafted Buddies

2011-12-14T17:11:00.001+01:00

Today we are featuring Crafted Buddies that is a company evolved out of a Hyper Island project.

Katarina Nilsson, Shumeng Ye, Josefin Bergman & Julia Schierbeck

Hi Crafted Buddies! Who are you?

Hi Hyper Island! Crafted Buddies is owned by us four girls, and we are producing ecological leather cases for iPhones, iPads and Laptops. Our goal is to create sustainable products that will represent an antipode to the fast fashion that is dominating today. The aim is to create products that will become a dear item for the consumer. Hopefully it will become as dear to you as a real buddy!

How has the response been so far?

We have gotten some really good response from the market. People seem to really appreciate the simplicity in our design and our sustainable values, which makes us really happy! We launched our webshop the 29^th of November and had our first sale only 10 minutes after launch!

And your cases are tweeting, what is this all about?

That is correct! Every model of our cases is having their own Twitter account. Since all our cases are handmade after the customer's order, we wanted them to be able to follow this process closer. If the customers leave their name on Twitter when they order on our site, they will receive a tweet from the product when it is entering a new step in the production and logistics process. Don’t think our products can get more social than this! It’s been fun to integrate and use social media in a new way, and the customers have found this very entertaining!

What is your next step?

Next step for us is trying to get awareness around Crafted Buddies on the market. We’ve just launched so we still have a lot of work to do in order of getting the brand known! But we are really looking forward to take on the challenge!

Visit Crafted Buddies to view their products, and find them on Facebook or Twitter!

Hyper Island's 10k On Twitter

2011-12-13T10:33:00.000+01:00

November 10 was a big day! We got our 10k friend @hyperisland's Twitter. Of course, we had to celebrate this with a cake - personally delivered to Armando Ceron by Jaclyn Ciamillo.

Tell us about yourself:

I'm an LA native that went to Art Center to pursue my interests in advertising. As a Sr.Integrated Art Director + Designer, I develop ideas for major brands into experiences that captivate and entertain audiences across multiple digital, social, and integrated platforms. I've worked with various ad agencies, production companies, and client side consulting. My client list includes brands like K-SWISS, Carl's Jr., HTC, Konami, 2K Sports, Porsche, Alfa Romeo, BMW, Lincoln, and Warner Bros to name a few.

What are you looking to accomplish with your work?

Everyday I strive to create ideas, not ads.

How did it feel to be Hyper Island's "10K" on Twitter?

I heard of Hyper Island when I was at Art Center. So naturally I followed them on Twitter. What do you know, I was the 10,000th follower. To my surprise I was contacted by Jaclyn who told me that I would receive a special gift from Hyper Island. She said she would travel to LA to personally deliver this special gift. I must admit, it was the most delicious Creme Brulee cake I've ever had. The bonus surprise was meeting Jaclyn in person, she's a gem.

Thanks Hyper Island for the coolest gift a loyal fan could get.

Mikael Keussen - Mobile Application Graduate

2011-12-07T17:42:00.001+01:00

Today our first class from the Mobile Applications Program graduates. We had a chat with Mikael Keussen, one of the students.

How are you doing today?

I'm feeling great! It's been a lot of fun during the last 3 days, meeting everyone again since we haven't seen each other during the internship. I feel really motivated about the future.

The first day we had presentations about our internships. It was very interesting, especially when you compare them from hyper island way week last year. The difference in the skills and how much we all developed. Yesterday we had reflection and wrap up, looking back on the whole time at Hyper Island. Today we had the ceremony with champagne, talking about all the fun from the last year.

Where did you do your internship?

So, I started at Storify, a start-up in San Francisco in May. Within 3-4 weeks I was working as a full time employee. In September I took a job offer from a company called Prismatic. At Prismatic I'm the only designer and I work with webb, iphone and ipad applications. Prismatic is a fun way to browse and share news with your friends.

What is your strongest memory from the last 60 weeks?

I think I have 3 really good memories.

- The first one was in the module "mobile business", focused on news and publishing for mobile - that's when I realized that I wanna focus on part of the industry! The two companies that I worked at so far are working within this area.

- Then presentations at the end, to see what my classmates has been up to during the internships.

- Lastly, It's my current job. I couldn't be more happy with the job and the position that I am at now.

How would you sum up your hyper island experience?

I would say that its been a great journey, I came here thinking I would be a visual designer, now visual design is just a small part of my job. All the people that I've met, my classmates. A lot of them are friends for life. Being in Karlskrona, you kinda get a 3 year education in one year and I think thats amazing!

What are you doing now that you are graduating?

Going back to San Francisco in a week, continue working with Prismatic and get ready to to launch the product we are building.

Congrats Mikael & Mobile Applications!

72 Hours For Peace - Teaser

2011-12-07T15:24:00.001+01:00

72 Hours for Peace is a Creative Commons database featuring ideas for positive global change. The event, involving 300+ Hyper Island students during 3 days, was documented and here is the teaser movie for the full event documentary.

Meet Adam - a Student at Hyper Island Manchester

2011-12-06T10:07:00.001+01:00

A short interview with Adam Peerbaccus about his experience at Hyper Island in Manchester. Read more about our Manchester Program Interactive Media Management on our Programs site.

TweetBeat.it - The Story Behind the Magic Tweet Beat Machine

2011-12-01T16:37:00.001+01:00

What is TweetBeat?

TweetBeat is a magic machine that turns your tweets into musical beats. For the best experience, log-in to your Twitter account or alternatively you can search #hashtags and @usernames to listen to the unique music heartbeat of each single tweet.

Why did you do it?

Tweets and social media check-in are fast becoming ingrained in our social behavior, ranking up there with traditional forms of produced content much as recording videos and pictures. We relive old memories by looking at old videos and photos but tweets however, due to their rapid half life are often quickly drowned and forgotten in the clutter.

TweetBeat’s aim is to let you experience tweets in more than mere word forms, giving them more of a reason to be remembered.

How?

By searching through a database of keywords, TweetBeat analyzes the mood of each tweet and if it matches our lists, an unique beat will be assigned to the tweet. Try search for different mood keywords .e.g. "Happy", "Sad" , "Confused" & "Angry" etc.

What was the group’s key learning experience?

The culture today has moved from talking to doing and borrowing a leaf out of a start up model, our processes included a constant feedback loop internally and externally with the goal of rapidly building a working prototype within 4 weeks from concept to execution.

How has the response been so far?

It's been great, we did this because we just wanted to make something. There have been some buzz on Twitter since we launched. We received traffic from all over the world including many from agencies. It has been a fantastic learning experience and would like to thank all the support and feedback we have gotten along the way.

A Digital Media Final Project Made by:

Emil Hagbo

Mattis Forsman (@mattisforsman)

Tre Wee (@primaryfuture)

Simon Granath (@notesywhnitshrd)

Get This Viral Out of My System

2011-11-30T15:24:00.001+01:00

Is anyone else tired of the word "viral"? Anybody? Bueller?

In my circle, using that horrid word is a red flag for someone who just doesn't "get" digital. I think it's because the word's origin has to do with viruses.

As we know, viruses spread between people like wildfire (whether we like it or not!) If we really reflect on the way the internet works, we find that viral is one of the worst words we could be using to describe this phenomenon.

Content of any kind has no inherent "virility" - a piece of content would stay in the long tail of garbage on the 'net without a conscious decision to share it. It takes someone discovering it, loving it, and choosing to send it to friends that makes it go anywhere at all.

When clients ask you for a "viral" video, it's important to temper expectations and ask a lot of questions. Nothing... no, no amount of cute kittens will guarantee your stuff gets looked at on the internet. (Unless you buy views, which means your content probably sucks anyway. Not to mention it's inauthentic.)

How Things Spread on the Internet

There are some things you can do to up your chances of going "viral." (It even feels gross typing that word.)

The first is to understand why people share things. MIT/USC scholar Henry Jenkins talks about a few things your content needs to do to get some digital love.

It must:

1) Strengthen my bond

2) Define our collective identity

3) Give me status

Know your audience and hit one of those three. The other way to up your chances is to allow the content to be spreadable. A bad idea would be to host a video on your own website. Nobody goes there and nobody cares. A better idea would be to host your video on YouTube and embed it in your website. An even better idea would be to find out where your audience likes to watch videos and host it there. And if you don't know all the hipsters are on Vimeo, then I really can't help you. Be transparent. Focus on relationships. Make content that feels good to your audience first, not you.

And stop saying viral, jeez.

Written by Hyper Island's Learning Designer Amy Rae - get in touch by email or on Twitter.

The Future of Advertising - Cindy Gallop at IAB Master Class, Paris

2011-11-29T16:50:00.001+01:00

Hyper Island and IAB France (Interactive Advertising Bureau) held a conference in November 2011 and Cindy Gallop spoke about the Future of Advertising.

Hyper Island Speaker Francois Grouiller - More Value & Convenience - Less "Flashturbation"

2011-11-28T10:38:00.001+01:00

Who are you & what do you do?

I'm Francois, a brand strategist with a digital background (and, I hope, a creative mind). I'm from France, but I've been living for 8 years in the US. I work as a global brand strategy director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco (but I miss New York everyday).

What is creativity to you?

I think the biggest misconception regarding creativity is that it is a gift, something that only a few people have. That's not true. I think we're all creative, but some people just don't use this great asset, because of fear I guess, or maybe because they are too conservative: they don't allow themselves to play with and recombine their thoughts. I mean, everyone has imagination - and that's really the ground base you can build your creativity on. The only difference is that some people learn to train, liberate and apply their imagination, and some people don't - they keep it locked inside their head. That said, not all creative people are created equal: the most creative people in the world express their creativity in new, outstanding, brilliant ways. They have the ability connect the dots to surprise us. My belief is that in an agency, everybody, from the strategist to the receptionists, has to be creative - at least, that's how the best agencies work.

What is innovation to you?

I think innovation is the new frontier in advertising. We're shifting from just being creative to being innovative - it's the new holy grail. In our industry, the goal was to be the most creative and the most clever. Today it's not enough. Today, we want to be the most innovative and ingenious, and we want to re-invent, push the boundaries of what advertising is. By innovation, I mean "applied creativity" with a desire to make things and strive to actually improve people's lives beyond just crafting cute, funny messages. We must help brands make people's lives more meaningful. Innovation is about combining things differently, ingeniously - actually doing things. It's more exciting than old-school creativity, because it's creativity plus something else. It makes us do real progress. While old-school creativity is fun for a moment, new-school innovation has a longer lasting effect.

You say that competition is fierce today in the advertising industry - what do you think this means for young talent entering the industry?

I think there are two sides to this question. For students who are looking for a job, it's hard to get attention from CDs. You need to find new ways, develop your portfolio. The best portfolios are usually very diverse portfolios, that show agility across media, genres, clients, and more. They must show how good you are, but also the width and depth of your skills. The second thing is: how do we help brands communicate and get people's attention, when the competition for attention is more intense. The key here is what some bright thinkers call "return on attention". The principle is simple: since you won't have a lot of attention from consumers, how do you maximize the reward they get in the short attention window they give you. And also, how do you minimize their effort and maximize the rewarding aspect of the experience? I think that's the biggest challenge right now, together with the adoption of all the new platforms out there. I call that other challenge "invent for the context". This is basically a way to say that

ingenuity doesn't just apply in an absolute world. It must be considered "in context", keeping in mind the rules and behaviors native to the specific platform the idea will live in: you can't engage on Facebook like you do on a microsite, or on Twitter, or on Tumblr. It's going to create a new level of complexity to bring our ideas to life. Finally, we need to bring more value and convenience in the experiences: we can't afford to spam people with long loading time, or 3 minute "flashturbation" intro on microsite (with no "skip the intro" button of course). It might be impressive to us, but it's not what people are looking for.

What are the key considerations when building brands for the future?

They are couple of them: first, it will help you focus if your brand has a clear purpose in the world. Once you have that, it's about making an impact, evoking a feeling, in a short period of time - when you get people's attention.

The other thing you need is an "editorial angle" - which is a way to create coherence versus consistency (since consistency is impossible to achieve on so many diverse social platforms). Once you have an editorial angle for your brand, you don't need to script everything. You can adapt to Facebook, Twitter & Tumblr, be reactive and contextual, while never loosing your coherence. So agencies should help brands stop being obsessed with consistency, and start inventing for the context. That means we all need to reinvent the old advertising process - both on the agency and the client sides.

Francois Grouiller recently spoke about "Celebrating the Hacking Spirit" for Hyper Island's Students in Stockholm.

Adidas 40h Brief

2011-11-25T15:16:00.001+01:00

Earlier this fall, Adidas worked with our Digital Media students for a 40h brief/contest. Here's what happened:

Creative Task 2012 Is Released

2011-11-24T22:44:00.001+01:00

Our Creative Task for Programs starting fall 2012 is out and you'll find it on our Programs site.

72 Hours For Peace Ideas Are Online

2011-11-18T16:58:00.001+01:00

It's been 72 intense hours and the Creative Commons database with ideas from the Hyper Island students in Stockholm & Karlskrona is now live! Check it out!

Hyper Island Students Work With CP+B For World Peace

2011-11-16T12:14:00.001+01:00

Today marks the start for 72h for Peace - a project with all Hyper Island students in Karlskrona and Stockholm working with Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Read more about the brief at the site 72hoursforpeace.se and follow the work process live on Twitter (#72hpeace).

Featured in:
Dagens Media
Resumé
Business & Leadership
Hello You Creatives
Agency Spy
Creativity Online
Fast Company

Hyper Island's Learning & Concept Designer Roger Sjögren on His Role

2011-11-15T11:00:00.001+01:00

Watch Hyper Island's Learning & Concept Designer Roger talk about his role and our new program Learning Designer and Facilitator (at our programs site).

Have a Look Inside the Hyper Brain

2011-11-14T11:08:00.001+01:00

Have a look inside the brain of a Hyper Island student at thehyperbrain.com featuring a couple of beautiful videos where students talk about their Hyper Island experience.

A student project by:
Sandra Stadelmann @s_stadelmann
Richard Herries @richardherries
Ana Cecilia Boman @anaceciliaboman
Patrik Lythell @patriklythell
Matilda Dackevall @matildackevall
Johanna Wignell @johannawignell
Gian Carlo Belleza

Interactive Media Management Students Catches Milk Thieves

2011-11-08T13:20:00.001+01:00

Four Hyper Island students at the Interactive Media Management program in Manchester have created a tool to catch milk thieves after experiencing problems at Hyper Island's Manchester campus.

Visit Milk Busters and learn more!

The Team:
James Peacefull
Olga Medennikova
Dan Grocock
Mitchell Pierce

Digital Media Students Builds Bridges Between Traditional Magazines & Digital

2011-11-07T11:58:00.000+01:00

During the Final Project for Digital Media 2012, before going on internships, a group consisting of six students was asked to help Condé Nast to create new experiences for two of their leading magazines, GQ and Vogue. The students developed concepts that would bring the magazines into the future of using digital tools and social media.

Vogue Enhanced

For Vogue the students created a concept to bridge the analog and digital reading experience of the magazine, without altering the existing magazine. Utilizing augmented reality and the wide spread of smart phones, the students wanted to add value and introduce new tools to a hard to reach target group. They created an augmented reality mobile application with connection to social networks, e-commerce and videos.

View more of the project: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Vogue-Enhanced/2371852

What's Your GQ IQ?

For GQ the students aimed to improve the magazine's status in social media with an online game that allows the user to measure their manliness against their GQ IQ. The user is faced with questions, challenges and scenarios which shapes the interactive story and makes the game highly personalized. The user also connects with Facebook to gather data which is used throughout the whole story.

View more of the project: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Whats-Your-GQ-IQ/2371700

The Team

Christoffer Lorang Dahl

Richard Hedberg - @richardhedberg

Erik Herrström - @herrstrom

Henrik Dahlqvist - @HenrikDahlqvist

Filip Nordin - @filipnordin

Victor Eide - @victoreide

"Most Hated" Service Experiences 2-Day Workshop

2011-11-03T11:36:00.002+01:00

Hyper Island's Interactive Art Director class had a therapeutic two day workshop where they vented about their "most hated" service experiences: everything from Windows Vista to the voting system. Workshop leader Lauren Currie of Snook tasked students to re-imagine the flawed systems with a digital service design lens. She taught the IAD group to use Snook's toolkit, including emotional experience mapping, primary interview research, and storyboarding.

The two-day workshop wrapped up Wednesday with thirteen engaging group presentations. The audience laughed, they cried, they threw pieces of recycling through a basketball hoop. An overview of a few presentations is below. For more detail about the workshop process and service selections, check out Lauren's blog post here - It's awesome.

⁃ Finding housing can be a miserable experience. Home.me is a website designed to match tenants with landlords, almost like a dating site. Tenants can submit personal videos, desired neighborhoods, rent, and references. Landlords get an interactive dashboard with housing price information, contract creation tools, and rent tracking.

⁃ Trashket Ball makes Sweden's great recycling system better by incorporating game elements. Multiple levels of baskets exist at different locations, including the recycling center. Citizens literally throw recycling through a basketball hoop and compete to win prizes. This interactive experience makes recycling fun for the whole family, and gives everyone a reason to bag it up and schlep on over.

⁃ YourDash is the new SCAS. Hyper Island students rejoice! Download it to your desktop and choose the widgets that meet your needs. It's completely customizable. The simple, clean tool allows students to do innovative things, like "check in" to course hand outs, an alternative to handing out papers in class. Oh yeah, it's also available on mobile!