Hyper Island Official Blog

D&AD pencil to Christian and Dennis

2009-07-03T10:05:00.006+02:00

Last night in, The D&AD student awards became yet another success for the Interactive Art Director 09 students Christian Söderholm and Dennis Rosenqvist. The duo won a first prize pencil for their work for the BBC.
Christian and Dennis, who already won gold and silver in Art Directors Club and two silver statuettes in the Clio Awards, celebrated the win to mark the start of their careers.

– The D&AD pencil is such an honour to receive. I mean, over 3000 entries from all over the world was submitted this year only so of course we are a bit proud of our selves, says Dennis.

The concept consists of a media player called BBC Tag Player, which the user can use to discover and add content in BBC’s programs. Christian explains the idea:
– Let’s say you watch a football game online via BBC. With the Tag Player you can easily find out everything you need to know about the players, like statistics and such, with just one mouse click on the player you want to know more about. And you can of course comment and add your own material to make it even more alive.

The team have, thanks to the awards, already received a lot of job offers from the industry. Dennis recently came home from Wieden + Kennedy London to work for Crispin Porter + Bogusky Europe and Christian continues to work for DDB Stockholm where he did his Hyper Island industry placement.

Dennis sums up:
– This is a perfect end to our studies at Hyper Island.

Read more about Christian and Dennis at www.christiansoderholm.com and www.dennisrosenqvist.com.
See the award winning entry here: www.dennisrosenqvist.com/bbc

First Accidental Leader course coming up on the 14th - 16th of July

2009-07-01T10:33:00.007+02:00

Hyper Island is coming to the UK to do a leadership course for leaders in the creative industry; Accidental Leader Programme UK. There will be a mix of companies with expertise within many different areas: interactive, animation, radio, TV production and video production among others. They will go through a total of six days of very intense training, the first session being in July and the last one in November.

The first session is getting closer. On July 14th - 16th, 20 leaders will get together at the Imperial War Museum in Manchester to experience and learn through the Accidental Leader Programme.
We asked one of the participants - Tony Foggett, CEO & Founder at Code Computerlove a couple of questions:

Tell us a bit about yourself and your company?
We are a Digital marketing agency based in Manchester - there are 55 of us at the moment, but we are growing so on the look out for new talent. Code look after brands like Matalan, Waterstones, Butlins and the NUS, we do their consumer experience planning across the channel and online promotional activity.

What are your expectations on the Accidental Leader Programme?
I hoping for leadership training that deals with the particular challenges that come with running a creative and digital agency.

How, would you say, should the ideal leadership programme be like?
Not sure I understand the question. But for me it would be a combination of inspiration with practical tools I can take away and apply back in the agency. I'm really looking forward to spending some time with some of the other agency folks from Manchester. We all know one another pretty well so I'm hoping outside of the training this might actually be a chance for us to discuss the digital scene within the city and what we can do to collectively improve it.

What do you know about Hyper Island?
You're Swedes who understand creativity. And there was something about a walnut?

It seems to be a buzz about Manchester, what are your thoughts about Manchester right now?
There is no buzz about Manchester, it's all a big lie, shushhh now you crazy Swedish people. (The longer we can perpetuate the myth that London is really where its at the longer they will leave us alone) Unfortunately with the BBC moving up here and Media City around the corner it's getting harder to hide the scene that is developing here.

Thank you, Tony!

Hyper Island Creative Social Academy

2009-06-30T14:36:00.010+02:00

The next opportunity to take part of the Hyper Island Creative Social Academy is the 20th – 25th of October 2009.

The first one was a success! Check out our interview with two Hyper Island Creative Social participants and click on the image below to find out what some of the other participants thought about the Master Class:

If you would like more information about the course, please contact Maria Eriksson, Project Leader:
maria.eriksson@hyperisland.se
+46 (0)704 555 902

Sign up for the Hyper Island workshop in Cannes!

2009-06-15T14:15:00.006+02:00

Date: Friday June 26th
Time: 09:15–12:15
Where: Workshop Area Level1

Click on the image for more information:

Click here to add the event to your Facebook calendar.

Hope to see you there!

Opening ceremony for Båtsmanskasernen in Karlskrona

2009-06-12T15:01:00.000+02:00

Hyper Island celebrated the opening of newly renovated facility Båtsmanskasernen on Stumholmen in Karlskrona earlier this week. An extensive renovation of the old bosuns lodging building, originally built in 1847, has been in the works for some time. We're proud to have turned the building into a place for modern technology while conserving its history and environment.
Starting fall 2009, students will be able to work in the premises.

Blekinge county govenor Gunvor Engström was present, plugging in the cord to the first computer being used since the completion of the renovation. Here she is with Hyper Island CEO Mattias Hansson.

Photo: Lottie Håkansson, Sydöstran

We are also proud of our other education facilities, including Kronohäktet (a former military prison) and Ångpannecentralen in Karlskrona, as well as our premises in the old Ericsson headquarters on Telefonplan in Stockholm.

Hyper Island CEO speaking at CaT today!

2009-06-03T15:18:00.009+02:00

Hyper Island CEO Mattias Hansson will speak at Creative's Creativity and Technology event in New York today.

Creativity and Technology is a tightly edited gathering of the best creative and tech minds for a discussion of furthering creativity through technology.
The event will consist of presentations, discussions and A-list creative case studies, a gallery where tech suppliers will showcase their products in the context of the work that they've enabled, and breakout rooms where tech suppliers can interact personally with creatives and provide hands on learning.

Mattias will speak about the Hyper Island Way and what makes Hyper Island a Swedish education revolution. For more information, visit:
http://www.creativitycat.com

Other speakers include:
· Winston Binch, VP/Managing Director of Interactive, Crispin Porter + Bogusky
· Nick Bilton, Design Integration Editor, The New York Times
· Mike Geiger, Chief Digital Officer, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
· Daniel Ilic, Creative Director, North Kingdom
· Manuel Lima, Founder, VisualComplexity.com
· Carlos Ulloa, Founder & Creator, Papervision3D and Interactive Director, HelloEnjoy

Tickets are available for purchase on-site at:
Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th Street
New York, NY

http://www.creativitycat.com

Congratulations Business Management 2009!

2009-05-25T10:53:00.014+02:00

Hyper Island's Business Management 2009 students graduated earlier this month. Congratulations!

Business Management 2009
We caught up with newly graduated Charlotte Hagefors and Frida Öhrman who told us more about their experiences at Hyper Island.

Frida: The examination week was an amazing week! So nice to meet everybody again after almost half a year. When we see each other we always have something to talk about, it feels like we last met each other yesterday. I know these people better than I know my oldest best friends!

Biggest learning experience at Hyper Island?
Charlotte: My biggest lesson learned is my self-understanding.
Thanks to especially UGL, process weeks and several personality tests, I have come to know new sides of myself that I will be of great help in the future.
Frida: I've learned so much about myself that I always can use in every possible situation. I've grown as a person, I understand myself in a better way, know about my strengths and weaknesses. I feel strong, self-secure and safe with myself! Like my classmate Sofie said, "you have grown from a little girl to an awesome project manager!"

Frida Öhrman
What's the best thing about Hyper Island?
Charlotte: You work in real exciting projects. And it's ok to fail. You also get an incredibly large network and in contact with several exciting industries.
Frida: The absolutely best thing about Hyper Island is the unusual learning methods, that we work in real projects with real customers - learning by doing, trial and error! The personal development, to work with a lot of feedback, and that there is two long periods of internship. The education is close to the real work life and the step out into the work life doesn't feel big but natural.

What's been your biggest challenge?
Frida: During the Final Project I had a break down and got a depression. I think it was the result of to many big changes in my live during short time, moving around a lot, studying, doing my internship, and working during summer. That, together with a very difficult final project with a troublesome customer was too much for me. I was very open and honest and told my group about how I felt, and we solved it in a good way, me working just half days. In the end, the result of our project turned out great and I'm very proud of it!
Charlotte: My biggest challenge was to find out what I want to work with in the future.

What’s been the most fun at Hyper Island?
Charlotte: I have many fun memories from Hyper Island. I have met so many wonderful and inspiring people.
Frida: The absolutely most fun during my time at Hyper Island was spending time with my lovely classmates. We spent a lot of time together and had a lot of fun, both during the days in school, and in evenings and weekends, cooking and eating dinners together and party a lot of course!

Charlotte Hagefors
Do you have any advice for future Business Management students?
Charlotte: Be yourselves and dare to bet on what you want to do. Put your goals high.
Dare to fail.
Frida: My advice for future Business Management students is to dare, dare, dare! The more you give from your self the more you will get back. Be open and honest to others and to yourself, challenge yourself and go outside your comfort zone. And take care of your relationships with all the wonderful people you will get to know during the way, and keep contact with them even after your education!

What’s happening next?
Charlotte: I now look forward to work as production manager on the event and communications agency Bodén & Co in Stockholm. I did my last internship there and now I have employment. It feels wonderful to get to work with exactly what I want to do right now.
I will miss many of the school, but feels great to be back at work after 2 years of study.
Frida: Now I'm looking forward to finally start to work. After studying at the university for three years I felt insecure and didn’t know what I wanted to do, but after two more years at Hyper Island it feels completely natural to start working, I'm really ready for it!

Fantasy Interactive blog about Hyper Island

2009-05-20T14:08:00.001+02:00

Fantasy Interactive blog about their workshop with Digital Media students in Stockholm.
Check it out here!

Digital Media specialization students' work

2009-05-18T14:56:00.015+02:00

"For the last 5 weeks we’ve been doing ‘Specialization part 2′ at Hyper Island. A module where the class divides up in different specializations (Technology, Management and Design) and gets special assignments for each specialization.

We (design specialization) got a very interesting brief from 3 young Swedes that had a dream to produce jeans in North Korea. They had an incredibly well documented story and both an interesting and unique concept. Our brief said to design a graphical profile, web concept, launch strategy as well as package design for a future perfume and the launch strategy behind it.

Quite the brief – and with only 4 weeks of production it seemed like we were in for a real challenge!", writes Digital Media 2010 Karlskrona student Ole Martin Kristiansen.

See some of his group's designs and read more at Ole Martin's blog!

Check out more student work at the Hyper Island Student Gallery!

Interactive Art Director 2009 students awarded - again!

2009-05-15T09:00:00.000+02:00

Two silver statues to Hyper Island students Christian Söderholm and Dennis Rosenqvist in the 50th Clio Awards.

On May 13th, Christian Söderholm and Dennis Rosenqvist, students in Interactive Art Director 09, won silver in the Student Interactive category - twice! - in the annual Clio Awards.

The work for Skara Sommarland – “Take the Challenge” – gets awarded once more. And this time around, the entry “Tag Player” for BBC also gets a statue.
– Feels extra nice to win two statues for two different entries, says Dennis Rosenqvist.

Next up is the D&AD awards in the beginning of July, where “Tag Player” is nominated again.
– Now that we missed the gala in Las Vegas, we should really try to go to the D&AD ceremony in London. We hope that the jury has the same opinions as the one in Clio had, Christian Söderholm fills in, smiling.

Christian is currently at a placement at DDB Stockholm and Dennis is at Wieden + Kennedy London. You can read more about them at www.christiansoderholm.com and www.dennisrosenqvist.com.

Business Management students started two companies while still in school

2009-05-13T14:54:00.024+02:00

Business Management 2009 students Carl-Henric Möllerström, Conny Bark and Jakob Adaktusson (who are about to graduate from Hyper Island this week) have started two companies - while studying! We were intrigued and asked Carl-Henric to tell us more:

Why did you start the companies?
The idea of Winelinking.com, started by Jakob and I, came when I realized the incredible interest around wine and the hard part about selecting wine. You select wine by label or chose the wine you always drink or after what the TV chef says. But since we have different taste buds we don’t like the same wines, therefore, Winelinking.com gives you just recommendations from the people who like similar wines as you.

Click here to watch a bigger version of the video.

With M & B that I started together with Conny, it was not so complicated, we had Telenor as a customer before the company started and it gave us great opportunities. I had already experience of setting up companies and it was just to get going. It is also very interesting to work with the streamline of companies IT-structure and communication.

What are the companies about?
Winelinking is basically a recipe- and wine site that provides personal recommendations of recipes and what wines you should test all along what the users think. But it also works as pure wine and recipe search engine if you’re not a member.

M & B, however, makes IT solutions to other companies. We are working primarily to improve efficiency of company's internal communications by creating a better communication, documentation and user portal.

What are your goals?
The objectives for Winelinking is that by “the system of the crowd" give accurate recommendations of which wines and recipes you may like.
We can already show all the wines available at Systembolaget and we will as soon as possible make it possible to view the e-shops that sell them.
We want to provide as many recipes and wines as possible and a natural objective is of course to make an iPhone app.

The objectives of M & B is to use cloud services to streamline the companies communications and IT infrastructure. We have had a positive cash flow from the beginning due out that we had consultant job before the company was started.
We have become Registered Partner with Microsoft and we expect to be Gold Partner within a few months on the platform Sharepoint and Office Live.

Why did you decide to start the companies together?
In both cases, it was a shared interest in IT and business that led to cooperation. Since the personal chemistry worked well and we have additional properties knowledge and experience we work very well together.

What do you say to other students who might think starting a company is too big of a hassle while still studying?
Sure, it may be perceived as hard to run two companies while studying, but it is not really that hard if you think it is fun and believe in what you do, (that sounded cliché-ridden).
And when it pays for itself in different ways, one realizes that it is really worth the effort, but I guess it takes a certain drive to do it.

On a personal level, what do you hope to learn?
The industry is very young and changes all the time, so I learn new things all the time.
One important thing I have learned is that the internet is for the information society as the steam engine was to industrial society. I do of course want to be very good at what I am doing and quickly put into practice the ideas I have, for there is more.

Thank you, Carl-Henric, and have a great last week at Hyper Island!

Accidental Leader Programme UK launches on May 20th & 21st!

2009-05-11T17:19:00.013+02:00

Hyper Island's Accidental Leader Programme is launching in Manchester and Liverpool next week, together with Accidental Managers which is being delivered by Kirkbright.
RSVP now!

Manchester Launch
Date and Time: 6pm Wednesday 20 May 2009
Venue: Museum of Science & Industry

Liverpool Launch
Date and Time: 6pm Thursday 21 May 2009
Venue: Tate Liverpool

Click here to RSVP!

For more information about the Accidental Leader programme - Download this PDF.

Hope to see you there!

Interactive Art Director students win Art Directors Club Awards cubes

2009-05-06T11:00:00.021+02:00

Interactive Art Director 2009 students Christian Söderholm and Dennis Rosenqvist received Gold and Silver Cubes in the 88th Art Directors Club Awards.

Last Thursday, the two students went to New York to the annual Art Directors Club Awards. Back home they brought not only the experience of meeting people from the industry around the world, but also not less than two Art Directors Club Cubes!
Gold in Interactive and Silver in Integrated Advertising. Both for Skara Sommarland and the “Take the Challenge” campaign.

– Now we really look forward to the results from the nominations in the CLIO Awards, says Dennis Rosenqvist. Sadly, we can’t afford to go to the gala in Las Vegas. Besides, we have to work a little at our placements too, he continues, laughing.

We previously blogged about Christian and Dennis being on the Clio Awards 2009 student shortlist. Now they're also nominated in the D&AD awards!

D&AD released their nominations for this years student awards last Friday, Christian and Dennis are among the nominated with their work for BBC.
– Fantastic to receive yet another nomination, says Christian Söderholm.

The awards will be announced at the D&AD Student Awards Ceremony on 2 July 2009.
– Of course we hope for the best, Christian continues. A D&AD pencil would be an honour to receive. Especially if you think about the fierce competition.

Click here to see the nominated and award-winning work!

Christian is currently at his internship placement at DDB Stockholm and Dennis is at Wieden + Kennedy London.
You can read more about them at www.christiansoderholm.com and www.dennisrosenqvist.com.

Hyper Island graduate behind the Twitter logo

2009-05-01T09:00:00.003+02:00

Hyper Island Crew 7 (Digital Media 2003) graduate Linda Gavin is the creator behind the Twitter logo. Well done!

Linda told Swedish newspaper Express that the logo was just a sketch among 30 suggested designs. Read the whole interview:
· in Swedish
· in English

Check out our Hyper Island blog interview with Linda from 2007.

More from Double Negative's Ziah Fogel

2009-04-30T10:40:00.001+02:00

Earlier this month, Pixar and Double Negative lectured at Hyper Island. We were happy to take the opportunity to ask Double Negative Senior Technical Director Ziah Fogel questions about the visual effects field:

What skills are typical among successful visual effects artists?
Successful visual effects artists are generally good communicators, easy-going, good at time-management, highly motivated over-achievers. The more technical usually have great math and computer programming skills, can communicate with artists, and have a decent visual eye. The more artistically inclined have amazing visual arts skills, can relate to more technical people, and are competent with computers. Everyone working in visual effects should be prepared for tight deadlines and lots of work, but also lots of fun!

What qualities make a successful intern?
The most successful interns are fast learners, have some general knowledge about the area they're interning in, and communicate well. They're also highly motivated, enthusiastic, and ready to learn new things!

Ziah Fogel, Senior Technical Director at Double Negative and John Pottebaum, Technical Director at Pixar visited Hyper Island in April.
Photo: Gregory Solenström, Digital Media 2010 Stockholm
Please describe your impression on Hyper Island students in 3 words.
Self-motivated, problem-solvers, diverse.

What would you recommend Hyper Island's Motion Graphics Designer students to do to keep up to speed with the latest technology and trends?
You should read as much as you can - about everything in the latest technologies. Try to speak to people in your field (or similar fields) about how they're doing things and what they see as new trends. Push yourself to learn new things throughout your career, and if you ever feel like you're not learning or growing as fast as you'd like, do something to get yourself out of that rut!

What sources of inspiration do you recommend to those who want to work with motion?
Watch as many films as you can, read as many magazines or blogs about the areas you're interested in, and communicate with others in your industry.

What's your best advice to those who want to work with visual effects?
Getting your foot in the door in the visual effects industry can be difficult. Don't get discouraged - keep trying! Make an amazing reel and work hard until you get a break. Sometimes the easiest way to get your foot in the door is with an internship, or by working your way up by starting as a PA or a runner at an animation or VFX house, using your free time learning the tools and speaking to people who are doing the job you want to do!

Thank you Ziah!

Hyper Island students on Clio Awards shortlist

2009-04-27T18:21:00.011+02:00

Clio Awards 2009 shortlist is out, and there are two Hyper Island student projects on the student list.
Congratulations to Interactive Art Director 2009 students Dennis Rosenqvist and Christian Söderholm, who created both projects:

The BBC Tag Player
A widget for www.bbc.co.uk that lets people find and create tags in BBC's content.

For more information, visit: http://dennisrosenqvist.com/bbc/

DigiTic - Skara Sommarland
DigiTic is a digital ride pass that stores your runs and records. DigiTic let's you access all your records and photos via Skara Sommarlands website, your mobile phone or special terminals.

For more information, visit: http://dennisrosenqvist.com/digitic/

See more nominations at Dagens Media (in Swedish).

Hyper Island course in Manchester, launching in May 2009

2009-04-25T08:48:00.009+02:00

Hyper Island now offers a leadership program to SMEs in the Digital and Creative Industries in the Northwest of England. The digital and media skills program is delivered by Northwest Vision and Media in partnership with Skillset with the support of the Northwest Regional Development Agency.

“We have been sending graduates to the UK for 14 years. Now it is time for us to start educate the British industry on their home ground as well. And the boiling centre of MediaCityUK in Manchester is a perfect place to conduct this course”, says Mattias Hansson, CEO, Hyper Island.

Hyper Island will bring it’s unique educational method to the table and will focus on developing ‘Accidental Leaders’ in team effectiveness and digital.

“We eventually went with Hyper Island because of their innovative and experiential approach to Leadership. We feel they will offer something very different and meaningful for leaders of companies in the Digital and Creative Industries in the Northwest. They are renowned worldwide for their training programs and Northwest Vision and Media is proud to have brought them to the region”, says Lynn Kelly, Head of skills, Northwest Vision and Media.

There will be two launch events in Manchester and Liverpool on the 13th and 14th of May.

The Hyper Island Team will work in close collaboration with a UK-based management development training company, Kirkbright, which won the contract to deliver the linked ‘Accidental Managers’ program. Kirkbright was founded by creative industries management expert Greg Orme, who also founded and ran the globally respected Centre for Creative Business between 2004 and 2008.

“We were obviously pleased to be part of this innovative training initiative. Our excitement at delivering this was only increased when we realised it would give us the opportunity to work closely with the digital experts at Hyper Island”, says Greg Orme, Managing Director, Kirkbright.

This is a truly unique opportunity and the funding from Northwest Vision and Media will make it affordable for SMEs in the Digital and Creative industries in the region. The funding is from the Digital and Media Skills Programme, a £2.8 million investment by the North West Development Agency, delivered by Northwest Vision and Media in partnership with Skillset.

For more information, please contact:
Maria Eriksson, Project Leader, Hyper Island

Hyper Island in Oslo this weekend

2009-04-23T08:20:00.000+02:00

On April 25th, Hyper Island's Recruitment Tour will make a stop in Oslo.
So far, the Recruitment Tour has covered cities such as Los Angeles, Berlin, San Francisco, Kraków, Barcelona, New York, Amsterdam and London among others. Together with students, some of the Hyper Island staff will meet up with creative people that are interested in becoming Hyper Island Diploma Program students in the fall of 2009.

Apply now to meet us in Oslo!

__________________________________________________

Hyper Island staff members Roger Sjögren and Maria Eriksson will hold a workshop about The Hyper Island way at Gulltaggen in Olso on April 28th between 12.00-16.00.

Read more at Gulltaggen and book your ticket now!

Experience Technology 2008 Webzine

2009-04-22T16:00:00.000+02:00

Last year, the Digital Media 2010 students in Stockholm and Karlskrona collaborated on a webzine documenting their Experience Technology module.
Check it out here!

53 color ranked #2

2009-04-21T10:00:00.002+02:00

Digital Media 2010 Stockholm's class site 53colors.com has been ranked #2 on Design Charts TOP40 list this week.

Congrats!

Follow 53colors on Twitter!

Interactive Art Director students check in from their internships

2009-04-17T10:52:00.004+02:00

Interactive Art Director 2009 students are currently doing their internships all over the globe. A few of the students checked in with us to tell us how they're doing:

"I'm doing my internship at Fallon in Tokyo. If you don't mind cutting down on sleep, eating great food, sit in parks under cherry trees, getting stared at or being able to buy birthday cakes at 4 in the morning; then this is the place for you.

The Fallon office is located in a nice area of town called Omotesando. The people here have been very friendly and helpful. I get to work with big clients such as Heineken and Lancôme. I'm also trying to learn Japanese, but it's kind of hard.
All in all, I'm having a great time over here!

Arigatougozaimasu! (A very polite form of 'thank you')"
--Adrian Tomic, at Fallon Tokyo, Japan

"The first thing I noticed when I arrived at Great Works was the great big wall with drawings and messages on it. Everyone who visits or works at Great Works Barcelona leave their mark here, literally!

Another thing I noticed was the attitude here, everyone is really friendly and very relaxed, deadlines are met but without stress!"
--Lina Wahlgren, at Great Works Barcelona, Spain

"Droga5 is a great place filled with friendly people who do some amazing work. I think that Droga5 have redefined what advertising is and can be. Their work just blows me away, so of course I'm very excited to be a part of the team here. The most inspiring experience so far is to be surrounded by all these talented people and have the privilege to work with them. I hope to learn more about the strategy behind a succesful concept and hopefully I can also contribute with some of the experience I have gained from my time at Hyper Island.

Studying at Hyper Island has really helped me increase my knowledge and skills in digital media and without this experience I wouldn't be where I am today."
--Filip Kleremark, at Droga5, New York, USA

"It’s 23:13 in Amsterdam and I’m still at work. But don’t get me wrong, I’m still here because it’s fun, and also because we got a deadline tomorrow morning...
I like the place and the people who are very friendly, something I noticed the first day. Wieden + Kennedy have offices all over the world but I can only speak for Amsterdam, and this office is great.
Got to get back to work."
--Johan Schönfeldt, at Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, Netherlands

"Arriving at Wieden + Kennedy in London, the first thing I noticed was that they had grown quite a bit since my last visit a couple of years ago. From around 50 employees to almost 160 – in the same office! That means that people are working in the kitchen, in the conference rooms, in the toilets (joking). Fortunately, Wieden + Kennedy is renovating a new building across the street to fill with people.

After almost four weeks, I can say for sure that the most inspiring experience so far has been the people that I have had the pleasure of working with. Everyone knows exactly what they are doing and why. With my former experience of sometimes having to work with less ambitious people, it’s a true relief that I don’t have to go on about stuff that needs to be fixed – it’s already been taken care of!

London has so far been a city seen from the tube, the office and our apartment, i.e. I haven’t had much of a chance exploring it yet. I have bought a bicycle though, so at least I now get to know the crazy left-hand traffic of the East end.

It’s only one week left to our pitch presentation so I better go get some sleep now. I’m beginning to feel a bit nervous but we (me and Hemant who is a copywriter from India) have some good stuff so I think it will be great. Welcome to optimisim, as we say at Wieden + Kennedy."
--Dennis Rosenqvist, at Wieden + Kennedy London, UK

Follow the class' internship experiences at their Internship Blog:
http://spaceisthelimit.com/blog/

Congratulations!

2009-04-16T09:33:00.001+02:00

We would like to congratulate two graduated Hyper Island students and one of our current Digital Media students on winning awards in the The Norwegian Design Council's 2009 Awards;

Ole Martin Kristiansen, Digital Media 2010 Karlskrona:
The Young Talent Award

Sandro Kvernmo, Crew 10 (Digital Media 2006):
Award for Design Excellence

Magnus Cederholm, Crew 8 (Digital Media 2004) & Lukas Szachanski, Crew 10 (Digital Media 2006):
Award for Design Excellence

Very well done!

Pixar and Double Negative at Hyper Island

2009-04-14T09:21:00.003+02:00

This week will be all about motion at Hyper Island. Ziah Fogel, Senior Technical Director at Double Negative, London and John Pottebaum, Technical Director at Pixar, Emeryville, US, are coming to Karlskrona as well as Stockholm to talk about the animated world as they see it.

Ziah Fogel and John Pottebaum.
Photo: Gregory Solenström, Digital Media 2010 Stockholm
“I'm coming to Hyper Island to try to educate and inspire the students to pursue a career in the film industry. I've been lucky to have a wealth of experience working on both computer animated films and visual effects for live-action films, and would like to help teach students how the industry works and how best to break into computer graphics if they're interested”, Ziah Fogel says, who’s returning to Hyper Island this year. She held a very well received lecture last year for the Hyper Island students. At that time, she worked for Pixar, but has now moved on to Double Negative in London.

"While many are familiar with Pixar's body of work and our finished product, I think there's a lot to share about how we put these things together. I'd like to talk about the technical challenges Up presented, as well as the different roles people play in putting one of these films together. By speaking at Hyper Island I hope to get more students interested in computer animation, and help those already interested learn a bit more about how to get started in the industry", John Pottebaum says.

One or our studentes, Therese Larsson says:
"I am very excited about Pixar and Double Negative coming, I anticipate a new boost of inspiration and creativity, as well as a new insight to communication. I believe we have a lot to learn from one of the greatest storytellers of today and I am very eager to listen to what they have to say. I believe I will be a little more inspired, a little more eager and just a little bit more creative after having attended this lecture."

You haven't missed Visual Crooks, have you?

2009-04-13T09:10:00.003+02:00

"Visual Crook(s) [viso-al kr_oks] a person, or multiple persons in a crew, trying to make the world a prettier place with vicious plans of global domination", says the Digital Media 2010 Karlskrona class who released their site Visual Crooks, as well as a making of blog a few weeks ago. We previously blogged about the class' pre-release site releaseusnow.com.

The students continue;
"Designers, programmers and project managers are divided into different areas of the prison. Every student have got their own cell and prison character, including psychos and mobsters. When scanning the prison the visitor gets an oversight of the locked up inmates, and can click on them to interact, read info and contact them. Watching the prisoners on distance is, however, scary. Do you dare taking a closer look?"

"(...) the 43-strong class put the site together in their spare time, overseeing every element of the project from concept and design to hunting down sponsors. Combining Flash, 3D work, video footage and 2D designs, the interactive site layout depicts a prison, housing students of different specialisms in separate wings that the visitor can explore, with each individual student having designed their own character and cell."
"(...) it's definitely worth checking out"
--Computer Arts, March 20th, 2009

Also seen at:
· CAP&Design (in Swedish)
· Reform & Revolution
· Direto de Forno
· NOTCOT
· irie
· kreativ1
· spyline
· Creative Tools

Visit Visual Crooks now!
Join Visual Crooks on Facebook!

Hyper Island students represent Sweden in Cannes

2009-04-04T09:19:00.001+02:00

Earlier this week, three former Hyper Island students won gold in Young Lions 2009 (Young Creatives Sweden)!

Congratulations for winning gold in the Print category!
Christian Egnell, Art Director at Ottoboni and Johan Gustafsson, Art Director at Jung von Matt, both former Hyper Island students in Crew 9 (Digital Media 2005).

How come you ended up working together?
- Because we are cool. No, awesome.

What's your favorite part of the assignment?
- The creative freedom, it allows you to make ideas that might not be 100% on strategy but the joy of making them shine through. And the fact that it’s lion in the name of the award. I want to be a lion.

Why do you think you won print, when your education is based mainly in the digital industry?
- It’s mainly idea based competition. So as long there is strong idea behind the solution the media doesn’t matter.
Hyper Island also teaches the value of good idea.

See their winning submission here!

Read about the winners and the jury's motivation in Dagens Media! (in Swedish)

Congratulations also to Joakim Norman, graduated Interactive Art Director 2008 student, and Martin Ericson, both at Lowe Brindfors, for winning gold in the Web category!

Why did you decide to submit work to this year's Young Lions?
– I guess the same reason as everyone else, trying to prove my worth. Being a hypernaut amongst traditional ad students makes it even more important to prove that I can hold my own in creativity and idea.

What was your favorite part of the assignment?
– My favorite part of the whole weekend was when Martin made a crack at the dinner table at Den Gamle och Sjön, a snobbish seafood restaurant, and I threw my hands up and then down in the air of laughter, accidentally pressing the end of my fork and launching a large chunk of spaghetti and crawfish at myself. Kind of like a pasta catapult. I had a bright shirt.

What's your web idea about?
The name of the idea, Goggle Maps, really explains it all. When you donate your glasses, you get a code that you can enter into Goggle Maps, our Google maps mashup, and it shows you where your glasses went and who’s wearing them now. Then you can browse around for other peoples donations etc. It’s so simple it’s almost stupid.

How do you think your education at Hyper Island helped you in developing ideas?
I think I received a very different perspective from most creatives in Sweden, nearly everyone being ex-Berghs students. Which helps me in being original, but also forces me to continue to educate myself. The knowledge they teach at Berghs is equally important to the ones we recieve at Hyper Island. And I need both.

How thrilled are you?
Extremely.

See their winning submission here

Read about the winners and the jury's motivation in Dagens Media! (in Swedish)