BRACAU 27 BLOG'S

A mysterious anonymous PM just came in to the office:

Some revealing footage has been found that indicates experiments being carried out with students inside the Hyper Island facilities in Stockholm.

We are working hard to restore all the material. In the mean time you can check out what we have so far at iad08.com.

The appalling results can be seen live at the release party on friday, the 1st of february at 5 PM at Boulehallen (Näkegatan 6, Stockholm).

We hope we can count on you to spread the word about these experiments.

Edvard Scott from Stockholm Design Lab gave a lecture to the Interactive Art Director program.

What is your background?
- I have no formal training, but I started out as an illustrator in 2003. I then proceeded to Stockholm Design Lab in 2005 as an intern where I still work as digital art director. Main expertise: Digital media and illustration. Hidden talents: I make an awesome lemon pie.

What drew you to Stockholm Design Lab?
- The visual language and aesthetics of Stockholm Design Lab was something that caught my attention many years ago, and is also the main reason why I applied for a job. SDL is a great place - not to big and not to small, lovely people and it has a great view. We have a lot of fun working together and we constantly take on new interesting challenges. I can't say to much about the projects I'm currently working on but I'll list the clients: Morphic, HyundaiCard and ABSOLUT to mention a few.

What did you talk about with the Hyper Island students?
I showed the students a few SDL projects and some other case studies that we at SDL admire. And I tried to explain what defines a strong identity. A brief recap: The perception of a brand is dependent on its slightest components.

What kind of know-how will become paramount in the media industry in the years to come? What advice can you give the Hyper Island students?
- We dont differentiate between design, architecture, interiors, product development, advertisements, film and other forms of communication. Today this is a position that makes SDL rather unique. I'm eager to see other design studios apply their philosophy and visual language in a wider perspective; I'd love to see an airline by Build or a food store chain by MadeThought or M/M Paris. Gathering people with diverse expert knowledge under one roof will be more common in 10 years. Advice? Just do it.


Sebastian Suarez-Golborne.

The programs at Hyper Island are divided into different modules. Although Hyper Island staff lay down the frame work for the semester and oversee the educational process, the individual modules are more often than not designed by industry representatives.

The latest module for the Interactive Art Director program in Stockholm and Karlskrona has been developed by Martin Fredricson and Nikolaj Knop at We Recommend. Martin was kind enough to share some thoughts on the module - Client Design, Strategy & Branding - and the way education at Hyper Island works.

What is We Recommend?
- WE RECOMMEND is a design agency based in Malmö.

What is your relation to Hyper Island?
- I was a student in Crew5 Design&Tecnology at hyperisland, Karlskrona. I think it's a great school filled with lots of talented people both amongst the organization, lecturers and students. Many of the people I met at Hyper Island are today a part of my professional network.

What is the module you are in charge of about?
- The module is based on a seven weeks course in producing a visual identity complete with design manual and implementation. During the course they have several workshops and lectures around the subject of visual identity. E.g Typography, Identitiy via clothing, sketching & storyboard as well as leading design agencies sharing their experience in working whith visual identity.

What do you hope the Hyper Island students will take with them from your module?
A better understanding of what it means to develop a visual identity.


Sebastian Suarez-Golborne.

We caught up with Christian Lampa, pictured above, who was offered an internship at illustrious agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners after their recent workshop at Hyper Island. San Francisco based SG&P have 400 employees and have done acclaimed work for Hewlett Packard, the NBA and Hyundai during their 23 years in business.

Why are Goodby, Silverstein & Partners an attractive firm for you?

- They are one of the best agencies in the world today, and they really got the digital thinking going. They have only got one, though big, agency and therefore I guess it must be much easier to hold on to the original thinking and the culture that been so successfull.

What did they talk about at Hyper Island?

- They talked a lot of who they are and what they do. And how the business is changing. We got a brief from they some days in advance and had to present our concept to them. The brief was to make a project, it had to be mainstream, had to be able to make a lot of money and we had to make something that communicated through all five senses. It was truly hard but really fun and inspiring.

Did they approach you after the workshop? Why did they want you?

Jupp, they e-mailed me later on the same day, and told me they wanted to chat some more about internship. So we did. They liked the way I approached and solved the brief, appearently...


Sebastian Suarez-Golborne

Elin Johansson, a Business Management student report on their latest module, concerning their final project:

Business Management 06 finished ten weeks of our final project. During these weeks the focus has been on creating innovative ideas, finding new concepts and carry through with them. We have used a lot of our knowledge from our first year in school.

Research, trend analysis, budgeting, marketing plan and SWOT are some examples of these things. While we have practiced what we have learned we also got a lot of new knowledge. We have searched for new information, referenced interesting books and met many inspiring people on our way to broaden our networks. For many of us these ten weeks have been the final piece in the puzzle. We have measured our strength and feel ready for what is to come.

We celebrated the end of the final project by having an exhibition where we wanted to inspire our guests with our projects. 800 square meters was filled with show cases of our work, interesting companies, speakers, lots of visitors and tons of food. We all stood there very proud of our projects. These ten weeks have been filled with hard work, ups and downs, confusion, frustration, happiness and funny moments. When walking around and looking at each others projects it felt so amazing how much you can do in just ten weeks.

A lot has happened since we started school one and a half year ago. Time has flown away and soon it is time for our last internship. We all feel a bit nervous but also very excited to take the final step into working life. You will find us in all kinds of positions, from project consultant to CEO assistant. We will be at all types of workplaces, from advertising agencies to telecom companies. We will be in big towns, small towns and other countries speaking Swedish, English, Norwegian and German.

What we all will have in common is our motivation to always make things better, not settling for "good enough", with a passion for leadership and eagerness to learn more.

Elin Johansson