BRACAU 27 BLOG'S

Our students work with real clients all the time, but as a part of the first year, they get to work as real companies too. We call it TIP, or The Industry Project. Ola Möller was the CEO of his company, and I decided to ask him some questions about the project.

How was it to work as a real company with real clients?
- We have worked with real clients before but it is always a challenge. Every client is unique and has it's own needs and problems that we need to solve. Our main target has been to understand them fully! Only then we can deliver what they really want (or things that they don't know they want).

What did you do?
- As the CEO of the company my first task was to create a functional and effective organisation. I had an idea of creating a dynamic organisation that made everyone come to their full potential. We chose to work very horizontal when it came to concept and ideas. The production phase was more vertical to maximize our production efficiency. It worked fine as an organisational model. Later I delivered reports to the board, was eg. in charge of group process follow-ups, worked with company strategies and had responsibilty for the budget.

What was that like?
- To work as a CEO is a new experience to me. It's been difficult, fun - a real challenge! I saw myself as a facilitator. After all, my task was to help and make the group work as easy and as friction free as it possibly could. I studied situational leadership and that has been a great source of learning for me. I have learned to adapt my leadership style depending on which phase the company/group is in. Especially when it came to autoritarian leadership in the beginning of the process - that's quite new to me.

Who were your clients and what did you do for them?
- We worked with four different companies. Two publishers, one artist and one IT-security company. The work we made ranged from digital web strategies to web sites to campain videos.
How did that work out?
- No bigger problems. I take my hat off to my co-workers! The company was full of focused and competent people. Thats probably why it went so well.

Were the clients satisfied?
- Totaly! Probably because we understood them and their needs.

What did you learn from this project?
- That my team is everything! Make them happy and motivated. Fix the organsation to fit the team and help them to smash as many of the obstacles as possible. This experience gave me new perspective on how I would like to work as a project manager continueously. Good debriefs, documentation, understanding for the client's needs and to keep a good communication with the client are the most important learnings.

What will you do this summer?
- I've been working with the recruitment for the upcoming Stockholm Digital Media class and the Interactive Art Directors this week. I can't tell you more right now. We are in the middle of the process. I will spend the rest of the summer working with a photo project I started last summer before I got into Hyper Island. We got EU funding accually. The idea is that young swedes send in pictures of how life is in Sweden. We will print up a book with those pictures. Check out http://fotobokenomsverige.se/ (It's in swedish though)

Have you decided where to do your internship yet?
No accually I haven't, but I'm working on it this summer. Feel free to come up with suggestions! And check out my site!

Abigail Rose Clancy (born 10 January 1986), also known as Abi Clancy or Abbey Clancy, is an English lingerie and catwalk model who made headlines during the 2006 FIFA World Cup as the girlfriend of England football star Peter Crouch.

Born in Liverpool, Clancy was member of girl band Genie Queen, who were managed by 80s popstar Andy McCluskey from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The highlight of their career was supporting boyband Blue on tour. However, the band didn’t secure a record deal and fell apart.

Birth name : Abigail Clancy
Date of birth : January 10, 1986 (1986-01-10) (age 22)
Place of birth : Liverpool, England
Height : 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Hair color : Blonde
Eye color : Blue
Dress size : 6
Official website : http://www.abigailclancy.com/

Picture from abigailclancy.com

As you probabaly know by now we're right in the middle of the recruitment days here at Hyper Island. One of the many talented people being interviewed today is Johan Dettmar, 22 years old from Helsingborg in the South of Sweden. I asked him some questions about why he wants to study Digital Media at Hyper Island the next coming two years.

How did you find Hyper Island?
- I found you on the Internet when I was looking for digital media classes.

And why did you decide to apply?
- I liked it at once because it looked up to date with the digital media industry. I had been looking for that but didn't find it anywhere else.

Why did you chose the Digital Media programme?
- It has always been a big interest of mine since highschool. I like the fact that you can create and publish something so easily and yet it reaches a lot of people. And I have taken a few classes in webb design and gigital photo. But I also like the management part.

What do you want to work as in the future?
- I'm not sure but I think I want to be a designer.

What kind of project did you do for your application?
- I made a website for a TV-channel. It was like a travelling show where anyone could be the reporter.

What have you done so far during your first recruitment day?
- I have been interviewed. And before that we got to ask questions to the other students.

How was that?
- Interesting. We had a lot of questions. You want to know if everything you have heard is correct. And it seems very good, like I had hoped for, only better.

What have you done before this?
- I have been travelling a lot. The last longer trip was to France.

If you do get in, where would you like to do your internship?
- In New York. I was there not tooo long ago and felt that I have to live and work there for at least a year of my life. It is such a cool city.

We're right in the middle of the recruitment days. I'm in an interview team together with two wonderful people: André, a psychologist from Karlskrona and Jessica, an (ex-)student from the very first batch of Interactive Art Directors. A total of four teams consisting of one co-worker, one student and one leadership consultant or psychiatrist are meeting potential students. We're talking to really interesting, wonderful, talented, brilliant persons. It's an exciting process, but sometimes you need a break from even the most superb things.

A great thing to do during that break is to head over to Knitware Blog and watch Doc Roger's interview with David Erixon, one of Hyper Island's founders. David's no longer directly involved in the school since he's busy being global brand manager at Vodafone, but he loves Hyper Island none the less. Just like we feel for him.

Allright, time to go to sleep. Tomorrow we're meeting a whole new batch of eager would-be potential Hyper Island students.

Last week our first Interactive Art Director students graduated after a year at Hyper Island. After the ceremony I took Stina Norgren aside to ask her some questions about the future and her Hyper Island experience.

Hi Stina! How does it feel to graduate?
- It is sad to leave the chool and everyone here, we have gotten veryclose during this year. but at the same time it feels good to be through with school and to be able to make real money.

What are you gonna do now that you have graduated?
- Look for a good job.

Are you worried or hopeful when you think of the future?
- The future feels very bright at the moment! I am not worried.

Where did you do your internship?
- At Poke in London. It was so much fun.

Many of our students end up staying at the place where they do their internship. Why didn't you stay?
- I would have loved to, but I missed Sweden too much.

What do you think of your Hyper Island experience?
- It has been the best year of my life. I think it has changed me a lot. I feel much more confident now.

What was the best part?
- The UGL-clas in the beginning, and of course the internship.

What was difficult?
- It is always a little bit difficult to come to a new place, but when I look back it doesn't feel difficult, it feels really good.

Unfortunately there are not many female creators in the digital media industry today. Hyper Island wants to change this and one way of doing so is to co-operate with She creatives, a network of women who work as creators. This fall, Hyper Island will have a special Master Class for the members of She Creatives. For those of you who read Swedish, have a look at what the media magazine Resumé has to say about it here.

Last week Hyper Island visited the “world championship in advertising” in Cannes, France. I asked Hyper Island CEO Mattias Hansson to write something for the blog and send some photos. This is what he wrote:

About the Cannes Lions much can be said, but one thing is for sure – this year Sweden finally proved that we are up there with the biggest nations in the world, receiving more Lions than ever before. Of course (!?), Sweden has always been up there in the Cyber cathegory, but this years we were all over the place, winning in lot’s of different cathegory’s. For a full list of the winners, see www.canneslions.com.

Hot trends at this year’s Cannes Lions:
- “Green” and “responsible” advertising.
- The Information Super Highway advertising (finally!).
- The Design cathegory (really, really “finally”…).

A big CONGRATUALTIONS to all agencies (many with former Hyper Island-students) that showed, as we use to say in Sweden, “where the cabin shall be placed”. See you next year!
Pictured here is “Svålen” from our friends at Great Works surrounded by custom’s officer’s at Nice Airport confiscating the Lion when he tried to bring it in his hand luggage. (He was later forced to check in the prize statue).

Mattias Hansson, Hyper Island, just landed in Cannes.

Annika Grundfors, Hyper Island, ready to party in Cannes.

Christian Olsson, Hyper Island, climbing the walls of Cannes.

Christian and Annika inside the Microsoft boat in Cannes.

Our students come from different parts of the world. Two weeks ago two Ukrainian students, Julia Demchenko (24 years old) and Anton Dubina (23 years old), graduated from the Digital Media program in Karlskrona. I took them aside to ask some questions about how they made their way to Hyper Island and what the digital media industry is like in Ukraine.

Where in Ukraine are you from?
Anton: Kharkov in the eastern part of the country.

How did you find Hyper Island?
Julia: We were looking for a web design school outside of Ukraine on the Internet and found Hyper Island. In ukraine I studied economy and Anton studied computer science, but we wanted to learn and do things on our own. We liked that at Hyper Island you learn by doing. In other schools you learn things in theory.

And how did you like the time at Hyper Island?
Anton: It has been a great experience. We learned about teamwork, about the industry and how to work with clients. It is a very creative surrounding and here you don’t have to be afraid to do mistakes. In fact they encourage us to do mistakes, becuase that’s how you learn things.

What were you doing before you came here?
Julia: We worked with these things and we always wanted to start a company of our own. But to start a company you need a network of people and possible clients and Hyper Island gave us that.

Where did you do your internship?
Anton: We worked for a small company based in San Fransisco but we did it from Sweden and communicated with the people there on skype.

Would you recommend other foreigners to apply to Hyper Island?
Julia: Yes we recommend it all the time. A lot of people, especially from Russia, contact us and ask for our opinion on weather they should apply or not.

The program is free for Swedish students but foreign students might need to find other ways to finance it. How did you solve that?
Anton: We worked really hard to save money.

Do you like living in Sweden?
Julia: Yes very much. We even studied some Swedish to be able to apply to Hyper Island.

Are you going back to Ukraine now that you graduate?
Anton: No we are starting up a company here in Sweden where we will design and develop different services. We will also look at selling our Final project that we did here at Hyper Island.

What was your final project about?
Julia: SugaRSS is a non-obtrusive smart service that sits behind your RSS reader and filters out news for you. It “understands” topics of your interest by looking at your reading habits and tracking things you like and dislike. Finally, it applies some clever algorithms and voilà — you're spending less time reading what's going on in Intertubes.

What is the web design industry like in Ukraine?
Anton: It is not developed like here, but it is starting to happen. I think it is better developed n Russia.

Yui Ichikawa (市川 由衣, Ichikawa Yui?, born 10 February 1986), is an actress and model from Tokyo, Japan. She is also known by her nickname, Yui-nyan.

As an actress she has appeared in several dramas (doramas), and in recent years she has concentrated more on her film career. She played a minor role in the movie Ju-on: The Grudge and reprised her character for a bigger role in the sequel, Ju-on: The Grudge 2.

She has recently portrayed Nana Komatsu (Hachi) in the film adaptation of the famous manga Nana, and on December 18, 2006, Ichikawa and co-star Mika Nakashima came to New York City for the International Premier of NANA 2 at the IFC Center.

Born February 10, 1986 (1986-02-10) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation Actress, singer, model
Birth Name: Yui Ichikawa (市川由衣, Ichikawa Yui?)
Nickname: Yui-nyan (ゆいにゃん, Yui-nyan?)
Height: 5' 2" (158 cm)
Measurements: 32.5 - 21.5 - 33.5" (83 - 55 - 85 cm)
Blood type: A

Danielle Lloyd (born 16 December 1983, Liverpool) is a prominent English fashion and glamour model. The former Miss England 2004 and Miss Great Britain 2006, she is notorious for her part in the 2007 Celebrity Big Brother race row.

Birthdate: December 16, 1983 (1983-12-16) (age 24)
Birth location: Liverpool, England
Measurements: 32DD-26-35
Height: 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Eye color: Hazel
Hair color: Brown (currently blonde)
Ethnicity: English

Picture as below, Danielle Lloyd Shows Off Her Cleavage

Alex Curran
Sexy in Red Bikini

Alex Curran (Gerrard)
(born September 23, 1982 in Aintree, Liverpool), an English model and fashion columnist for the Daily Mirror, is the wife of Liverpool and England footballer Steven Gerrard, She is described as a leading "WAG" (Wives And Girlfriends) of the England national football team, along with women such as Victoria Beckham, Coleen McLoughlin and Cheryl Cole. In 2007 the Times referred to her, then Steven Gerrard's fiancée, as an "über-WAG".

On October 29, 2007, Curran launched her own fragrance, named "Alex", which has been one of the top sellers of 2007.