Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Art Director Henrik Rosander has worked at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco since graduating from Hyper Island's Interactive Art Director program in 2008.
One of the projects he's worked on so far has attracted a lot of attention; Hotel 626 - winner of the 2008 FWA People's Choice Award.
How many people were part of the project team?
There were a lot of people working on this project, including creative team, the account team, the interactive producer, project manager and the media team. The creative team included my writer Michelle Hirschberg and I, two ACDs and two group CDs. Production company was B-Reel in Stockholm and New York and Dinahmoe did the sound production.
What responsibilities did your role as Art Director include?
I came up with ideas together with Michelle and I created visuals to go with the ideas. Then we had to convince Doritos, the client. But Doritos is a fun client to work with, they always want to do innovative stuff and they have a demanding target, 19-24 year olds.
After the production shoot in Stockholm, B-Reel handled the design progress of the site and they regularly sent drafts for us to review and give feedback on. B-Reel also provided a great treatment with technologically ground breaking and creative ideas - like your picture being taken with your webcam without your knowledge. I mean, it's pretty freaky when your picture turns up in a dark room in the middle of the game while you hear a voice screaming at you in the background!
What do you hope the audience has experienced by interacting with the site?
We wanted the site to be classic psychological horror because that's something the target group has a true and genuine attraction to. So hopefully we scared the crap out of them... Another important requirement from the client was that it pushed technology and was really innovative. One cool thing is the first person point of view all through the game. B-Reel developed a technology that made it possible to have a full motion 3D world similar to first person shooter games. This was the first time a website used this technology.
We see now that the site has a viral function too - people upload their own videos on YouTube where they are literally freaked out from playing the game. The campaign isn't over yet, be on the lookout for more stuff in the near future.
What aspects of the attention/awards the project has received has been the most rewarding to you personally?
Just the fact that teens all over the world (188 countries so far) are enjoying the site feels rewarding. But the People's Choice Awards from FWA is extremely rewarding.
How did you end up at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners?
GS&P came to Hyper Island and gave us an assignment and had individual interviews/talks with all the students in the class. A week later I got an email from them asking if I wanted to do my internship at the agency in San Francisco. I said yes... Now I've been here for almost a year and it's been a great time.
Why would you recommend Hyper Island to those whose professional goals are similar to yours?
Hyper Island has a unique ability to stay updated with the industry which I think is crucial for a school within new media. Another aspect is the school's huge network of industry professionals, agencies and other companies which help the students getting really rewarding internships and a kick start of the career.
Thank you, Henrik!