BRACAU 27 BLOG'S

Hyper Island staff member Roger Sjögren and a Hyper Island student completed Hyper Island's Recruitment Tour stop in Kraków last week. Besides meeting potential students, Roger held a lecture at Jagiellonian University for both students and the Polish digital industry.

Photo: Marcin Grochowina
We caught up with Art Director Michal Ozorowski and New Media Designer Maciej Mlynek, both at Grupa PTR, who helped set up the lecture to find out what's going on in Poland.

What's going on digitally in Poland?
Michal:
Polish agencies are using more and more rich media. It looks like clients at least trusted in the power of motion design, video and unconventional methods of comunication. Now they see how important is buzz in nowadays mass-media.

Corporate blogs are still alive. Many of companies uses them to keep in touch with customers. Our digital world at least understood that new media is not just about nice pictures but it needs to be very comprehensive while working with clients.

Many digital agencies takes over tasks of classic creative agencies. It's because customers can see that they know that enviroment much better and they know how to use their tools more effectively.

Also many people noticed how strong a non-intrusive marketing can be and that internet is the best platorm to use it. 2008 was a good year for TV stations, few of them started their internet broadcasts. Even public television provides many programs over internet.

Most people who works in new media are young, so it's their first working experience. That means that they - we - have to learn a lot about life outside digital world. We've got here cult of working in small creative studios.

How does Hyper Island's type of education match the interests of digital creatives in Poland?
Maciek:
I think many creatives - if they still study - look for an up-to-date school where they can develop their skills and learn something new. Digital media industry is very specific because - as Michal mentioned - people start their work while they're pretty young, often before they start to study. So many times they don't study to find job - because they already have it - they study to get a "paper". I know that it can make people frustrated.

I think that Hyper Island is the right answer for this kind of demand. This is the place where you can learn beside people from top agencies around the world, and more - education is not aimed at teaching you computer programmes but more at teaching you how to communicate with other people. I think it teaches you this business in a very creative way. For me, good thing is that is only one or 2 years ;)

Michal:
As a head of digital agency I can tell that we haven't got enough of creatives who understands all aspects of that work. That's why HI experience would be very valuable for them.


Photo: Marcin Grochowina
Why did you arrange a lecture at Jagiellonian University?
Maciek:
I wanted to make the most of your coming to Kraków. I am an initiator, organizer and host of the meetings called "Witajcie w realu" ("Welcome to reality") that actually are inspired by your school. Almost once a month (from May 2007) during academic year we invite people from the industry to give a lecture about chosen subject. From the beginning it was my dream to invite you and arrange such meeting, also for professors to come and be inspired. Actually, I have only sent the invitation to my faculty's secretariat but thanks to my friend, one professor from Kraków's Academy of Arts attended the lecture. I don't know about this professor but I know other people were inspired by the meeting.

I can say that my dream came true. I personally hope that it will be one of the factors for making our digital media education better.

What do you think the lecture attendees learned about Hyper Island that they may not have known before?
Michal:
That it's not so easy experience as it seems. That being there is hard and sometimes frustrating work. And that Hyper Island is not about design (i think that many of attendees before lecture thought that HI is some kind of design school).

Maciek:
Similar to Michal, I think the attendees (including me) learned that Hyper Island is - as I wrote before - not only a design school but it lets you know more about yourself, teaches you character and how to communicate within the group.


Photo: Marcin Grochowina
Why do you personally like Hyper Island so much that you decided to get involved with our visit in Poland?
Maciek:
I can say that me and Hyper Island met each other somewhere in 2003 ;) I found the Crew 7 site first and from it I found your website. I was 19-years-old that time, I have started my design career as a 15-years-old rookie. Hyper Island looked as a perfect place to study. Excluding the fact that the studies were only in Swedish, there were few other reasons that I haven't decided to apply. That time it was more like a dream than a real decision: "yes, let's do it".

The passion have endured and Hyper Island is still my ideal educational institution. That's why I didn't hesitate a while to write to you and actually in some way persuade you to come to Krakow rather than to Warsaw (forgive me, friends from the capital!).

What do you hope to see in the future for digital work in Poland?
Michal:
More confidence from clients and bigger budgets. Rest is in our hands :)
Fulfilling of those conditions will allow us even to send our people for training in Hyper Island!

Maciek:
I hope that we will have more and more creative and high quality works and that clients will trust the agencies more which will be a benefit for both sides.

We really have many creative talents over here, so if some of them study at Hyper Island, be sure they come back ;) It would be also great to have some Hyper Island students doing internships in Poland. You're all invited!


Thank you Michal and Maciek!


One of the attendees has written about the lecture on his blog.
Read it here! (In Polish)