BRACAU 27 BLOG'S

Interactive Art director student Fatih Okan is on his way to New York, nominated for a pencil at the One Show Awards, the equivalence of the digital Oscars. Follow him on his trials and tribulations via his blog

Starting 2010 the Swedish military service is no longer mandatory. The Armed Forces are looking to attract talent – brain rather than muscles – to fullfill their missions abroad. Our student's challenge was to rebrand the Swedish Armed Forces from a traditional defensive collective into a modern employeer. How did they do it? Interactive Art Director students Robbin Ingvarsson, Fredrik Holmberg, Kristina Herngren, Anke Buchta, Simon Schlüter & Waldemar Wegelin made a movie about the process:

Hansa Pact for the Swedish Armed Forces from Anke Buchta on Vimeo.

At Hyper Island the Client, Design, Strategy and Branding module just started. The Interactive Art Directors were asked to wear post-its that state their skills and ambition; to be able to mix and match themselves with their classmates and to create new and efficient teams. This is the new module's first step, for updates, keep reading the Hyper Island blog...

So worth it, is a Video made by a group of hyper island students.

Hi Nathan, Interactive Art Director student. Tell us about this vid:

- It was Created for Doritos Presents: Crash the Super Bowl. Johan Blomborg, Johan Dettmar, Erik Öhlen, Viveca Forsblom Ljungdahl and myself collaborated to come up with something fun and original for the brief. In the end, we created something between slap stick humor and David Lynch style storytelling. All in all we had a great time working together on the project.

So Worth It from Nathan Ross on Vimeo.

The video is a case movie for IKEA PLAYGROUND, our pitch to Ikea for the Interactive Art Director's third module, Interactive User Experience. It was made by Kenneth Larsen, Simon Schlyter, Maira Serra Sougwen Chung,

Ikea Playground™ - a retrospect by Lap of Luxury from hyperisland on Vimeo.

The Interactive Art Director students were given a brief from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners: Make something that will create revenue as well as stimulating all five senses. This is the result:

BabyTalk from Azin Ashourvan on Vimeo.

Created by
Azin Ashourvan, Hanna Wittmark, Layla Cavalcante, Maira Serra, Niklas Edlund

Interactive Art Director 2010 Stockholm student group Lap of Luxury consists of Swedes Kenneth Larsen, Simon Schlyter, Maira Serra from Spain, and Sougwen Chung from Canada.

The group is currently working on cutting-edge social media concepts for furniture giant, IKEA.
To follow the group's progress as well as daily task challenges as a group, such as the video below, visit:
http://lapofluxury.tumblr.com/ - or follow them on Twitter.

Several Hyper Island students have initiated their own workshops recently. Below you can view a presentation about programming, conducted by Interactive Art Director student Cas Lemmens:

Part 1 (the presentation starts approximately 9 minutes into the video):


Part 2:


Looking forward to sharing additional student lectures and workshops!

We were curious to find out what the Hyper Island Interactive Art Director 2010 students have experienced since beginning the program in August this year. Here's what four of the students had to say:

Paula Kreuger from Brazil

How did you find Hyper Island?
Google and destiny. :) I was searching for inspiration last January, and I found the DM09 website. At that time I had no idea about what Hyper Island was, but I was very curious, so I went to the Hyper Island's web page and the more I read about the school and the programs, the more I felt I had to be a part of it. I don't regret my choice at all, I'm loving the Hyper Island experience.

What's been your two biggest learning experiences so far?
There is a continuous learning experience about how to work with groups. This experience is so great because it is useful not only within the Digital Media world, but you can apply in whatever group you are part of. We learn a lot about ourselves and others, become more tolerant with differences and start to see them as a positive aspects of life. Our class is based upon diversity, and that is a great learning experience: people from different countries, cultures, ages and backgrounds, sharing their knowledge and life experiences. More than interacting with technology, we learn how to interact with people, and that is something very valuable.

What was the first module about? What did you learn?
The first module was about understanding group behaviour and leadership, and how to build teams. It's a deep experience, since it is based upon a lot of reflection and feedback and this is something that we usually don't learn at school, at least in Brazil, where I come from. I became more aware of my attitudes, enhanced my perception of how other people behave and became more tolerant. I also learned how to give and receive feedback, not avoiding conflicts but actually learning how to deal with them, which is definitely not something easy to do but extremely important.

What's the new module about and what's your group working on?
We have a great client for this module, a really challenging one: IKEA. In the next 7 weeks we will be working full time in order to find an interactive and digital solution that can attract more people to IKEA's stores. This is great, since the company is successful, open-minded and global. How to take something great to the next level? We shall find out the answer to this question by the end of the module.

Most exciting thing at Hyper Island this week?
Hyper Island has always something exciting happening, whether it is coming from the staff or the students. :) For example, this week we started with workshops, organized by the students who are experts in a certain field and are willing to share their knowledge with the rest of the school. We have no teachers, no books, no homework, so this is a great opportunity to try something new and take the initiative to teach, to research more about what you love to do or always wanted to know about, to improve presentation skills, share and raise the good vibe among the students and of course, have fun! This week, we had workshops about Programming, HTML and CSS, Processing and a lot more are scheduled for the coming weeks.



Cas Lemmens from Belgium

How did you find Hyper Island?
My dad's company worked together with some students from Hyper Island. So he gave me the link.

What were your expectations before beginning the Interactive Art Director program?
I was really looking forward to work with passioned people, people who lived for digital media like me. And besides that I had really high expectations on the lectures we would get, and the study methodology Hyper would have.

What was the first module about? What did you learn?
In the first module, we researched the current digital industry and tried to make a vision of the future. It was something I wanted to do for a long time, and finally gathering all the information I've been researching in the passed few years together with the research of the other group members, really gave our group good insights. It became clear you had to do this almost every year, so you could keep track of the trends, and keep in my mind what really is the future.

What's the new module about and what's your group working on?
In the second module we have to come up with a new idea for Ikea on how that can improve their services in the future. We're still in an early process and figuring out the bits and pieces. At this moment, we're doing research, learning more about Ikea, the company, the future, the competitors and their marketing in order to find holes or malfunctions where we can work on.

What's been your two biggest learning experiences so far?
The first one was the UGL. It made me realize reflection and feedback are really important when it comes to working in a team. And besides that I got to know myself a lot better.
The second one was the first task we had: the research task. I worked together with really interesting people who taught me to expand my boundaries and think further than I normally do. I made me smarter in some kind of way...

Most exciting thing at Hyper Island this week?
I think that would be the workshops that are going on. I gave mine yesterday, and was really pleased with the result. And I'm curious about the coming workshops since it will handle the material I've been wanting to learn since long.

What do you think you can learn from your classmates?
A better question would be: what can I not learn! The people here are great, they all have their experience, knowledge and own interest. I haven't met anyone yet who couldn't give me an interesting talk. I think the best thing you learn from your co-students, is the fact that you'll see a solution from different angles, which helps a lot!



Sougwen Chung from Canada, pictured with the rest of the LapOfLuxury™ group

How did you find Hyper Island?
I found Hyper Island after watching an animated flash self-promotion video by one of the Digital Media students in the previous crews. I think that was about 7 years ago. I was excited to come here after I attended their recruitment tour 2 years ago, I recommend the experience.

What were your expectations before beginning the Interactive Art Director program?
I wasn't sure what to expect, actually. I described it to people as "a digital experiment: what would happen if you stuck x-number of creatives in a room for a year and had them make a handful of amazing projects."

What did you learn during the first module?
The first module included the UGL course. It was helpful in gathering insights about self vs self, self vs group, and the Collective Experience. I wrote about it here.

What's the new module about and what's your group working on?
The current module revolves around 7 weeks of ideation for furniture giant, Ikea. In addition to conjuring up some forward-thinking and fun ideas for the brand, our group is making creative "webisodes" (web+episodes) documenting the process of working together. Check out the teaser and the first episode of our show, LapOfLuxury™ here or follow our daily progress on our website here.

Most exciting thing at Hyper Island this week?
Aside from LapOfLuxury™, I'm probably most excited about all the wonderfully executed programming workshops by some of the Hyper Island students. Today we cover the Processing language, I'm looking forward to it.

What do you think you can learn from your classmates?
Aside from learning skills, I'm looking forward to the discovery process of what I can learn over the next few months.



Thomas Björk from Sweden

How did you find Hyper Island?
I heard about it a few years ago, that it was a really good education, but I never really understood what they where doing. Last year a friend of mine went here and I heard from him what they did and how they did it.
I went to a few "Open Houses" and got really impressed.

What's been your biggest learning experience so far?
Importance to actually practice how to work in groups. It's hard sometimes, but the only way to master it is to practice.

What did you learn during the first module?
I learned so much about myself. And how people around me see my actions. To change my own behaviour I need people around me to tell me what I do.

What's the new module about and what's your group working on?
We are working on a new way for Ikea to communicate with their customers.

Most exciting thing at Hyper Island this week?
When Mary got lost at IKEA and Fatih had to call her on the speaker system. Hilarious!

What do you think you can learn from your classmates?
If I have a question I ask the classmate with best knowledge about it. Almost whatever I ask them about, we are so many people with different backgrounds and knowledge.
More important, I learn about myself by receiving instant feedback all the time!


Thank you all! Can't wait to see what your groups come up with for this module.

One of the Interactive Art Director 2010 student groups present a glimpse into the future of digital advertising:

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.

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.

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).

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/

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)

Today is the last Wednesday we'll get to spend with our Interactive Art Director students in a while - they're leaving us to spend the next 13 weeks at their internship placements all over the world.

Hyper Island's students arrange their internships placements themselves, which makes us even more proud to announce where our Interactive Art Director 2009 students are going;

AD&D, Stockholm, Sweden
Birth, Stockholm, Sweden
DDB Stockholm, Sweden
Doberman, Stockholm, Sweden
Droga 5, New York, USA
Fallon Tokyo, Japan
Garbergs, Stockholm, Sweden
Good Old, Malmö, Sweden
Great Works Barcelona, Spain
Great Works New York, USA
Great Works Stockholm, Sweden
King Stockholm, Sweden
Locomotiv, Stockholm, Sweden
Lowe Brindfors, Stockholm, Sweden
North Kingdom Skellefteå, Sweden
Perfect Fools New York, USA
POKE, London, UK
Storåkers, Stockholm, Sweden
Syrup New York, USA
Syrup Stockholm, Sweden
Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, Netherlands
Wieden + Kennedy London, UK
Wieden + Kennedy Portland, USA

We wish you great learning experiences and can't wait to hear all about it! We'll keep following updates to your site, Space is the Limit, until we meet again!

http://www.spaceisthelimit.com

Hyper Island graduates from Interactive Art Director 2009 make it possible for everyone to reach out to space! The education is world leading within the field of interactive communication and new media. Interactive Art Director ’09 consists of experienced creatives with a burning passion for concept thinking and innovative ideas. The students primarly strive to evolve efficient solutions in the communication and marketing of tomorrow.  At Hyper Island there is a tradition for every class to create a class site prior to graduation and now is the time for the Interactive Art Director ’09 to launch theirs!


- In an ever changing world, it’s a great tradition that our Hyper Island students in such a practical manner show off the creative heights of the education. The fact that every class creates their own site and throws a release party where they invite the whole creative industry is strengthening the connection between Hyper Island and prominent business representatives, Mattias Hansson, CEO Hyper Island, proudly explains.

This year’s class site serves as an interactive forum where anyone can submit a written message which is then published on the website. All messages will thereafter be gathered and sent out to space -  the real space. This is made possible through a collaboration with Esrange, Swedish Space Corporation and their rocket Rexus 5, which will launch out of Kiruna, Sweden in the turn of the month march/april filled with the public’s messages.

- This enables everyone to join in and affect the impression we leave in space, Dennis Rosenqvist, spokeperson for Interactive Art Director ’09 declares.
- In these days, it’s getting more and more difficult to reach out with your messages. There is an overload of advertising and communication in the world. This is why we are reaching for new heights to spread our messages, and we found our space in outer space! Dennis eagerly continues.


In connection to the site launch on february 5th Interactive Art Director ’09 are hosting a massive party to celebrate the start of the project and the launch of the home page.

Interactive Art Director 09 encourages everyone to visit the class site - http://www.spaceisthelimit.com - to interact with and keep up with the process. From february 5th the site is open for the public to submit their messages. This continues until the end of march when the rocket launches together with all gathered messages for space. The rocket launch will be documented by a camera team and the whole process can be followed at the website.

Space is the limit.

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!

Congratulations to Alicia Rissler, Kalle Engström and Fredrik Lund-Hansen - winners of the World Childhood Foundation and Ica competition!
Also to be credited is photographer Ellen Kugelberg.

The three Interactive Art Director students' commercial film "Flickan", below, won first place and is currently being broadcast on Swedish TV3, TV4, Kanal 5, TV 6 and TV 8.


Out of 47 submissions, Ica and Childhood selected six ideas that were produced and presented for the public to vote for their favorite. The students won with an impressive 32,1% of the votes!
The group will be presented with their prize at a Childhood ceremony tomorrow, Thursday.
Well done!


We also congratulate Ola Lissbrant and Filip Kleremark for making it to the final round.

Hyper Island Interactive Art Director 2008 students Namroud Gorguis and Nadia El-Imam won Xtraworks' competition for Swedish Rescue Services Agency website Skyddsnätet.se.

During 3 short weeks in October/November, the Swedish Rescue Services Agency website Skyddsnätet.se advertised a competition through Xtraworks, where the request was for ideas on how to create an interactive and educational website for Skyddsnätet.se aimed at the hard-to-get target group young people and children, ages 4-18.

Eight great proposals were received, but only one of them instantly stood out as the clear winner.

“The choice of Namroud Gorguis and Nadia El-Imam's proposal was immediate, as it contained all the ingredients we were looking for alongside with some unexpected and great new ideas. In their proposal we saw an unusual graphic solution, a beautiful and very creative, comprehensive and easily adaptable design which attracts kids and youngsters, as well as the older part of our audience - something we did not at all expect. They came up with very creative ideas on how to adapt and divide the site in proactive and reactive, a website strategy that we’re missing today. The focus on attractive, interactive parts, mobile content and the educational way to structure the features impressed us in a big way,” says Victoria Egler, head of marketing at Skyddsnätet.se.

Namroud Gorguis and Nadia El-Imam both graduated from Hyper Islands Interactive Art Director program in June of this year and are now working as conceptual Interactive Art Directors. Sometimes on their own, sometimes side by side. Namroud Gorguis explains:
“Me and Nadia as a team, play very well together. This is not the first assignment we do together, and it won’t be the last. We both live and work in Stockholm and previous to Hyper Island we both have a few years in the business, but our experience at Hyper Island made us what we are today.”

The brief from Skyddsnätet.se was short and clear; they wanted to accomplish a comprehensive change to the existing website material in order to better communicate with the specified target group, with focus on interaction, design, search ways and mobile content.

“Our need for an effective way to communicate with the target group is acute, and because of this we chose to skip the traditional advertising pitch in order to save time and to get input from more liberal minds, and that’s why we chose Xtraworks as our partner in this mission. We are very happy with the outcome and believe that we got more out of working with Xtraworks creative minds than we would have gotten from the traditional agency during such a short time span,” Victoria Egler adds.
She continues, “In Namroud and Nadias proposal we identified a new graphical way of adapting a website design, a close to revolutionary and very compelling strategy which I believe would be very hard to match even for the most established agencies that we normally work with.”


We congratulate Namroud and Nadia on a fantastic job!