Could you please tell us about Hyper Island Exhibition 2002 that was held in May?

All students of Crew 6 have been working for some time now on their final exam projects, the longest and hardest individual project before we are all graduating. Twenty exam projects were showcased in Stockholm, Sweden this May and it was a total success. We have received tons of positive feedback and since this was the first time any Crew organized their own exam exhibition we are all very proud that we made it this well.

The special thing about this exhibition is that we organized it ourselves with very little help from the school.

We launched a fairly big marketing campaign of our exhibition. There were posters all over Stockholm. We were wondering why the posters were taken away so fast and it turned out to be partly because Stockholm has a very efficient street cleaning, but also because people liked the poster and took it down to bring with them. The posters and flyers, designed by Lotta Rahmn of Crew 6, was an important reason why there were so many visitors coming to our exhibition.

What do you feel now after planning and organizing this event?

I feel relieved. It has been hectic, frustrating yet fun. I learned more from this project than any other project throughout my whole time here at Hyper Island.
We were four people Asa Hoistad, Susanna Warborn, Anders Denne and myself who organized the whole event and together with the rest of the class we made it happen.

As for the cover design for this issue, what sort of process did you take to run this project? What did you image?  Please pick up the difficult points when you were making this design and your favourite points of it.

We were a few people that put some time aside the final exam project and the exhibition to figure out what we should do. We had many ideas but it was first when we narrowed down what kind of feeling we wanted to mediate that the process started. We wanted to illustrate the bonding between Japan and Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland). We have the impression of that many designers and people in general in Japan and Scandinavia are intrigued by each others designs and cultures. At least, many of us are.

An illustration of a supposedly Scandinavian boy and a Japanese girl kissing would in some ways mediate what we wanted to achieve. The illustration was made by Mira Nameth of Crew 6.

We also thought it would be appropriate to show everyone that Hyper Island is not only focused on graphic design, but that we possess the technical skills too, hence the colliding balls with the SHIFT letters inside, coded by Johan Halse of Crew 6.

You are going to graduate soon. You will work as a professional at the media industry, not a student. What would you advise to students who wish to study this area from now on? Also, please tell us your ambition to the future.

I think it is very important to find out about who you are and what it is you really want to spend your life doing (I am not totally sure yet myself). I think that the key to feel accomplished is very often to be able to be flexible and not only to be really good at one single thing. That is what I have learned throughout my days at Hyper Island. Take time to experiment when you can, start up projects with your friends, try a little of this and a little of that whenever there is time.

Right now I think it can be very hard to find a decent job in the media industry, but as long as you feel confident that you are the man for the job and you can prove it you have nothing to fear.

After spending six months in New York at Method Inc during my internship I am unsure whether to stay in Sweden to work or to return to New York. I have also been thinking about immigrating to the video games industry, after developing a Nintendo Gameboy Advance game as my final exam project together with my class mate Johan Halse.

Please leave a message to Shift readers.

It is 4.20am and it is bright outside now. This is something I am familiar with by now. Studying at Hyper Island has to me meant lack of sleep, lots of pizza and coca cola since the first day. However, this is something you choose yourself. I chose this life to get as much out of my time at Hyper Island as possible, and to not have to do this later in my life.

In six hours I am no longer a student at Hyper Island, since that is when my graduation is. I got to go home and get some sleep before it is time to get up and get ready for the long day that awaits me and the rest of Crew 6.

Take care and be nice to each other.
From Sweden with Love,

Hyper Island
Address: 14 Bastionsgatan, S-371 32 Karlskrona, Sweden
Tel: +46 455 30 7777
info@hyperisland.se
https://www.hyperisland.se