Many people wonder what it is that I do for Hyper Island as I’m not actually lecturing that much. For the first 5 weeks of 2012, I was the module leader students studying Digital Media in Karlskrona for their “Branding & Visual Design” module. It all began back in the summer of 2011 when I was part of a small group of industry professionals who studied the entire Digital Media course for 2012 and discussed wether or not modules needed to be updated or adapted to current market conditions.

I was then appointed to lead this module which basically includes planning and running the entire module with the help from Hyper Island staff. In order to manage I needed to have a person running the module in Stockholm as introductions and presentations take place on the same dates in both Stockholm and Karlskrona. I reached out to one of the lecturers I had back in 2000 when I studied at Hyper Island, who I always been inspired by, Patrick Sundqvist (now Creative Director of Perfect Fools).

We then started to build up the module with all the essentials that we felt were needed to give the students a complete overview of what it takes to build a brand and to visualise an identity.

The module started with an introduction lecture on the history of branding and how branding is something that’s always been part of our society, wether it’s people marking their possessions (or themselves), burnmarking cattle, or as we know it today – logotypes and visual identities.

1. Design Reserach
One aspect of branding I feel that is essential is research and to have good tools for conducting an understandable research. Söderhavet came and gave an excellent lecture on research that included both personal tips, valuable tools as well as case studies.

2. The Design Process
After this I knew that the students will be eager to get started! So we need a visual genius that have experience and talent, that can showcase great stuff and explain how he goes about actually creating his designs and what his process for doing such is. I turned to my friend and amazing designer, Pelle Martin who came and gave a highly appreciated speech.

3. Logotype development
So far the lectures have been focused on digital and the people giving them have been digital professionals. In order to give them a more nuanced picture of brands and development I invited design agency Kurppa Hosk to come and lecture and do a small workshop with the students.

4. Building a brand
Finally I wanted the students to understand that in today’s fast moving society, a brand is something much more than just the visual identity. Through a friend I got in touch with Global Marketing Manager of Spotify, Sophia Bendtz, who of course was the perfect person to give such a lecture. I am forever grateful for her flying in from the States to talk to the students as I know how much it meant to them.

Apart from the planning, all the arrangements and schedules to match I was at Hyper Island for a follow up sessions during “half time” to see how the students were doing.

Finally I came back together with two other advertising professionals for their final presentations. Although I’ve been working with Hyper Island for the past 5 years on smaller and larger modules, I am still amazed at the quality the work the students achieve in such a limited amount of time. DM13 in Karlskrona – you have a bright future ahead of you!

I’ve been spending this week at Hyper Island in Stockholm for a Master Class. It’s a great experience regardless of your digital savvyness aimed at marketing and advertising professionals that need to strengthen their digital skills and understanding.

I had a session on Day 2 where I started with sparking the participants with some inspiration cases before firing up a workshop; Working with ideas. In just 45 minutes they came up with some amazing ideas on how to reach users through digital for a given brand.

For a better idea of the discussions that are taking place, follow and engage in the #himc backchannel on twitter.

Last week I was responsible for the design specialization at Hyper Island. The 4-day course’s aim was to give all of the students at Digital Media 13 a basic understanding of what design is and how we can work with it.

We started the course with a very basic introduction to design and how to go about when solving problems. The introduction focused on the most important part of the design process: identifying the problem that we are trying to solve.

The students were then given an assignment to redesign something related to Apple, but were free to choose wether it be iTunes, iOS, the dock in OSX, physical products or even the visual identity.One of the most common questions I received afterwards was why we had chosen Apple as a brand. Our idea behind this was:

1. - as we had very limited of time we needed to choose a brand that the students already had some sort of relationship with. Regardless if they are Android or iOS users, PC or Mac, it’s safe to say that all of them have a relationship to Apple in one way or another.

• - Apple is somewhat considered as a brand that’s, by many, seen as “perfect”. However, when you do a good research and analysis, you’ll find that there are many small parts in the big machine that could be improved (through design, usability, etc).

The fantastic thing with the presentations was that although there was nearly 50 students, there was at least 40 different design suggestions for improvements. I saw a great redesign of Game Center, an amazing Notes/Reminders app, a great iTunes, a motion sensitive remote as well as a great improvement to AutoCorrect.

I’m really looking forward to coming back to Hyper Island in December to continue working with their great students!