One down, 29 to go!

This is Axel Widén, reporting from Daddy in Gothenburg, Sweden. Starting one week later than most other kids, I've just finished my first five days here. Its been a blast! I've worked mainly on a pitch together with some really, really amazing people. Seeing highly creative, highly experienced individuals throw around ideas like they were popcorn is very inspiring! Its just so awesome to see how fast their minds work and how quickly they're able to leap from concept to concept while still maintaining focus. It also shows me how much I still need to grow and how much I have to learn, which makes me feel humble and excited at the same time. The pitch went really well, making the long hours of constantly changing wireframes feel worth the effort. I've also done some messing around in After Effects and had some beers. Can't complain!

Everyone has been really nice and helpful, and I feel very comfortable here. I'm being put to work hardcore and I'm actively participating in real projects, which makes me feel that my internship is being taken very seriously. I'm learning constantly, and its already very clear to me that the internship is the part of Hyper Island where you will pick up the majority of your skillz.

That being said, I was pleased to discover that Hyper Island has prepared me well for the internship. In many ways the methods, atmosphere, language and frame of mind here is very similar to that of the school. The main difference is that at this place, everybody knows what they're doing. Nobody can afford to dick around or whine. To me, this is Heaven.

But I still miss you guys.

Now beer!


Love,

/Axel

Creative Space <3 you

I'm having my internship at Creative Space in my hometown Stockholm. The office is situated on Södermalm and it's quite convinient since I just moved to a new apartment in a suburb just south of Stockholm city so it just takes me fifteen minutes from door to door. I chose to stay in Sweden for my internship because I love Stockholm and I tend to get homesick quite fast ^___^

My first day at the office was quite hectic since I got three different tasks to handle and I had very little time on my hands to solve them. I didn't have time to be nervous so I just plunged right into work.
Since then I've been helping with different projects and right now I'm illustrating for a website that distributes designer lingerie. It's great fun!

It's my second week, going on third, and I really like being an intern here and everyone is so cool, nice and helpful and I feel more like a co-worker than "just" an intern.
Every friday there's "friday-beer" and that means that we drink beer and/or wine at the office and invite people from the same business to come and join us.
(If anyone of you interns in Stockholm feel like dropping by any friday you're very welcome to do so!)

Anyway, that's all for me. Miss y'all and hope that you're doing fine at your internships.

XOXO

// Susan Nygren

A week and a half at North Kingdom

I'm currently doing my internship as a Project Manager / Producer at North Kingdom, Stockholm, and so far I must say it feels really good.

So what have I done so far?

• I've got my own desk with a lovely MacBook Pro and an external screen
• I've done a lot of beta testing on a project that is to be delivered on 1st of December
• I've got my very own project to manage, that feels really scary
• I've got a lot of papers and reports done about project management and projects. So I've had a lot to read
• I've got a Creative Director to promise to buy me lunch unless he has bought himself a gym card by next monday
• I'm now a member of the "we who plays Mario Kart at lunch break" team
• I've been beaten in Mario Kart each lunch break so far =/

So overall it feels really good to be here. Everyone is very nice to me and take themselves time to answer my questions and let me in on feedback rounds. So becoming a member of the team here at North Kingdom has been a walk in the park.

Much of the conversations are made in English, we sit in an open office environment and there are some former Hyper Island kids here so let's just say I feel right at home.

A bad thing is that the floor is leaning, so if I lift my feet of the floor, I'll end up not being able to reach my keyboard after a few seconds. Well, it's something I can live with, and the floor is being fixed soon anyways.

















That's all I can think of for now. When you hear from me next time there will be a lot more to report.

Take care and good luck everyone! And for heavens sake, remember to drink some beer and have fun out there! =)

//
Björn Blomquist
Project Manager Intern
North Kingdom

BANG BANG

Me and Petter was refreshing the Dm09sto blog ALL day to see the lates entry. Until I notice at 22.00 that I was suppose to blog today! MATHA FAKKA, YOU FAKKIKING KAKAROCH!

Bang Bang… That's how my first day at Domani Studios started. The life here at Bedford ave in Brooklyn, Ain't easy. Right now I'm living were Jay-Z grow up. Now I really understand what he raps about.

I'm kind of telling the truth… 1094 Bedford ave were I live (together with Petter, Felix, Madonna and a friend of Felix and Petter called Robin) is known for being a "bad" neighbourhood, and there where a shoot out this Saturday and Jay Z was raised in this neighbourhood. But is not that bad as it sounds once you get to know the neighbourhood.
But me and the guys have found apartment. It's cheap and it's on wikipidia. It took us exactly one week to get it and I'm really looking forward to move in (we move in the 1 of Dec).

Domani Studios is a really good place to do your internship I think. Everybody is really nice and they brake you in easy to the world of internet and commercials and you know things like that…

Observation nr 1: American people talk like people in sitcoms.

Observation nr 2: Brooklyn is hipsters paradise (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAO4EVMlpwM)

Observation nr 3: Hipsters in Nyc look like scum from Carmen (a anarchist bar at Södermalm in Stockholm)


/Daniel "Pikkan Pajas" Piquer

24h in Barcelona

After being in Barcelona for just one day this is what I’ve found out so far:

• Fannie and I live in a quite nasty neighborhood, but that neighborhood is apparently seen as very fashionable by the locals.
• On La Boquería you can buy “komule” as a delicacy.
• You can buy things with funny names at the Vodafonestore

• On La Rambla there are a lot of hookers. But they don’t look like hookers, they just stand still. Apparently if you are a girl and you stand still on La Rambla, you are a hooker, so whatever you do don’t stand still on La Rambla!
• Wine is really cheap! If you’re lucky you can make a real bargain and find wine for just 1euro.
• It stupid to try to be a local and walk around without a map when you have absolutely no clue where to go.

Otherwise everything is great in Barcelona! Since I started my internship today there’s not much to tell you about it, but so far everyone are really nice to the both of us.

**Update: After two days in Barcelona I've also learnt the bad way that you shouldn't relax for even a second. You can't be safe anywhere. My laptop almost got stolen right before my eyes at an internetcafe, luckliy they dropped it and my dearest laptop was saved**

//Annie

QUE?

The first thing that struck me when I arrived to Madrid was: I'm not nervous! When I think about it, that's the key thing to why everything seemed so weird before and after my arrival. I was not nervous!

On my arrival I called Sergio, owner and founder of Serial Cut and he met me up at the metro station. We went up to the studio so I could have a look and repack some things to my backpack. He also showed me my desk and workstation (Mac-friendly of course) in the studio that was very bright, fresh and cool and so on. 

That weekend I put myself to mingle-mode with the ambition to blend in and talk to some Madridians. This is how it went:

Stage 1: Get a English-to-Spanish parlor! I bought a Spanish-to-English parlor. 

Stage 2: Read and try to learn some phrases! I was filled with confidence after a 15 minute read.

Stage 3: Try your skills out! Where to go? I decided to get myself a movie ticket!

Stage 4: Talk to someone! This is what I said to the lady at the ticket office: 

- ¡Hola! Quisera una billete de Transiberian, por favor! (said with a confident smile!)

Stage 5: Wait for an answer! This is what the lady said to me, as I heard:

- ¡Hola! Una onjuifkoka sdlkjljieuo nnbmnbasd, trerthoñlk sdjlçásdjl, si?

Stage 6: Repeat stage 2 for little bit more than 15 minutes! 

This past week I've been working with typography and layout on a project for a spanish clothing company, it's been kinda fun. Next week we're starting up a project for the biggest name in music television that includes material for a large event. For this weekend I'm going to: move in to a newly renovated and refurnished flat, do some skateboarding, drink some (and then some) cerveza, learn some more spanish and hopefully meet some more friendly Madridians.

Madrid is great and I recommend everybody a visit!

¡Salud!

/Jimmy

This video shows the places I'm going to visit this weekend:

The black sun never sets in Paris

First week at Soleil Noir in Paris is coming to a close and it's time for me to assess.

Things have started off slowly, but intensely! I'm currently working on some minor stuff on two projects which are both really exciting, although there's a lot to get 

acquainted with! Everyone is really nice and going out of their way to accommodate their first non-french speaking intern! 

Paris is lovely and I'm loving it here! I'm spending my days eating desserts and working. Profiteroles, Moelleux de chocolat, crêpes de nutella et coco! Miam miam! Here's a picture of me enjoying a cigarette at one of my favourite café's. 

Although the work is going pretty smoothly, the language barrier makes for a few weird situations. To say that my understanding of spoken french is "limited" is like saying that the reception of the movie adaptation of the video game Max Payne has been "Mild". I misinterpret a lot and by the time I've figured out which word someone actually said, they're already well into another sentence. 

The fact that french slang is based on the concept of reversing words make me even more confused! Mec is cem which means guy, Fête is etêf which is party.  

But in a way I don't want to become any better at french, it makes for a pretty interesting day hearing people talking about things that always happen "at a party" instead of knowing that they are actually saying "In fact" and working with someone named Waffle instead of the harsh reality of not working with people named after pastries. 

à bientôt, darlings!

/

Andreas Palmerén

ps. Don't forget to vote for the Alfa Romeo Experience site by Soleil Noir at the 2008 MAX Awards! ds.

London and Advertising

It is a bloody circus. I hate to say the word bloody, but it is truly a bloody circus and weirdly enough I like it. London is the city I am talking about.

My new life started three days ago. Samuel and I took a plane from Arlanda Airport. Everything went well until we had to make an emergency landing in northern Denmark, a passenger suffered from a heart attack, life is cruel. We finally arrive at Heathrow Airport. Our bags were here lost and retrieved after forty minutes of nervous waiting. After a series of problems, we arrived at central London and it turned out that most tube lines and buses were closed.

We met up with Rasmus Knutsson who greeted us and took us to the apartment in Hackney. It is a very lovely. Expensive apartment. A lot of buildings are worn down since the World War, but between these depressive buildings are usually nice ones, no one here have ever had the thought of tearing down these old buildings or replacing old water pipes. They like it as it is, and reversed traffic is probably most favoured.

It is Sunday, the day before work. Rasmus, Samuel, Gustav and Rajdan hooked up their Macbook Pro's to LAN this day. In the mean time I went out for sightseeing in Hackney, it lasted for five minutes. I realized that it was not much of an attraction and joined the other guys with my Macbook Pro. Six identical computers, It was a nice view.

Monday, first work day. Not nervous, but curious. I met probably five people from several departments at AKQA, and everyone was very professional. I am in the creative department, working with creative directors, copywriters, designers and art directors. "Creative Intern" is my role and I love everything so far. I am currently working with a very intensive, huge pitch for an exclusive car brand. With that being said,

I haven’t tasted a London dry martini yet.

/Andreas L

L.A

Hi.

I've been in LA for almost a week now. The city has been treating me good so far, got a great place to stay right now, two students from Hyper Island, karlskrona letting me crash on their couch. Will be looking for my own apartment to share with an upcoming intern at my agency soon.

Im doing my 7 month long internship at Buck(www.buck.tv), today was my second day. The studio is spacious and in the middle of downtown, the people working there all seem great and I've been well taken care of. There are a few other interns there from europe and the states, lots of young and old very talented people.

I've got thrown right into production and I'm enjoying myself so far. not much to say after just two days. All really good impressions so far.

Coffee machine works great.

hope everyone else from dm09 is having a good time!

out

Axel

I love neighbours.....

One week at Firstborn, New York. I´m having a great time, working with some really talented people. I began with a real project my second day, right now working with the super genius french guy behind the flash 3D engine Five3D, Mathieu Badimon, and he´s a great resource for everything I wanna know about anything anytime. That´s great, cause I´m struggeling with a second Physics Engine in one week. I´m pretty sure, this experience will give me a lot, and will prepare me more than well for my future career in the business. It feels great. And that´s not all Lundmark, the Tweener guy is here aswell.

Besides that, I met my new neighbour, our really friendly, sociable, dear neighbour, he told us he was going to call the police the first time he saw us, just saw us in the staircase. I´m very curious about who he´s calling when we throw our first party...

That´s my first week...

And Martin S, I think I´ve found the restaurant!


/ Daniel

Time for our internship period, the question is....

Are we ready?