Happy :)

Hellooo,

So I’m back in Sweden after being at G2 in Barcelona, I quitted my internship there because I was only the little intern there doing the things they didn’t want to do and I didn’t learn that much...

Now I’m at a much better place called Happy Place in Gamla stan, it’s a very little, only 7 people working and a big boxer dog. They have some really interesting projects going on here, and it’s a lot of fun! I’ve got my own little project and I’m also helping the other here with some bigger projects so I’m learning a lot and its fun.

They also have "the drink bears in the office Fridays" and they also have Xbox tournaments, playing everything from guitar hero to hocky so it’s not always working...

Well It was nice being in Barcelona and I really miss living there, it was always something to do, watching out for the ghetto kids or just hanging around, well its gonna be nice here in Stockholm to when it stop snowing and the spring will come...

Well that’s all for now, ciaoo /Fannieee

Insert catchy headline here

Hey everyone.

Yesterday on my way home it struck me how fast time goes, i know it sounds cliché. Then i started reflecting on how much i actually learned on my time at Blackboard thus far.
I came to the conclusion that i have learned a lot actually, not so much of the stuff i had hoped to learn like 3d and animation but other very usefull skills like typography, colour composition and how to come up with good ideas. All this new knowledge can then be applied in my personal work.

These last months i have been working with different graphic profiles for some exciting clients, i find it very refreshing to work with logotypes and print for a change. Also i am finally doing some work in 3d.
I also find it very useful to have contact with clients, setting up meetings and presenting my work. At first i felt like a fish out of water but with some practise i now feel pretty comfortable with the idea.
And i love the obligatory "Let´s drink beer in the office" fridays.

In other news, spotify is my new best friend and the highlight of every morning is when i check my and Raoul´s collaborative playlist for new tunes.

Thats all for now, hope everyone is having a blast.

/Jamil

Finnish cellphones vol 2

Time to write in this blog again.

Got two new projects now, that i will see from the beginning to the end. Will be really fun. One of the projects is for Nokia, its very interesting to work with Nokia because its such a large company with operations all over the world. Wich sometimes makes it a struggle to get the materials you need for a certain campaign.

Here is a very small site i built for Nokia, you can get five free tunes from the Nokia Music Store. http://microsites.nokia.se/musicstore/freetracks/

Two weeks ago we had the second volume of Daytona Sessions. The event was very successful and there were very good speakers. You can check out both Daytona Sessions Vol1 and Vol2 over at vimeo.


Pictures from daytona sessions Vol2.

And by the way, Daytona have opend up their very good library so that everyone can lend books from it! You will find it here.

Since last time the, heres one of the projects i have been working on.

Alectas Vasaloppsblogg

Alecta is one of the main sponsors of the skiing event Vasaloppet that takes place between sälen and mora.
We built a blog for them to record their warmup and progress throughout the race. I worked with wireframes and some other minor tasks regarding the campaign.

http://blogg.alecta.se/

This is another headline...

It's been quite a ride since the last time I posted.
First of all, I'm not going to continue my internship at Holler in Sydney to the end of June.
It's been fun, I've met great people and learned new things along the way.
I'm now on the market and open for business. :) (Currently on the lookout for a new agency)

I just wanted to take you through some cool stuff that's been happening in the Holler office lately...

One day during the morning routine of browsing through various "so-hot-right-now-sites" on the internets, we noticed that we had gotten awarded with an FWA - Site of the Day for the work on the 6 Beers of Separation campaign site!
http://6beersofseparation.com.au/

Holler and FHM have launched a sweet little competition site where you can design your own magazine cover, in the browser or download a PSD to mess around with.
Take home $5000 and spend one week each at both Holler and FHM. Easy money! (If you know what you're doing :)
http://fhmrecovered.com.au/

And just after I left, this guy moved into the office...


http://between0and1.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/chill-bot/

Back in Stockholm soon!
That's all for now.

Cheers,
John

A period of uneven workload

Björn reporting from North Kingdom, Stockholm, Sweden.

So what have happen since my last report?

• I still got my desk with my lovely MacBook Pro and all other cool stuff
  
• The beta testing is done, the client was Toyota and the result is here
  
• My own project does not feel scary anymore
  
• I'm tired of reading all my papers and reports about project management, even tho they do come in handy once in a while
  
• The Creative Director did buy the gym card in time, so he escaped from the lunch buying deal, however, he has only been there like twice since he bought it
  
• We don't play that much Mario Cart anymore, reason is that the room is almost always occupied with meetings
  

That was an update from my last report. So what has happen since then on all other fronts?

• As posted a couple of weeks ago, we launched plugintothesmartgrid.com which was "from-start-to-finish" project as a Project Manager / Procucer intern
• I've been doing some work for the release of Tele2 Norway so I'm pretty tired of Frank the sheep now
• I've been working on a big pitch, and got my idea presented to the client, unfortunately we did not get the job, but it was a great process

• I've moved to a first-hand apartment now, so no more worrying about having to move again in 6 months.
• I passed my training in Bodycombat so I'm now a Bodycombat instructor aswell. Just for

My master caught me in a golden moment the last day of my education (means that I was hardly able to kick at all due to cramps and tired muscles)




Early stage of the Augmented Reality project for plugintothesmartgrid.com.




Anyhow, I still enjoy my time at North Kingdom and it feels like it's gonna be a great spring. (:


So for now, over and out from the North Kingdom in the middle of Sweden

//Björn

Its always sunny in Stockholm

There was no struggle for me to find an intership, the biggest problem was do decide where to go. The week before the LIA started I was on my way to Palladium but something happened.

The thing I didnt do was to ask exactly what they tought of my internship, and since I was looking for a project management intership there was a lot of problems. They could offer me a great time at their agency but it wasnt right and since I'm a backstabber I direcly went to Ottoboni Group, they offerd me an intership as a production manager right away and just a day later I signed the contract. It felt really good.

So today, friday the 20th of february I sit infront of my computer(PC) and write a blogpost about the place were I probably end up working at.

During my time here at Ottoboni I've learned a lot of things but the most importent thing is to be kind and humble, those two words can take you all the way to the top. I also learned that the work isnt all, the biggest thing is to participate and be a part of the gang so that you will be importent to them, I basically do this with money.
If you offer someone money they want to be your friend. That's how the world works. Thank god for my salary. (Cigarettes also work but since I try to quit I dont have many left of them).

What have I been working with then?
My biggest clients is Cylinda and Svenska Institutet, two big projects where we are buildning new websolutions and develope more featuers. I was also involved in a project for grammisgalan 2009, awesome.
I've also been involved in a pitch, my part was to hold parts of a presentation for the client and to write the offer. It was a success since we won it. Great. So now Im 100%, 1 of 1 pitch won. Perfect with great stats, almost as good as HEADSHOT!

I think this turned out pretty good for me, now for some other stuff.

• The release of Vargpaktens debut album is the 24th of April so buy buy buy. Its amazing.

• We nowdays refer to Jamil as a Blemo.
  

• The best conversationstarter is still the subject about when one of your friends wee-wee on a floor infront of a sleeping guy. People love it.
  
  
• I have actually talked to Svante at Studentmedia about hooking up with them and join them for Hultsfredsfestivalen. Awesomeness!
  

for you guys out in the world, remember us back in Stockholm.
Stay tuned for more info.



PEACE OUT!
/ patric

Super dingue à Paris!

Hello darlings! 

It would seem I missed my mark for posting another update here, but better late than never. 

Good news everyone! My first solo project as a developer at Soleil Noir just launched!

The site promoting the indian electric car REVA in France has dropped and, along with it, the jaws of environmentalists everywhere! We hope!

So thanks Team REVA, Sophie, Sylvain, Romain and my main man Tonio. We Rox!

Here's a picture of me with the little toddler

So other than saving the planet, keeping kittens cute and crapping confetti, I've been keeping myself busy. Plenty of stuff has been going on chez Soleil Noir! We've moved to a fancy new address, 1 Rue Du Mail just off of Place des victoires. YES the office isn't just number one in mail, it's also just by THE PLACE OF VICTORIES. 4 teh win doesn't even begin to describe the shear win-ness of the address. Won the Adobe MAX award, of course! And what else... Oh yes, we'll continue to be awesome this whole year as well so stay tuned! 

Laters!

/

Andreas Palmerén

http://www.revafrance.com

Revision!

Right! I forgot about how the post needs to be a certain length, so here's an essay about my favourite blog:

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com

Cake wrecks is amazing because it combines my love for pastries, with my love of miserable failures. The harsh reality that often times an overwhelming enthusiasm for a subject isn't paired with a stellar talent in depicting said subject in cake form is just lovely to behold. With the soccer cakes and the pokémon cakes and oh the lengths some people go to, it makes my heart beat faster!

I love seeing the "doll-cakes" some poor sap of a mother has mad for a ,let's face it , probably morbidly obese and most likely ungrateful child and think of how they both find each other in a moment of unbridled disappointment for a short moment before gorging themselves on, what in an uncreative cake would be rather pleasant tasting but has been replaced with something of a more rigid and moldable nature.

You would think that I'd appreciate the fact that all this work has come from good intentions and will be treated as such by both onlooker and recipient of said cake, but nothing could be further from the truth. Cake wrecks, in it's essence is the human experience, right there in it's sloppy misshapen form! 

this is probably long enough.

Andreas out.  

Help!!!!

I really don’t know what I’ going to write about. Change or not change internship place?? Of course I’ve been learning how to deal with comunication’s problem but the thing is that I’m not learning the things I want and need to. I don’t think I’ll be preparead to be a good project manager after this intership. So frustrating... I've talked about it at my internship place many times. It doesn't help! To change internship place??? I’ve thougt about this many times but it’s hard to change now in the midle of it. There’s no internship place available anywhere in Stockholm. And this time I'll try not to leave, I'm going to to fix this and turn the misstakes into a good thing. Sorry guys if my report to this blogg is so confusing… so am I right now.

Thank you Roger, for all your support!!!!

Wine and dine, read and weep or whatever...

Heyheyhey a bit late but it doesn't mean it's fake. At least I'm writing unlike a coule of others, hrm.. hrm... This text will problably be quite short, had a busy day and need some sleep. Since misshappenings seems to be what amuses people the most I will start with those.

The newly renovated flat I was going to move in to wasn't really newly renovated, it was more of a construction site that now, finally, is more or less completed. Lucky enough my roomies (one from Cyprus actually, Nico the Greek represent yao!) are supernice and we can all complain and wine about the situation together.

It's been a lot of work since after Christmas so the last month I've been really tired. And the winter has (so I've been told) have been the coldest in Madrid in like 40 years, lucky me. I was so tired at one time I really didn't know what to do, I couldn't understand why my brain wouldn't work when the alarm was beeping in the morning. Somehow, one night, I forgot to close my window before I went to sleep. When I woke up the morning after I felt as healthy as a nötkärna. That's how I discovered the reason for my problem; since my room is quite small I've problably been more or less smothered since it hasn't been enough fresh air when sleeping. Leave the window bit open = problem solved.

I also went to IKEA for the first time, last Sunday actually. The time to get there i aproximately one and a half hour, included a 20 minute walk from the metro. When I got there it was closed. One and a half hour to get back. That's a pretty dumb way to spend three hours...

I've experienced and learned so much since my arrival that my tired little hands can't possibly write it down for y'all. Been visiting and meeting up with people as well, thank you all for a great time and more to come. Life at Serial Cut is more than satisfying with a wide range of different projects and methods of achieving the final results.

Last words: hip hop is your friend, sorry for not posting something more interesting (check out YouTube for something cooler), be nice to people, beer is good and religion is just stupid.

Tada, that's all folks!

Your truly, Grand Master J.

SKATEBOARDING, GRAPHICS AND CERVEZA

I went off to Barcelona to do my internship at Great Works. I borrowed a apartment from a friends friend that was away to shanghai for a couple of weeks. The flat was really nice and close to my favorite skatespot called Universitat. So at night time after work I went of skating and just chilled with my friends. The wheater was wonderfull even in december when it sucked in Sweden. The sun is always shining and when it was the coldest you had a hoody. Later on I had another big apartment with two cats. And the girl that owned it was out traveling so i didnt pay much at all for my own fresh 90sqm apartment.

The weeks was mostly the same: Skateboarding, working, cerveza, clubbing and hanging at the beach on weekends.

-

At the agency I got to do alot of fun projects and had alot of responsibilty. I was trown into it almost the same day as I arrived to Great Works, and I liked it alot.

Kristian that is the boss over there treat you like you are one of them and that is very nice to feel that you are playing in the same game. They push you alot and makes you to do things that you never done before, It was very clear from the beginning that they want you to learn and not to be a coffe maker.

It was a fun time over there but just after Christmas people decided to quit so I thougt it was a good time to leave also. I told them that I needed more designers above me so I could learn more and they understood that.
I think it was a good decission and I want to work in Stockholm after my internship, even if its cold and grey here.

I can always go back on weekends now to meet up with my friends. The spanish friends said the same, "its better to come to barcelona for vacation and not to work since the sallery is awfully low". Some people earn 800 euro the most and apartments are more expensive then in Stockholm. But you can always do frilancing with clients from other countries, Then it would be great to live there.

Maybe I got them a new client from japan also. We will se later on how it turned out.

-

If you are going to Barcelona you have to come by the best pub ever called Betty Ford " like the clinic". It is placed in the upper Raval, hard to find but you will not get dissapointed if you find it.
They are just like one big happy family over there and if you get to know one of them you know everybody quite fast.

-

So now I am back in Stockholm again and are going to do the rest of the time at Farfar on Kungsholmen. So on monday it's back to game again and it will be alot of fun & hardwork. So I am exited to see how they are working, heard alot of good things about them!

-

Ciao
Niklas

David Letterman, Benny Andersson and me.

From pastures of Balkans where goats go free straight to the capital of the world, Rome of today’s roman Empire, Mothership of all ships, city that never sleeps, New York, New York. And Broadway!

Being given a chance to fight for the greater good in the name of Barbarity and actually sit in the same room as whole bunch of other Barbarians for 7 months, came up as a dream come true ever since I saw Thundarr as a kid, which followed with hero of my childhood, Conan. And conquering the world in barbaric way by doing awesome work has been inspiring to follow and hopefully take part.

THE FIRST DAY- everything as planned until I was informed about “Happy Mondays” where Barbarians go out and drink like adolescents after work on Mondays without any particular reason so they thought it would be appropriate to make new intern so drunk on their cost so he can do embarrassing things that this blog or any other blogs will never write about. Everything ended with a collective call-in-sick Tuesday. Not an exemplary start for Nemo, Hyper-man with ambitions.

I love being in NYC ! But there are some things that do match with my expectations (listed as ACH JA!) and some things that have made me dissapointed (NICH-NICH) here it comes:

ACH JA!
cops DO eat doughnuts and drink coffee in beside their cars, drinking games at fraternity parties do kick ass (WASAAAA!), people are generally nice to tourists except when you ask them directions to twin-towers and show picture of it in a guide-book -rule number one: don’t mention the war on terror, also, don’t make jokes about Obama, America is just not ready for that in this historical moment. African-Americans do say “nigga” to each other but it doesn’t give right to the others to do same.

NICH-NICH:
Taxi driver laugh at you when you point on a car and tell him to follow it, restaurant personnel in China town can not kung fu (at least they don't use it on regular basis), Italians in Little Italy are actually Little Mexicans with no Rocky Balboa accent. Cops don't read you your rights when they catch you going on subway without a valid ticket (but they do tell to take out hands from pockets so they can see them) and there is NO coffee place called "Central Perk".



A Formal Friday salute from roofs of Broadway to you all!
Nemo

Learn and Live

I make errors all the time. The reason is because I am fortunate to learn from talented people.

I have been working at AKQA on the Fiat account since joining the team as a Designer. Experience and knowledge is my surrounding. I work directly with an Account Manager, a Wireframe Architect, a Copywriter, a Project Manager, a Creative Director and my fictional Assistant.

Chris Williams, Creative Director – “It will take you years before you become an Art Director.”

I love what he says. I am already producing for Fiat as a Designer and I make progress, this is my start, here you have to earn your title.

Looking outside my office window, I can see the snowy rooftops of Farringdon and close to the south clearly stands St Paul's cathedral. Living outside the office is completely different to living inside. Little snowfall means no work, closed banks, closed schools, shops and most certainly no transport.

London is a challenge,
Friends, I might stay here.

Andreas Levin

North Kingdom reports about Augmented Reality

I'm extremely curious about what you guys are working on. So I thought that it would be really fun to post some links/screens of completed work so we all can take part of it (:

Yesterday (February 1:st) was site launch for http://www.plugintothesmartgrid.com/. This has been my first "from-start-to-finish" project as a Project Manager / Producer Intern at North Kingdom Stockholm.

The really cool part about this project, and also the part that I've been involved in is the Augmented Reality part. A rather new technique witch basically is an application that trough your webcam trace a pattern and apply 2D or 3D graphics/animations on it.

The direct link to that part that I've been working on is http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality. Please try it out, print the marker, hook up your webcam and play with the different 3D environments (and reveal the secret with the wind turbine... blow the microphone to find out!!)

Below are also some youtube clip with our application.








I hope everyone is doing great and is having a great time out there in the world!

//Björn