We hear the story behind an extraordinary class project that allows the world’s most promising digital designers to get noticed. Student and project manager Sanna Wickman talks to us exclusively about Hyper Island’s 53 Colors…

SW = Sanna Wickman, student of DM10sto and project manager for 53 colors.

www.hyperisland.se
http://53colors.com/

WD: What is/was the purpose behind the 53 Colors project and why might it be beneficial to Hyper Island students?

SW: The purpose behind the project is the module Marketing & Promotion, which aims to make us students learn about Marketing, promotion and public relation. 53 colors is the name we have chosen for our class: Digital Media 2010 Stockholm. The project consists of different parts: a website, a release party and different PR and guerilla activities to promote our class, the site and the launch party. The benefits lies in two different areas, actually. The short term benefits is that the project gives all of the students a chance to be exposed and promoted in the industry, so that we more easily can get internships and get to know the industry and the people within it. The long term benefit is that we through the process learn about marketing and promotion, by actually doing it! We learn the tools of branding, strategy, and public relations, which will be useful throughout our coming careers.

WD: How did 53 students manage to come together so effectively to produce such an effective website?

SW: Well, it sure wasn’t easy, and the project was full of challenges. Both technical issues like choosing a platform for and building the site and agree upon a concept for the campaign itself, but also to get every individual in the class to work towards the same goal. Most of the people in the class are very motivated and ambitious, but that also means that there are 53 strong minds that needs to get together and agree upon something. The website is actually just one part of the whole campaign, which consisted of many different parts. The key success factors was that everyone got to contribute with something that they felt was important or fun. We tried to make everyone involved, both designers, project managers, planners and developers. To get a proper overview of the project and guarantee that the campaign felt solid as well as no one in the class was left behind, we had a project board group consisting of project managers from each group; the concept, sponsorship, design, website, event, PR and strategy group, as well as a project manager and two production managers for the whole class. The board group met once a day, to brief each other on what was going on within the different activities, ask for help and share success stories. Once that everyone was on the same track and started to put their soul in what they did, everything just happened. It was amazing to be a part of that process!

WD: How long did it take to build?

SW: The project started in the middle of January and the site was launched the third of April, so it took us about two and a half month to do this. The amount of time we put on this project has shifted over time though, we worked with 53 colors 8 hours a day (sometimes more) for four weeks. The rest of the time everyone has been doing other school projects parallel with 53 Colors.

WD: What kind of pressures or challenges do students face when it comes to being noticed and given a chance by this industry?

SW: The biggest challenge in getting noticed by the industry that we faced in the beginning of the project was to do something that had never been done before, and do it good. It’s basically as simple and difficult as that; to get attention by the digital media industry it just isn’t enough to shout as loud as you can, you have to have something important to say and say it in a creative way. The internet is full of different messages and people who demand your attention, so you really need to be unique in every way to succeed. The challenge for us as students was also to find that exact tone of voice that is suited for our target audience; the industry, and to be present not only on our own site but also where the industry already is: in social media and forums that they visit every day.

WD: Are there any lessons from 53 Colors that other students worldwide can learn from and what quick tips might you pass on to them from this experience?

SW: Personally, my biggest lessons from this project is that if the ground upon which you plan to build your house is solid, you will be able to create amazing architecture. It’s the same in any project. Don’t rush into a project without talking and thinking it through! That might work when you’re working on your own or in smaller groups, but if 53 people is supposed to be a part of the same project, you need structure. Lots of it. So my advice is; talk about it! How are you going to co-operate? What are you going to do and who will do it? Plan as accurately you can and make everyone involved in that process (the developer is probably the one who knows best how long it will take to get that flash-script working, not the designer). Make sure that everyone feels important and motivated, that way they will do their best. Realise that everyone makes a difference. If someone gets left behind you loose a great deal of creativity and important insights along the road. Before we started this project, I (the project manager) had individual sessions with every person in the class, talking about their goals, skills and challenges. I think that was an important factor in getting everyone engaged with 53 Colors.