Checking in with Hyper Island Manchester

Hyper Island has launched a new, postgraduate level program at the school we helped them to launch in Manchester. Subject to validation in December, Interactive Media Management will be Hyper Island's first MA award and will be accredited by the award winning Teesside University. It builds on the immense success of the NESTA funded pilot, which saw students working on real briefs for the likes of Coke, Google, Sony Games, Oxfam, Nokia and Sky.

We checked in with David McCall, Director of the UK school and interviewed him for the Hyper Island blog, captured in the above video. In it, David reflects on the highlights of the journey so far including the day that Hyper Island students presented their work to the global Head of Creative Excellence for Coke; and talks about plans for the new Interactive Media Management MA.

For those interested in learning more about Hyper Island, there is a great article in Contagious Magazine about their recent weekend Master Class with LBi.

For anyone interested in Interactive Media Management application are due to close on 30 November 2011, but you need to get you skates on as the sort-after places are filling up. If you are not sure if Hyper Island is for you, here are two further videos to give you a sense of the journey:

The Hebe Week In Pics

Two of our favourite cities combined: A Barcelona bar in Manchester!Interviewing Hyper Island student and fashion designer Dom!Shang Ting in the Hyper School, ManchesterMitch, ready for his close up @ Hyper IslandSo awesome to check in with the students and find out what they have been up to in the past 5 monthsTeam Heebs loving the street art in ManchesterLee likes to think he is like the F1 presenter with his iPad :)Shang Ting and I hit the Harvey Nichols X Land Rover fashion showMy favourite dress!Shang Ting's favourite (so angelic!)Dinner on the HN Fourth FloorFull after the second course!But we fit in dessert ;)Shang-Ting Jordan Swedish people eat weird stuff :s

Look back at August

August was a bit of a crazy month here at Hebe! Watching and making films, partying / drowning at festivals, kick-ass presentations, cool events, photo-shoots, funny interviews, intriguing meetings, Stockholm, Manchester, London and much more. 

We have been working behind the scenes on a number of new projects including Creative Encounters in Stockholm, Taipei and Hangzhou. We have also agreed two new partnerships which we will be annoucing officially in the next week or so.

LOL! Leeds Online has made great strides in the past month and the Facebook Page alone is about to pass 47,000 members. We are also developing ideas for further platforms and content for the project which should start to go live during September.

UK Observing Diary is still kicking ass and attracting millions of views every month. The girls are in the final stages of writing their eagerly awaited first book. Clair is now blogging for Vogue Taiwan so big congratulations to her on that! Shang Ting is leading our charge in Asia and we are putting peices in place for some amazing Hebe events and experiences over there including a Taipei x London x Leeds Creative Encounter!

Looking back at the blog during August, we have been mainly taking pictures! Shang Ting's Street Style, Stacey's Week in Pics and an update and new gallery from Simon on his residency at Whitechapel Gallery in London. We also posted some of the (publishable) pictures from our Barca Crew Reunion including partying with Howard Marks and Louise Rennison. 

We are launching a couple of new features on the blog during September that we are pretty excited about. Plus after around 18 months of trying to figure out our 'about' page, we think we have finally figured it out (but dont hold us to it!)

Peace out for now!

Hebe Week(s) In Pics

Stacey interviewed Mick McCann for LOL! Leeds Online"I am easily the best looking writer in Leeds!"As with most of our interviews, we hit MOJO in Leeds, still our favourite bar in the world ;)We had a new delivery of of Lee's research reading...
Showcase is so old that it is starting to have that nice retro feel about it nowWe got these awesome bar stools a couple of weeks agoThe legend is now in his frame and takes pride of place in Hebe landWe said we would not give into Krispy Kreme, we failedWe hit Leeds Pride last week. Was packed despite the rain!Easily one of the best events the city hasWe hit Hyper Island in Manchester and as expected, magic is happening in there right now

The Hebe Week In Pics

We headed over to Manchester for the Hyper Island launch partyThe Hebe Team taking a stroll around the Northern QuarterShang Ting and Stacey the tourists!In Hyper Island, Can you guess who's shoes they are?Inside Printworks, ManchesterShang Ting goofing around in Papa G's, ManchesterShang Ting is snap happy in the train station; no more trains for us, train drivers suck!Shang Ting and one of our old friend's art in Manchester Papping the Papper!Back in Leeds, yesterday it was Mentos central! This was a Mentos train dancing in the street!And the streets were filled with musicians!Spotted: New Pizza Express on Albion Street, what do we think? A nice view of Round Foundry and Temple Works