We had a quick chat with Hyper Island Master Class Speaker Darrell Whitelaw.

Hi Darrell! Who are you?
I’m Darrell Whitelaw, a partner and creative director at MIR, a mobile and emerging platforms R&D house with offices in New York City and San Fransisco. By trade I’m a visual designer and art director with a focus on user interface design and user experience. I’ve worked with 5 of the top 10 global brands by ad spend helping to push large corporations into the world of mobile and social platforms.

What types of marketing campaigns have you run in the past?
I’ve worked on everything from hub site builds to global creative campaigns with multi-million dollar social media budgets. My expertise and experience is in the digital space, I probably make pretty crappy :30 spots.

What web service/app do you wish that you invented?
I just sent the patent out last week.

How has the digital revolution change your professional life?
I’m 30 years old, I’ve never known anything but the Internet. The biggest change though was when I was 22 and went from a visual designer to associate creative director in the span on 2 months because I knew how to build e-commerce sites, something nobody else in my organization did. It proved early on that a grasp of digital was incredibly valuable.

What campaign impressed you so far in 2011? (you can’t say Intern Store)
Besides internstore.com? I’ve been pretty amazed with the revival of K-Swiss over the past 12 months for their tubes line of sneakers. It showed a lost brand willing to go all in and try something nobody in a safe place ever would have by aligning with the Kenny Powers character from ‘Eastbound and Down’. I’ve also taken a liking to the mayhem character from allstate, though I think there could be far more done in the online space with him.

What is an example of a marketing tactic that did not succeed?
Anyone remember bud.tv?

How have you incorporated the Hyper Island learning experience in your company?
My company was built from the ground up with a digital focus, the aspects of structure that I speak about at master classes are from direct experience running our company this way. In under 2 years we are on both coasts, have an enviable client roster, and have had the chance to make some of the most challenging work of our careers to date while having fun at the same time. Your learning experience at Hyper Island is what we do everyday, and we are proof that it works.

Meet Darrell at the Hyper Island Master Class!

The agency WABI-SABI Inspiration Lab participated in a Hyper Island Master Class last year and recently won a contest held by PFSK in collaboration with UNICEF & Microsoft. We asked the co-founder Andres Colmenares a few questions about the contest and how the Master Class experienced influenced the work.

Hi! Please introduce yourself briefly to our readers.
I’m Andres Colmenares, co-founder of WABI-SABI inspiration lab. I worked in digital marketing related projects in my hometown Bogota for over 8 years with clients from Latin America and US and then decided to follow my passion for the future studying trend research in Barcelona and creating WABI-SABI where we explore the future and translate it for brands, companies and people, connecting the digital world with real life, and viceversa. We run projects in Spain and Latin America with a global network of collaborators and key partners.

Describe the team, project and how it all came about?
The team involved in the project was lead by Lucy Rojas, my partner and head of research. We identify a link between the PSFK contest and our “corporate vision” which is basically to change the world and decided to work on some ideas for it. The contest was also a good opportunity to translate a couple years of trend-focused research in mobile technology and some ideas we have been discussing with our Youth Research Partners around the globe, into a simple “idea worth spreading” to change the world of consumption.  

We scanned the brief sent by PSFK and picked our favorite challenges, those which involve youth and technology. After a couple hours discussing ideas visually, we decided to focus in two concepts. Then we applied the “Laws of Simplicity” (thanks Mr. Maeda) reducing the possibilities to a simple idea which we tagged as 1×2, playing with the traditional offers we find in every supermarket, where consumers are used to receive more by giving away less. Fundraising is about turning this upside down, turning consumers into people who understand the real value of sharing.  Companies like TOMS shoes and Warby Parker are inspiring examples of how this concept works.

Now we are extremely happy with the results of the contest and we are committed to bring this concept to reality with the help of our global network of collaborators. We are starting to work with like-minded people from US, China, Spain and Colombia to develop the whole potential of the “1×2: offers to share” concept.

The contest was based on a “The Future of Tagging” report. Tagging basically started with the original tag being barcodes and it’s moved from QR to more complex tags and Google Goggles. Where do you see tagging in 2015?
I’m reading Ray Kurzweil’s book “The Singularity is Near” which explains how difficult it is to make predictions about technology and its use since we are living exciting times of exponential evolution. In just four years from now I think we’ll be using tagging massively with not only mobile phones but a wide range of connected devices. Anyway who knows, as Yogi Berra said “The future ain’t what it used to be.”

Did any particular insights from the Master Class inspire you with this project and how you worked with it?
Definitely. During those intensive and inspiring 3 days at Hyper Island NY one of the key learnings was the relevance of having an insight as the starting point of a creative process instead of the traditional big idea. It may be something basic but it is a common mistake in the creative industry obsessed by the myth of the big idea. People first.

What was the easiest/most difficult part of the 1×2 project?
We don’t know yet, this is just the beginning. It will be fun.

Any tips you’d like to share for the award hungry industry folks out there?
Think of ideas your mother will understand and be proud of.
We also have two doors in our small office “Imagination” and “Skepticism”, they are very useful.

Thanks for the interview & big congratulations to WABI-SABI Inspirational Lab from all of Hyper Island!

“I still find it incredible that the industry is still rooted in an idea (ie art director/copywriter teams) that was developed in the late 1950s. Given the speed of change around us, this just seems odd. However with change comes excitement and new possibilities. And it is certainly true that those agencies not borne of the digital era still hold the advantages of client relationships although these will only hold out so long (as we have seen with the likes of Anomaly picking up business from Fallon).”

Read the entire article by Hyper Island Master Class lecturer Daniel Fiandaca here.

Hyper Island co-owner and Master Class lecturer Mikael Ahlström was interviewed at the Dutch media professional conference MWG in Amsterdam. A great resource for anyone who wants to get a quick crash course on Hyper Island and what we do!

Guardian’s Sarah Hartley went back to school “after 20 years in the news business”. We’re not going to give more away here. Head over to the Guardian and check out the article “Media lessons from the world of Mad Men” for the full story!

Testimonials from the Hyper Island Master Class in New York, September 2010.

Featuring Frank Dattalo (Energy BBDO), Manuel Torres Kortright (JWT), Jennifer Taylor (CFA Institute) & Neil Powell (BMB New York).

ClickZ reporter Anna Maria Virzi gives an inside scoop of what goes on at a Master Class. Anna Maria attended Hyper Island’s Master Class in New York and published this article on her experience.

“For users, ads are annoying, especially when displayed over a YouTube clip or next to a friend’s pictures. “

Professor Jonathan Briggs writes an interesting, and tad bit provocative, article in New Media Age about traditional online advertising being outdated (already?). Read it and provide your thoughts directly to Professor Briggs in the comment section over at New Media Age.

The Hyper Island Master Class is popular! The first two of 2011, in London and New York, are already fully booked but during the spring Hyper Island holds at least one Master Class per month in Karlskrona, London, New York and Los Angeles. Register soon to make sure you get your spot!

Enjoy 2011!

Last week was great fun and very humbling for Hyper Island. The Master Class was a hot topic in Fast Company’s article about the future of advertising and the discussion since has been really interesting to follow!

During last week we also had the first two Master Classes in Asia as well as two in USA, one in Sweden and one in the UK. We will have a Master Class in London next week, December 1-3. It is still possible to register for the last few spots – of course, early birds get the worm!