WIF - Webdesign International Festival > The blog.

China enters the Wif at the speed of sound

WIF team — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:16:25 +0000

Last night at 3:00 am, the very first Chinese short-listing begun in Zhengzhou. A great step for this huge nation that joined the WIF countriespartners network beginning of the year.
Organized by Filigrane, Henan state regional council, Industry & comptuting minstry, China Mobile and Huawei mobile operator, the very first Chinese short-listing gathers 50 competitors professionals or amateurs on a unique theme revealed last night: Speed !!!

What an interesting though really tough topic. This morning we got in touch with competitors in Zhengzhou and we should get quite soon their feelings about the webjam and the theme. Here and now we’re pleased to share with you the pics sent by our partner in China, Wenmbo Ma.

Wif Introduction to the media

Few minutes left before the theme annoucement

Teams working

…

3rd Norwegian team interview: Løsbart

WIF team — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:29:07 +0000

They are young and restless after a white night… and some heavy power drinking! The Løsbart’s boys are here to testify about WIF’s side effects!

Can you introduce yourself?
We’re two 18 years old students, Aleksander and Nader, from Norway and we represent the youngest team in the Norwegian preselection. Our team name is Løsbart which can be translated both as solvable and fake mustache.
Neither of us are professionals, but we do are best and are pretty satisfied with what we’ve accomplished for the last 24 hours.

What made you come to this preselection? What do you expect?
Well, we came to the preselection because we both saw this as an opportunity to meet the big guys and hopefully get a few new friends in the business.
We didn’t actually expect much of ourselves when coming here because we’re so young and lacking of experience compared to the rest of the teams. What we expected was to get a challenging task, a couple of minutes of sleep and a good time.

What do you think of the theme?
Neither of us are big fans of VG, but the idea itself was really exciting. We were both pleasantly surprised by the theme and we had a lot of fun working with it. We’ve got to agree with Kaptein internett, it was a good idea to connect the theme with the release of the Apple iPad.

How is it working out for you?
We’re actually finishing up right now and we think it went pretty well. Maybe not the best design, but we’re quite confident on our idea and concept. We had a couple of stalls during the night. One of them took one hour to fix, and it was just a really minor detail in the CSS.
Some teams probably have better results than us, but we’re still early in our learning process. Some of the other competitors are after all our age combined.

Anything you’d like to add?
Great event! We’ve drunk two litres of RedBull each. AWESOME SPONSOR!!!

All right guys. We hope you got a great deal from the sponsor (besides the drinks).

2nd Norwegian team interview: the Web rookies!

WIF team — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:17:46 +0000

It was 7.00pm yesterday, the Web rookies’ girls were in a rush but kindly answered the deadly WIF questions…

Can you introduce yourself?
We are Johanna and Noa. Currently we’re studying webdesign in Oslo. So that you can understand our team name: “ Web rookies”. We are graphic designers who want to expand our skills to include the web.

What made you come to this preselection? What do you expect?
We thought this would be a fun challenge and came mostly to learn.

What do you think of the theme?
Definitely a challenge ??? Fun to work on such a real case.

How is it working out for you?
We are still working on paper so we hope to make the deadline.

Anything you’d like to add?
Not at the moment.

Thank you girls, keep on getting experience!

1st Norwegian team interview with Kaptein internett!

WIF team — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:35:48 +0000

God knows what means this team’s name… Anyway they were the first to take some time to answer the usual preselection questions through Skype and with style!

Hi there, can you introduce yourself?

I´m David 33 years old and designer.
Stian is 36 and interaction and user experience.
Frode (missing in the picture) is conceptual and… 4?
We´re all pros from the same company: miksmaster.no. We work with digital, design, advertising and PR (30 people)

Is the Mötörhead t-shirt official?
It is, as is the mug. We´re planning hardcore interactive solutions!

What made you come to this preselection? What do you expect?
We came because we were invited but also because it seemed like a fun challenge and hopefully good PR for the company. It´s kinda what we expected really: an interesting problem to solve involving various medias and aspects.

What do you think of the theme?
Good, easy to get a grip on, can be solved many ways and covers a wide selection of medias. It was a nice idea to connect it with the release of the iPad.

How is it working out for you?
I think we´re doing alright actually, still working on paper for the moment. Can´t really add anything right now…

Anything you’d like to add?
See you in france! We like our slippers soft and our coffee hot!

Ok, make it to the final and we’ll have a Mötörhead session! Bye!

Norway’s preselection is live (and massive).

WIF team — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:00:01 +0000

The Norwegian subject is revealed… and it’s massive! Read it (and learn more).
Here it comes:
How can VG adopt iPad as the main platform to engage their readers?

We admit that a few explanations can help and so they come…

A context:
The media industry is in a crisis, due to the decline in circulation and ad sales, new digital arenas, and new business models. At the same time, the industry has “everything”, both in terms of content, position, experience and expertise.
A new infrastructure adapted to digital distribution allows for cross platform delivery and multi-mediaservices and experiences (see Board / iPad; smartphone / iPhone / applications; pc/mac, cloud services;) (text, image, audio, video), both edited and user generated, both content and social network services.
Norway’s leading popular newspaper, VG, which focuses on news, sports and entertainment, wishes to exploit the introduction of the iPad, its unlimited access to content and partners, its editorial expertise, the new technology and its significant market power to launch a unique service by the end of 2010.

And the task content:
Design a concept, which includes interfaces, user experience, content and a business model that engages and creates loyalty to one of the following selections of target groups: youth 17-25; women 35 to 45; men 50 +.

As we put it, this is massive… Good luck to the Norwegian competitors!

Russia will make it to WIF 2010!

WIF team — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:46:32 +0000

It’s official now! Russie is the 8th partner country to set up his own physical preselections this year. And 2 russian teams will be rocketed to the Webjam final in France next June!

Will russian bring a bit of crazyness to the Webjam final? Considering the value of some digital agencies over there, we do think so…

So the russian preselection will be physical this year and happen on March 12th&13th in the good city of Obninsk. It is the city itself who stands out as a partner for this very-first Webjam in eastern Europe.

Obninsk is about a hundred kms (60 miles) from Moscow and has been declared as an official “Science City” by the state of Russia in 2000. This city was built right from the forest and close to the first atomic power plant of the world (that is to say in 1956). Here’s for History.
Right now in Russia Obninsk is synonymous with innovation and thriving economy.

Let’s see how this all turns out in terms of webdesign in less than weeks!

InVision: professional skills meet amateur’s ones

WIF team — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:59:22 +0000

Power cuts, ftp reboot services, the mini-storm, that blew so much in our region, made the Wif Staff mission not so easy to achieve. But here we are, ready to interview a new team. Masa, professional webdesigner and Kenta, his friend, still a student, answer to our questions.
Nice to meet you Team InVision, could you introduce yourself ? Are you pro? Students? Where are you from?
I’m Masayuki, professional web designer from Japan. My partner Kenta is a student from Japan. He sometimes works at my company as a graphic designer on his vacations. But his major is chemistry, not design or art. He is talented.
Did you ever take part to the WIF? Why did you decide to register to the webjam this year?
I did it last time. I was so excited to make a website in 24 hours. I’m going to join every time.
How did you react to the announcement of the theme? Do you like it?
I didn’t expect this kind of theme at all. I was surprised. But I’m really motivated and enjoying making the website for it.
Who is doing what in your team?
I’m doing graphics and programming. Kenta is doing graphics.
Do you have a lucky charm?
Yeah. Garlic rice and power drinks!
How is your creation going?
We came up with a good idea. We’re making some of the contents first.

Team Kayac inc., Live from Japan…

WIF team — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 19:39:30 +0000

They have set up a stream for us to follow the full process of their creation for the Japanese short-listing and publish a twitter feed. Dealing with their vision of the theme given by Tama Art University, they give us an interview.
Can you introduce you? Names, Jobs, City of origin….
We are web site developing professionals named KAYAC Inc., the FUN Corporation. http://www.kayac.com/en/. Now we are at our head office located at Kamakura, historic old capital of Japan, and working on this project overnight.
First involvement in the Wif Webjam?!
Yep, this is our first participation. We think that it’s exciting to create web site within a day.
And what about the theme?! Do you like it?
Yes, It’s really nice to think of our own culture. We would like to appreciate to have chance to think of it.
Who does what in the team?
(Daisuke) Atsushi Hashimoto is in charge of design and illustration, Toshihiro Shimada is the programmer, flash developper, and I, Daisuke Yanasawa, is the project manager, I’m also in charge of copy and writing.
It’s 10 hours now that the webjam has been launched… What’s up?!
We have fixed our plan. Now we are focusing on production. We keep updating what’s going on at
http://www.webdesign-festival.com/2010/equipes/preselections/kayac/
We are broadcasting whole process on USTREAM.

Kuma-Choo(-rlie)’s Angels…

WIF team — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:00:44 +0000

What’s coming next? Kuma-Choo team from NEXT Studio in Tokyo…
So tell us about you…
We are professional web creators. We work in a company named “NEXT”. We work on architecture information. We focus on management of portal site of the information about real estate company.
Why are you competing?
It’s our very first entry. We were really interested in the 24 hours jam. We wanted to know and try our level of skill on web development.
How did you react to the theme given by TAMA Art University?
It is very interesting and enjoyable ! A very good theme with opportunity of spread.
Who does what?
(Keisuke) Yoko Oda is the team leader, she’s in charge of planning, direction and design. Emi Sakamoto is dealing with planning, design, coding and flash. And I Keisuke Isono is in charge of planning, development.
Any lucky charm?!
Nothing specail, we just enjoy our friends’cheering on twitter.
What’s the result of your work so far?
We spent a long time with planning, but no problem with real works.

un-T Factory webagency! Read!

WIF team — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:36:01 +0000

Second interview of the day. In Tokyo, it’s 1:00 am…The occasion for our competitors to have a break and send us pictures, comments and feelings…
Can you introduce yourself guys?
We are designers of the Web design production company “un-T factory” in Katsushima Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo . We are young. hahaha!!
First participation to the Wif?! What’s the reason why you chose to be part of it this year?
Because We want to go to France!!!!!!!!!
At the annoucement of the theme, how did you react?
We thought that how to catch local culture is difficult.
Who is doing what in the team?
(Asou) I’m the Tsukkomi, that is to say the Leader, Tetsu is Fanny and Kawakubo is known as the Boss
Do you have any lucky charm?
When we take a bath, we enter it from the right foot.
How is your creation going on?
We think about idea of the conte now. Enjoy WIF!!!!!!!!!!!
Good luck to you guys, night is going to be long, long, long…