# Jason Michael Holland

Jason Michael Holland (born 25 January 1971) is an English designer, university lecturer, writer and awards judge who created the 1997 website Head-Space, which is included in Management Today's Ten Websites That Changed the World, and is an acknowledged blueprint for intranets and a precursor to YouTube. Holland is also credited with a number of other interactive firsts.

## Early life and education

Holland was born in 1971 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, to Michael Holland, a Quality Controller from Codnor and Linda Holland (née Finnerty), who was from Clowne. His early childhood was spent in Brinsley, where he attended Matthew Holland School, now renamed Selston High School.
Holland studied the First Diploma in Art and Design at West Nottinghamshire College (Mansfield) from 1989–90, followed by the two-year HND Graphic Design and returns frequently to mentor and lecture. He studied for his BA (Hons) Degree in Graphic design at Northumbria University from 1992-1995.

## Career

In 1995, Holland joined Hyperinteractive - one of London's earliest web design agencies - as Senior Designer. He has since founded three digital agencies. The first was Head New Media which became the UK digital arm of Lowe Worldwide. Head New Media included the specialist Interactive Television agency Head End that produced the first interactive commercials for Tesco and Unilever. In 1999, Holland and his then business partner, Felix Velarde were the subject of Keeping Creative, an episode of BBC Knowledge's 15 part series, "The Crunch", profiling innovative entrepreneurs. The documentary was made by Uden Associates and is still broadcast occasionally in Europe as part of BBC Worldwide's business education strand. Head New Media also sponsored the non-commercial, online creative community, Head-Space, that incubated prominent community websites including Urban75 and John Lundberg et al.'s Circlemakers.org. Head-Space has featured in the travelling exhibition Digital Archaeology since 2010, and has been recognised as a digital artefact of considerable historic and cultural relevance, a germinal precursor to YouTube.
Holland's next agency Underwired was equally innovative, pioneered the discipline of eCRM and rose to be named The RAR eCRM Agency of the Year 2015. In March 2016, Holland launched THE CRM Agency. with fellow Internet veteran John Thew.

## Personal life

Jason Holland now lives in Surrey with his wife, two daughters and two Alfa Romeos.

## Notable Internet innovations

1995 designed the UK's first University Degree Show CD-ROM
1995 created the first interactive production featured at the D&AD Student Expo (now called New Blood)
1996 created the Sci-Fi Channel's first interactive TV tests
1996 designed the Snickers MegaBite website, which Campaign magazine described as Mars’ first real attempt to establish itself on the Internet.
1997 created the website Head-Space, which is an acknowledged blueprint for intranets and a precursor to YouTube.
1998 Designed first Interactive Television advertisements for Tesco and Unilever

## Not-for-profit lecturing, mentoring & judging

D&AD – “Turning your design portfolio into a job” masterclass
D&AD – portfolio surgeries and student mentoring
Farnham Sixth Form College – “Nurturing Digital Talent”
2005, 2014-5 BIMA Judge
2010-2015 Visiting Lecturer for Students of FE and HE courses across multiple Art, Design and Digital Media levels – West Notts College, now known as VISION
2013 to 2015 School of Communication Arts, Mentor
2014-5 DMA Judge, Best Use of Technology
2015 The Drum DADI Awards
2016 Visiting Lecturer, Hyper Island

## Awards

1994 Creative Futures Award, UK's Most Promising Talent, Creative Review
1995 UK's first University Degree Show CD-ROM (also featured on the cover of Creative Review Magazine)
1995 First Student to show an interactive portfolio at the D&AD Student Expo
1996 Won the Marketing Design Award, the MacUser Maxine and an EPICA for Snickers MegaBite
1997 3 D&AD Awards in Interactive Media
1999 Cannes Lion (Best Online Community) for Head-Space (co-created with Felix Velarde)
2002 Internet Professional Publishers Association (IPPA) DX Design award for Art Community Redism, Bass Beers Worldwide
2005 Webaward for Outstanding Achievement in Web Development for Superscape
2006 BIMA Award for Best Use of Email
2006 & 2007 DMA (Direct Marketing Association) Gold Awards
2008 Interactive Media Council award for Outstanding Achievement for Respro website
2011 Head-Space included in Management Today's Ten Websites That Changed the World.
2015 eCRM Agency of the Year, RAR Digital Awards