The HAWRAF Talk — Creativity, Motivation and Relevance
“The communications you put out into the world should invite people to say something back.” — Andrew Herzog from HAWRAF
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to be part of the One&All conference at the Outremont Theatre in Montreal. PeopleLikeUs was one of the sponsors for the event, allowing me to see some of the amazing talks for free. I was busy with setting up our booth and worried about making it back to the office on time, but decided that I had time to listen to at least one talk.
I chose Andrew Herzog’s HAWRAF talk after looking at his website. It was quirky, unique and nonsensical in a way. It was like no other modern website I’d seen, almost like it occupied its own little space in the internet universe.
Walking into the conference room, I saw Andrew and realized that the talk had started earlier than expected. He looked like he was far too young to be doing a talk like this, but I was eager to hear what he had to say. Listening to him, I realized how similar we were. His creativity had no limit and no boundaries. He created for the sake of creating, and if someone found it fun or useful, then that was more than he could ask for.
“Make things people can interact with.” — Andrew Herzog from HAWRAF
Andrew takes inspiration from simple observations. He gave an example of noticing moss growing in a forest. We’ve all heard of how moss grows on the north side of trees. I didn’t know whether that was a Boy or Girl Scout fact or whether someone invented it, but it’s folklore that has been passed on since time immemorial. Andrew took it as a fact, and decided to make life for directionally-challenged city-dwellers like me a little bit easier. He started sticking moss on the north side of random objects in the city, from park benches to fire hydrants. I couldn’t help but laugh at how crazy it all was and also at how spontaneous his kind of creativity was.
“When you give people less tools, they are more creative.” — Andrew Herzog from HAWRAF.
He then went on to mention his world-wide live stream of HARWAF’s creative process. They wanted to record the process for an audience, but ran into a few obstacles. The first challenge was figuring out how to get all the best angles without expensive recording equipment. The solution? Taping an iPad to the ceiling! He showed us pictures of the team, first energetic and alert and, as night rolled in, looking more and more disheveled. They were pretty much ready to give up until a couple of Australian students posted messages on their live stream, stating that they were watching with their classmates and cheering them on. “No matter what you’re doing, someone around the world could be watching, so keep at it”, was his message here.
“The communications you put out into the world should invite people to say something back.” — Andrew Herzog from HAWRAF
During the course of his talk, I started to wonder whether simply creating was enough. Could we not use that energy for something more meaningful? Something that could help bring about change globally? Andrew had the same thought while building a website with designs that people could turn into posters. At the time, massive protests were happening the US against the Trump administration. He and his team decided to use their website to create posters for women’s rights to birth control, which were a quick way for people to get posters to use in the rallies. No matter how small a change we make, it will affect those around us and inspire even greater change. The snowball effect that is produced shapes our future, it shapes history and it shapes the entire landscape of humanity itself. Any idea can be changed into an instrument for change.
PeopleLikeUs is filled with talented, creative, compassionate individuals who come together to make the impossible possible. I want to hone that energy and take it a step further, into the realm of social and political change. Thanks Andrew for showing me that change can happen anywhere.
Check out the Facebook link below to see a stream of the conference:
https://www.facebook.com/DynamicMtl
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