RAW Magazine Issue 5:
HAWRAF
http://hawraf.com
Q: Where do you live?
Carly Ayres: We all live and work in Brooklyn, New York. We just moved into a studio of our own in Bushwick—not too far from Roberta’s and our daily staple, the Deli Grocery.
Andrew Herzog: 40.730208, -73.954264
Nicky Tesla: typey typey
Q: What brought you into web design?
Andrew Herzog: We all came from a few different backgrounds. Carly studied physical product design, Nicky is a reformed Systems Engineer, and I have my Bachelors and Masters’ in Graphic Design. I worked at a few different ad agencies, then a small design studio before ending up at Google, where I met these two delightful, amazing human beings.
Carly Ayres: For us, I think it has always been about making sure we have the necessary knowledge to tackle whatever it is that we want to do. We call ourselves a ‘medium-agnostic’ studio because we work across a range of mediums—both print and digital—to create things for ourselves and for our clients. Our main focus as a studio is making things that invite people to interact in meaningful ways, and websites happen to be one of the best ways to do that at the moment. Depending on the project, however, the result might be a print campaign, job application, newsletter, chatbot, t-shirt, poster, installation, activation, or what-have-you, but it will always invite users engage in some way and be a part of that conversation.
Nicky Tesla: I was having what I thought were “BIG ideas” in Uni and I thought that I needed to learn to program so that I could bring ideas into proof of concepts or products. Met these two at the Googs and we hit it off, now we make all sorts of things!
Q: Who are/were your idols at this time?
Carly Ayres: I try not to have any idols. Burn your idols.
Nicky Tesla: You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
Andrew Herzog: Allen Iverson.
Q: What does your typical day look like?
Carly Ayres: Our day typically kicks off at 9:00a. Nicky rolls in around 10:00a, creates a French pressed pot of coffee, and with proper caffeination we all kickoff with a daily stand-up shortly after. After aligning on where all our projects are at, updating timelines, checking our pipeline—we splinter off into our own tasks and responsibilities, tackle any meetings, write emails, build websites, and try to get out of here by 7:00p. Somewhere in between, we usually grab pizza or rice and beans at Roberta’s of Deli Grocery, then consume them. We try to drink a lot of water throughout, as well.
Nicky Tesla: Water is important.
Q: What kind of music are you listening to during work?
Carly Ayres: Usually whatever playlist Nicky has been into at the moment. He tends to be the unofficial disc jockey of the studio.
Nicky Tesla: I’ve been curating this one playlist for the past five years, tracking whatever I’ve found memorable at the moment: [Move playlist]
Q: What tools are you using when designing/developing?
Andrew Herzog: The tools usually depend on what we’re making. Everything usually starts with a lot of sketching in the beginning—whether it’s on a whiteboard or in a sketchbook. After that, it’s usually juggling between whatever tools are necessary. Sometimes the tool is a camera or Adobe Illustrator or code or a ball of string.
Nicky Tesla: Computers lol.
Q: What does your work-process look like?
Carly Ayres: A lot of talking.
Nicky Tesla: Depends what stage things are, things usually start at a high-level with all of us pitching in and once concepts get solidified we diverge a little more and dive into the execution. Then usually a few more rounds of converge → diverge → converge along the way.
Andrew Herzog: Along with a lot of talking, in the beginning we usually draw out our ideas together on a big white board. After that it’s what they said ^^^^.
Q: Your best piece of work?
Carly Ayres: This interview.
Andrew Herzog: The friendship that’s blossomed in this studio.
Q: Your worst piece of work?
Carly Ayres: This interview.
Andrew Herzog: We tried to make candles once.