Humanaut Seeks Brains to Join MotherBrain Creative Community
Independent agency Humanaut has launched MotherBrain, a collaborative creative community that works remotely on assignments and serves as an extension of its in-house team.
The creative training and recruitment platform is designed to discover the next generation of talent—without actually working together. It allows Humanaut to post projects, briefs, and educational videos to a growing community of hundreds of creatives and expand the talent pool beyond freelancers to reach creative folks outside the industry.
Humanaut’s mission is to get good things inside people’s brains. Members of its remote team are compensated for most projects and can work with top talent from around the world. In a recruitment video, Founder/Chief Creative Officer David Littlejohn says he’s “not just looking for cocky creative professionals,” and suggests that everyone from students to stand-up comics, writers, actors, illustrators, designers, and “quirky moms with way too many ideas” sign up. “We want your brain inside the MotherBrain,” he says.
The MotherBrain evolved out of Homemade, a year-old Humanaut project that arose out of the pandemic and quarantine. With employees working from home, Homemade was a way to maintain creativity and collaboration while workers were socially distant. Soon, Humanaut decided to invite other creatively minded people to join the project. So far, members have crowdsourced several assignments. They’ve created Instagram “Socialnuggets” for Dickel Tennessee Whisky, starred in ads for Crunchmaster chips, brainstormed questions for The LIV Project’s suicide-prevention game for teens, and crafted Human Service Announcements (PSAs) for Covid and other causes.
“It’s simple, you give us your brain and we give you a peek inside our process and a chance to jam on our most rewarding projects,” Littlejohn said. “Our goal is to bring creators of all backgrounds together in one place, to do cool sh*t for great brands or causes and get paid to do it.”
The MotherBrain is different from other crowdsourcing models because it is not a “winner-take-all” (or winner-take small) approach. The shop sends the assignment out to the most relevant creatives. For example, a writing assignment would be sent to writers. Participants are told in advance how much Humanaut is paying for the assignment, how many people it is accepting to the project, and when the assignment is due. Everyone who participates is paid and the best work is rewarded with additional payment.
The MotherBrain is not a marketplace platform for talent, nor a traditional crowdsourcing tool for brands to get free or cheap work. Humanaut develops the strategic and creative briefs, curates the best ideas with input from the collaborators, and actively educates creatives on its unique process. As far as Littlejohn knows, a platform like this has not been launched by any agency. The MotherBrain work feeds directly into the Humanaut creative process. The agency has already hired two MotherBrain creatives to full-time Humanaut positions. And in the future, it's how it will train and discover the majority of creative talent.
