Ruel’s team had approached us for the occasional, last-minute lyric video for some of his hit singles. There are a few that I’ve worked on, but I had the most creative input in ‘Growing Up Is ___’

Warm, fuzzy nostalgia was my design focus, so I opted for heavy texture, scanlines, and a dreamy ‘long drive in the backseat’ motion, as if you’re staring out of the car window.

On the first day of working on this, I was coming up to the chorus, but I had no idea how to approach it. During my lunch break, my boss lamented ‘Oh man, I just realised we should’ve used the glowing rectangular boxes from his live shows’. That suggestion couldn’t have come at a better time:

The camera motion was a huge aspect of this video, as I felt that a floating camera helped convey the emotion and story of the song. In the third verse, when the tone and pace of the song changed, I leaned in to the quietness by taking the camera ‘under-water’ to a different scene. The colour change and dramatic, floating tonal shift matched the emotional beat of the song and helped keep the video engaging. The watery ground and floating particles look great in 4k.