The DRVN Social Podcast · Episode 4 · · 63 min
I wanted theearth toswallow me up
From behind the camera to building brands. Episode 4 sits down with co-founder Alex Bull on the journey from professional production to running an agency, and what it really takes to build something of your own.
Co-founders, DRVN Social
In episode 4, Aron turns the questions on Alex, the agency's co-founder and creative director, about how a quiet kid drawing in the corner of the art class ended up behind the camera for some of the biggest names in UK media.
The kid in the art room
Drawing always came naturally to Alex. He spent every free lesson in the art room. But growing up in the Valleys, he never really believed you could make a career out of it. When he told family he was studying graphic design, the reaction was, "People pay you to do logos?"
He started on a product design course, switched to graphic design, and picked up a camera along the way. The turning point came at the end of university, when he won two D&AD awards and agencies in London started asking him to come in.
London, and coming home
At 21, he moved to London within two weeks, sleeping on a spare-room floor to take the job. Two years there, as a junior designer and then in motion design, taught him what would have taken five years in Cardiff or ten in the Valleys. It also taught him that the big agencies are "winging it just as much as anyone else", and that the work could be done anywhere.
Losing his grandfather made him re-evaluate everything. He left London, came home and went freelance, then spent four years at a Cardiff production company working on films for brands such as O2, Twitter, Openreach and Yamaha, as well as Public Health Wales and the NHS. They called him the Swiss Army knife: designing titles, animating, shooting on set. He says the biggest lesson he took away was that culture is everything.
The episode title
As a freelancer he filmed the first series of the Peter Crouch podcast. That led to a live show at Wembley Arena in front of 12,000 people. Alex was stood right next to a guest when the entire arena started chanting at him, camera rolling. That's when he wanted the earth to swallow him up.
Why video, and why DRVN
Design can only make you feel so much. Video adds sound, movement and storytelling, which makes it the most powerful way to change how someone sees something. In every edit review, his test is the same: make me care.
DRVN exists because of a gap he and Aron both saw. On one side there are expensive high-end studios. On the other there are social agencies without the production experience. In between, brands need consistent social content made to a high standard and built around how people actually watch.
"Get comfortable with being uncomfortable."
Advice to his younger self
- Find the thing that makes you tick. The obsession is what separates you.
- Be your own worst critic, and always ask how it could be better.
- Your comfort zone is the worst place to be. If you're not growing, you're falling behind.