Woodkid: Run Boy Run

Woodkid’s Run Boy Run arrived in 2011 with that music video that looked like a kids’ film noir remake—all grain and sepia and a small boy running through scenarios that shouldn’t be terrifying but somehow were. The production is huge, orchestral in a way that feels like it’s building toward something, and the video’s aesthetic landed in every designer’s moodboard for the next five years. There’s something about that combination of scale and a child’s perspective that works. It’s not quite as potent now as it was then, but the bones are still there. Woodkid made something that looked expensive and felt sincere, which is harder than it sounds.