Somewhere, September 20th, 2023

After working for many leading agencies in the US, China and Colombia, Julien Renau is now living the freelance life, offering his services as a senior creative technologist for clients around the world. He’s a digital nomad and spends half of the year in Europe and the rest in other parts of the world, combining his passion of travelling while doing fantastic work.

In an interview with TIA, Julien described his career path so far and the transition to working as a freelance senior creative technologist. He highlighted the importance of building a personal brand as a freelancer, gave examples of some of the recent projects he has been involved with and explained how he manages to be organized while being a freelancer.

To kick things off, what do you love the most about where you live?

I’m currently experiencing the Digital nomad life and what I love the most about it is to be able to adapt to my needs depending on the time of the year, on the project I’m working on or family reunions. Even though I’m a nomad I really try to limit airplane travel for environmental reasons, so I usually spend six months around Europe and go everywhere by train. During the rest of the year, I allow myself to explore a bit further away.

For those who aren’t familiar with your career, can you provide an overview?

I’m a Senior Creative technologist with 9+ years agency background, I worked for AKQA in China, Hello Monday in New York, Ueno in San Francisco and Huge in Colombia. I started freelancing after the pandemic in 2021. In terms of projects, I work on anything that is interactive, WebGL experiences, Unity projects, mini games, installations, webAR or AR projects. I feel that the essence of the creative technologist is to be able to adapt quickly to different platforms, coding languages, teams and tools.

What is a typical working day for you?

I’m definitely more of a night owl so I prefer to start my days around 10 am and finish late if needed. I usually work from home in the mornings, go out for lunch and then work from restaurants or a cafe in the afternoons. I love walking so I really need to go out almost every day. Going out gives me time to breathe and allows me to think about something else outside of my projects.

When it comes to building your personal brand as a freelancer, what are some key factors to consider?

I think that it’s very important to share and talk about the projects that you are working on, which is something I should do more myself. Personally, I don’t enjoy being super vocal about what I do but it’s key so the industry knows that you are out there and capable of doing good work. What I think I do well is that I always maintain my portfolio updated, so anyone that comes to my website can see my latest work.

How do you manage your time and prioritize tasks when working on multiple projects simultaneously, and what strategies do you use to stay organized?

I do not enjoy working on multiple projects at the same time. Usually, the ones I’m working on are creatively very demanding so that I don’t have the mental space to take another one. That’s the beauty and complexity of being a creative technologist: you are usually the center and the critical piece of different areas like 3d, motion, coding. One project at a time is more than enough for me.

What do you feel are the keys to success when working remotely with a team?

Not sitting next to each other can be challenging sometimes, so communication is key. I like teams that almost have daily meetings to catch up. Knowing that It’s very easy to misinterpret things by email or slack, I’d rather quickly regroup to clear things up and move forward.

Tell us about a recent project you’ve worked on that you’re proud of. Which was the greatest challenge?

I’ve been lucky to work on a couple of cool projects recently, but If I had to name one it would be the Ekos project along with the talented team at Gladeye. The reason why I’m picking this one is because of the How even more than the What. The project grew really organically and started from prototyping which is definitely the best approach for interactive projects. We started by prototyping a 3d timeline, we built the entire flow first and designed the layout and UI at the end, only after we considered that the experience felt right.

The second part of the project was supposed to be a preview of a few NFTS, so we worked on a couple of card concepts and prototypes to finally end up building an entire 360 gallery that you could scroll through with more than 80+ artworks! Same as for the timeline, the gallery was built really organically, prototype after prototype, only keeping what felt right.

As someone who has worked with notable agencies, what tips would you recommend to clients for streamlining the communication and coordination between their vision and your approach?

I think that it’s important to give the artist some space, obviously clients have their vision and most of the time know what they want, but it can be challenging sometimes to follow very strict and rigid instructions, especially if we are talking about interactive projects. For good or bad, there is always a dose of uncertainty that comes with cutting edge projects and the prototyping approach. Clients need to be comfortable with this way of working as it’s definitely the one that gives the best results. Trying to organize at least weekly meetings is also key, it helps them understand the process and the challenges.

Can you share your thoughts on using artificial intelligence in your creative work?

I don’t have a strong opinion about it to be honest. To me anything that helps doing good work is always welcomed!

What are some trends or developments in the gaming industry that you find particularly exciting or challenging?

I love the fact that building indie games became more and more accessible to anyone. I feel that back in the days only studios would dare putting themselves out there but now with the growing industry of 3d, people are not afraid to start their own game on Unity, Unreal or even webGL. Seeing all those references, ideas and the process on social media is a great source of inspiration.

Three top tools you can’t live without?

The first one is called KAP. I use it every day to screen record and send progress on my projects.

Then I would say Blender, it’s currently my favorite software when it comes to 3d! The GLTF exporter is perfect and so optimized for webGL projects. I used to use Cinema 4d but got tired of paying for a license.

And to finish I would say Visual Studio Code, I don’t feel too strongly about IDE or text editors, this one does exactly what I need.

What’s your preferred way of dealing with distractions while working (e.g. headphones, scheduling breaks, etc.)?

I personally like to embrace distractions, taking small breaks is very important to not go insane! When I feel overwhelmed, I like to go on a walk so I can complete my daily 10,000 steps. I also like to hop on a quick call with friends or family to clear my mind and start fresh!

From your personal standpoint, what is the greatest challenge of our time?

To me it’s definitely on how to keep doing good work that is paid fairly from brands and contribute to projects that really matter and make a positive impact for our future. Trying to consume & produce less sometimes conflicts with the essence of what we do. So, from a personal standpoint, I’m really trying to align my values and ecological ideals with our industry and projects.

Where do you go if you want to get inspired?

No surprises here, I check my Twitter lists that are packed with talented designers, indie game developers, and always keep an eye on the fwa and awwwards websites for benchmark and cool references.

Can you name a fun-fact people would be surprised to learn about you?

Fun fact is that I only wear black clothes! Everything started after living in New York. The number one reason is because I think it’s cool and looks good, but also as a digital nomad you really need to master your packing game! I go around the globe with my 40L, and it’s a lot easier to bring with you stuff that can easily combine together – that’s really an easy way to optimize space and not worry too much about style.

Thanks Julien!

• Follow Julien on social media:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Website

Digital NomadFreelancingInteractiveRemote workWebGL