Aaron Ruell is a director and photographer whose work marries bone dry comedy and a slightly off-axis elegance with disarming sincerity. He moves effortlessly between the ridiculous and the tender, letting distinct art direction and clean geometry hold that magic space for very human awkwardness. California raised and Portland based, Ruell works with an editor's sense of rhythm and a designer's obsession with proportion.

His ability to seamlessly blend comedic absurdity is evident in recent work for Direct Auto, NY Lottery, and Serta. Just as easily, he pivots to stories that tug at the heart—for brands like Macy’s, Kerrygold, and Coca‑Cola. That elasticity—sliding between these two scales of comedy and sincerity—defines his brand of earnest humor, resonates, and keeps clients coming back.

Beyond advertising, Ruell’s short films Everything’s Gone Green and Mary screened at the Sundance Film Festival; he also stepped in front of the camera as Kip in the cult classic Napoleon Dynamite. His photography runs in the same kind of current- formally controlled and more about tension than declaration. His photography has been published in books and exhibited internationally—in New Orleans, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires.