The Lyrics Lettering 00007-Let's Hurt Tonight by OneRepublic

The Work

When you look at the design from afar, you’d see the “Hurt” first, but once you look more closely, the “Love” will be the center of attention with a much more prominent color. This is to show that love is always the point in relationships, despite all the challenges that come with it. 

The Inspiration 

There are a lot of great lyrics from OneRepublic, especially from their early albums. However, I chose to do lettering for OneRepublic's "Let's Hurt Tonight" because I was drawn to the idea that love and pain go hand in hand. If you want to truly love someone, you have to be ready to get yourself hurt in the relationship. It's a reminder that relationships aren't always easy, but we should face the challenges together, not run away from them.

“... So you hit the lights and I'll lock the doors  
Let's say all of the things that we couldn't before  
I won't walk away, won't roll my eyes  
They say love is pain, well darling, let's hurt tonight  
If this love is pain, then honey, let's love tonight …”

The Process

My process involved using the concept of love and hurt both come in a full package. At first, I forgot that it should be “hurt” not “hate”  but quickly corrected it 😂

I really love how it looked like there’s always love inside the hurt. So I built the design around this concept.

As I digitized the design, I got carried away with experimenting with brushes and background textures. It ended up looking cluttered and I forgot about using colors to create a visual hierarchy. So, I decided to simplify and focus on the essence of the design. The end result is something I'm really proud of—it's the first lyrics lettering I consider a finished work.
 

Side note 

I used the brushes from MagnaType. For background stuff, I used the brushes from Nico Ng. Highly recommended both of them!