Event

Forum: Eric Cruz, Group Creative Director / Sphere Studios

Eric Cruz headshot

Eric Cruz is a Creative Director, Designer, and Educator with 23+ years of global experience helping build new economy brands. A ‘creative hybrid’, he fuses design, film, moving image, music, art, and technology to bring a unique mix of storytelling, innovation, user experience, and design transformation in the connected age.

With broad international experience, Cruz has held various leadership positions in agencies worldwide, developing a model for the creative studio of the future, exploring how creativity can help invent tomorrow today.

He is currently a Sr. Group Creative Director at Sphere Studios, leading its Ads & Brand Experiences practice for the Exosphere, helping pioneer new experiences for what TIME Magazine voted as one of the Best innovations of 2023.

More recently as Amazon Halo’s Head of Content, he oversaw the content ecosystem for a Health and Wellness platform that aimed to “Take the hard out of health”.

He previously served as co-Executive Creative Director of DDB San Francisco and was ECD of Innovation & Design at Sid Lee USA / Digital Kitchen, exploring Web 3.0 and helping bring to life Meta’s “Ray-Ban Stories” connected glasses.

Prior to this, he backpacked the world helping multinational brands like Nike, Jordan, Converse, Google, Apple, Samsung and Airbnb tell their stories worldwide, leading AKQA Greater China and Leo Burnett Malaysia as its ECD. Eric learned how not to do advertising at Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Tokyo, and London and was Co-Founder / Director of W+K Tokyo Lab, W+K Tokyo’s creative think tank and experimental music label.

To mentor the next generation of creatives, he continues to teach and help raise the next generation of creative minds around the world. His passion for creating a future of optimism fuels his interest in innovation, evolution, and creating worlds beyond belief.

His work has been recognized by the Tokyo ADC, Cannes Lions, ADC NY, One Show, D&AD, Spikes, AdFest, AdStars, The Webbys, The FWA, CSS Design Awards and Japan Media Arts Festival.
http://cargocollective.com/cruz