Image of Eric Cruz
Jury

Eric Cruz
Sr. Creative Director
Sphere Entertainment

LOS ANGELES, USA // Eric Cruz is a Creative Director, Designer, and Educator with experience helping new economy brands build relevance in the global stage. 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.

As Senior / Group Creative Director for Sphere Entertainment, he oversees experiential work for the world’s biggest digital canvas and the spectacle that is Sphere.

Previously, he served as Amazon Halo’s Head of Content, overseeing the entire content ecosystem for a Health and Wellness platform that aims to “Take the hard out of health”. He was co-Executive Creative Director of DDB San Francisco and served as 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, he continues to teach, lecture and do creative workshops worldwide. His passion for designing 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.