Introduction
What does it mean to design for wonder in an age where reality itself is being reinvented?
In this Seamless interview, I sit down with Eric Cruz – Creative Director, Designer, & Educator | Sphere, ex-Amazon/AKQA/Wieden+Kennedy – to explore his unique 25+ year journey across brand storytelling, experiential design, and emerging technologies. From Tokyo’s cultural incubators and Shanghai’s AR commerce labs, to Comic-Con virtual worlds and generative AI-powered creativity, Cruz shares how immersive storytelling continues to evolve and why human curiosity remains the ultimate driver.
🎥 Watch the full video interview below! Don’t have time to watch the full video? Scroll down for a summary of key takeaways and noteworthy quotes.
Key Takeaways
🎭 A Hybrid Designer Rooted in Storytelling and Culture Creation
Eric describes himself as a hybrid designer and storyteller whose career has spanned multiple disciplines over 25 years, from motion design at Imaginary Forces to cultural advertising at Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo and London, working with brands like Nike to help shape youth culture from within.
🎶 Building Culture from the Inside Out
While at Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo, Eric founded a music label (W+K Tokyo Lab) as a way to create culture directly rather than just advertise around it. This enabled cross-pollination between brand work and independent cultural projects like music videos, album packaging, and live performances.
📱 Experimenting with Early Interactive and Mobile-first Experiences
In Asia, Eric led projects blending creativity and new technology, such as co-creating dynamic music videos for Samsung where each user experience was unique, and developing AR-powered retail experiences where consumers could shop using mobile devices and alternative currencies like sweat coins.
🌐 Immersion as World-Building
For Eric, immersion means building worlds that confound, captivate, and elevate reality. Whether it’s LED-covered retail environments like Nike Shanghai 001, fully virtual escape rooms for Warner Bros, or real-world installations like Krista Kim’s Times Square takeover, the goal should always be to architect new, transformative environments.
🤖 AI as a New Creative Partner
Eric has actively explored how large language models and generative AI platforms like Runway are reshaping the act of storytelling itself, offering new ways to prompt and generate experiences that would have been impossible only a few years ago.
🧠 “Walk in Stupid” – The Importance of Humility and Curiosity
Eric’s guiding philosophy is to constantly approach new creative challenges with humility, bringing expertise but leaving room for new ideas to reshape your thinking, especially as technology redefines creative rules.
✨ Designing to Create Wonder and Emotional Connection
At every scale – from intimate to massive – the ultimate goal is to move people emotionally through moments of wonder. Whether inspired by nature (the Northern Lights, cherry blossom season) or art (Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Weather Project’ and ‘Anyma‘ at The Sphere), memorable experiences are those that surprise and transform.
⚡ The Challenge of Breaking Through in an Overstimulated World
With increasing sensory overload, Eric emphasises that unforgettable experiences are often those that the audience didn’t see coming; those capable of stopping people in their tracks and making them feel something lasting.
🔀 The Rapid Convergence of Physical and Digital Realities
The evolution of immersive design is accelerating quickly, collapsing timelines where developments that once took decades now occur within years or even months. Eric believes physical and digital spaces will become increasingly inseparable, with virtual layers embedded into lived environments.
🌍 Anthropology as a Creative Lens
Eric draws inspiration from his early interest in anthropology and culture, seeing creative work as both the study of civilization and the act of contributing to culture itself.
💡 The Rise of Experiences as a Business Model
Referencing groups like teamLab and experiences like ‘Sleep No More’ and ‘Ultraviolet‘ in Shanghai, Eric observes how immersive design is becoming not just creative work but a self-sustaining business model, in which people pay to engage with experiences, not simply consume designed products.
🎙️ Generative AI’s Next Frontier: Speech, Sound, and Visual Fusion
Citing recent experiments like Google Vo3, Eric points to emerging creative intersections where AI-generated speech, sound effects, and visuals synchronise to generate entirely new kinds of dynamic, responsive films and experiences.
🚀 A Future Driven by Curiosity and Reinvention
Above all, Eric emphasises human curiosity – our innate drive to explore new frontiers – as the unchanging fuel behind immersive storytelling. As creative tools evolve, the challenge is not just using new technology but defining what meaningful stories we want to tell with it.
Noteworthy Quotes
Designing for all means designing to create moments of wonder – moments that elevate reality and stay with you.
We’re living in a time where even reality itself is being reinvented. The virtual and physical are converging faster than we realize.
Innovation means being comfortable building the plane as you fly it.
AI will make it easier to create, but harder to be compelling. That’s the creative challenge ahead.
The real fuel behind immersive experiences? Human curiosity. It’s what drives us to explore the new.
Closing Thoughts
During our discussion, Eric Cruz reminds us that as technology unlocks new canvases, the essence of great storytelling remains timeless: creating emotional connections, sparking curiosity, and inviting audiences to step into the unknown. In a world accelerating toward ever more immersive futures, Cruz offers both inspiration and a steady creative compass for anyone navigating the intersection of design, technology, and human experience.
A huge thank you to Eric for his time! Want to know more? Reach out to Eric here.
Eric will also be a keynote speaker at our upcoming PI Apparel West Coast event, taking place in LA between 29th & 30th September. Want to know more about the event? Click on the banner below!
