I’m John Cruz, a designer and creative director based in New York. I was born in Marikina, Philippines, and spent most of my childhood moving between California and JapaN (part of the standard-issue Navy brat starter pack). Constant movement shaped my attention to detail; when everything around you shifts, you start noticing the things that don’t.

I found design the way most people my age did, tweaking HTML on Xanga and LiveJournal before I knew what a grid was. Making things look a little better, even if no one was looking. I studied it properly at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, which gave me language for what I'd been doing by instinct.

In New York, I worked at digital and fashion-focused agencies, on brand and campaign work for clients like Michael Kors, Amazon, Campari, Coyuchi, and USPA. What I actually learned wasn't really about any of those clients. It was about keeping things precise when the timeline is shrinking, and building work that holds its shape across channels.

Now I'm Creative Director at Act Second for DTC companies and digital products across skincare, fragrance, food, and tech. The work usually comes down to one problem: how do you build creative systems without losing what makes the brand interesting? I spend a lot of time in the overlap between language, design, and behavior.

I believe in teams, good systems, and not making things harder to read than they need to be. Which is why I'm stopping here.