Interview with May Ruzicka, an Art Director for Play It Forward

I knew I wanted to do something creative my whole life. Growing up without a TV, I was always daydreaming and coming up with creative ways to pass time. When I was finally exposed to ads in North America when I did a study abroad in Toronto Canada, I was inspired by how a simple ad was able to reach so many people's hearts.

That’s when I knew my true passion was to impact people’s lives in a positive way through creativity.

As an art director, I’m involved with concepting the big ideas for a campaign as well as figuring out the visual direction of the executions.

Creativity to me means being able to recognize a problem and solve it with conceptual thinking. It’s about looking at the world from different angles and finding a unique solution to make what’s around us better

It’s an idea or design that solves a problem in a way that makes you go “I wish I thought of that”. Creative ideas and designs use excitement and ingenuity to elicit emotion from those looking at them.

I start my process with extensive research. Looking into all things related to the brief. Research can go as far as a deep dive into scientific articles or as close as chatting with a close friend. Then I look for visual inspiration. Pinterest helps a lot with that. And then once the idea and visual inspiration is solid, I start creating.

I love when I’m working with a partner and we’re both excited about an idea, and we just talk about it and think of different ways to make the idea even better. The collaborative process is extremely fun when working with amazing teammates.

When coming up with a creative idea, I like to think about how the idea is helping the target audience. I really want my projects to have meaning. In terms of the design process, I think I’m very meticulous, I spend hours trying to iron out little kinks.

I think my creative process is definitely impacted by the values I learnt growing up in Japan, where simplicity is often achieved through complex processes. My meticulousness and my constant consideration towards how an idea can serve the greater good are two things that I can fully attribute to my upbringing.

Winning this award means so much to me and my teammates Yuchien Wang and Dahlia Sevy. We worked day in and day out on our idea and we believed in it so it feels amazing to be recognized for our hard work. Having this accomplishment has given us the confidence and reassurance we needed and is bound to propel us forward in our creative careers.

We created “Play It Forward” which is a Spotify campaign with the goal of spreading positivity by using technology to bring listeners closer to the creators and communities they love. We created a new playlist feature that turns streams into donations. Because although they don't have big pockets, Gen Z has big hearts when it comes to giving back to a cause.

They feel strongly about many causes and want to make a difference in the world and they expect the artists they love to do the same. "Play It Forward" is a new Spotify feature that turns streams into donations while bringing artists, fans, and charitable causes together through the shared love of music.

When artists upload an unreleased track they can select a cause to support through their streaming income. Spotify will then add the track to the corresponding Play It Forward playlist which is linked to a related charity, allowing listeners to simply stream the playlist of their choice to contribute to a shared cause.

We had several insights that connected to each other so figuring out how to tell the story in the most effective way was the biggest challenge for us.

Winning an award allows me to be recognized by my peers and mentors in the industry which is very important as I begin to go deeper into my career.

Connection: I love how the advertising industry has the power to connect people to the things they love. And to connect them to each other.

I often see social media posts about how Japan is living in the future. I think Japan has a unique take on creativity because of the emphasis we put on innovation. With the country becoming more diverse, I’m excited to see how the creative industry evolves to reflect more people’s experiences and needs.

With the advancement of AI technology, I see the industry evolving into incorporating more and more AI into the work. We already see this happening, but creatives will start to utilize various tools making it possible and necessary to think bigger than we ever did before.

I’m still a student entering the industry, but I would say that networking and connecting with people is very important. Our industry is people first, which is why the ideas that we come up with must be so people-focused.

Following creatives that I admire on social media has helped me a lot. I get daily inspiration and motivation to try something new and be more creative in my approaches.

I love watching YouTube videos about cosmetic surgery. The psychology behind it and the way societal norms have changed in the past couple of years fascinates me.

My boyfriend inspires me the most. He’s a creative as well and his accomplishments have been so inspiring. Watching him reminds me of why I want to be a creative. He pushes me every day to be better.

Doing more than I’m required to has always helped me progress further. Whether that be learning how to make videos or figuring out 3D programs, I find that if I’m curious about a skill, it helps to try to learn that skill even if it’s not absolutely necessary.

I want to thank the MUSE Creative Awards for this opportunity. The support and recognition mean so much. Thank you!