Eric J. Smith is a multidisciplinary creative with a career that spans three decades of leadership roles at agencies in New York and California. Eric is a summa cum laude graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he received the Joan Shewmon Memorial Scholarship for excellence in Graphic Design. While at RISD, Eric interned at Tibor Kalman’s legendary New York design studio M&Co.

With months before graduation, he was hired as a staff graphic designer at Carbone Smolan Associates in New York, working on Ken Burns’ series “Baseball” for PBS, a major re-brand and wayfinding system for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and a deep engagement with International Contract Furnishings, designing ads, identity systems and a centennial exhibition of Alvar Aalto’s furniture at the Embassy of Finland in Washington, D.C. Eric was also an active member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) designing their quarterly journal for two years.

In the late nineties Eric set his sights on the west coast and was hired as an art director at Hollywood’s newly formed Imaginary Forces (IF), formerly RGA/LA. At IF, Eric co-directed an extensive network re-brand of Lifetime Television, designed the identity for Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, the graphics in Paramount Pictures’ “The Truman Show” and the title sequence for the long running PBS series “American Experience.” It was at Imaginary Forces where Eric cut his teeth as a director.

In 2002, Eric was hired by LA based entertainment ad agency Trailer Park as a Creative Director. At Trailer Park, Eric founded an expanded design department, creating title sequences for James Cameron’s “Aliens of the Deep” and horror classics “Wrong Turn” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.” Eric led the design team to create advertising campaign graphics for major studios like Disney, Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, and New Line Cinema. During his time at Trailer Park, Eric was accepted into the Directors Guild of America. As a guild member, he directed special shoots, live action teasers, and commercials.

In the early 2000s, Eric made the decision to dedicate his creative career to social good, becoming Chief Creative Officer for EcoMedia, a public private partnership brought advertisers together with municipalities across the country to make environmental improvements. Eric co-executive produced “The EcoZone Project” a syndicated television series that “greened” the homes of celebrities like Allison Janney, Ron Livingston, and Patrick Warburton.

In 2010, Eric joined Free Range Studios in Berkeley, California, a leading creative agency that served socially responsible businesses and nonprofits. As Creative Director, he led projects for the Ad Council, Autodesk, the Rainforest Action Network, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It was at Free Range, that Eric began to incorprate his own photography into client deliverables, such as Earthjustice’s annual report and Save the Bay’s 50th anniversary report.

Eric returned to EcoMedia in 2014 after the organization was acquired by the CBS Corporation. As an SVP of Content & Creative, Eric directed social good centered campaigns for Cadillac, Lexus, Dell, and the California Endowment. He photographed on and off air talent for the CBS Diversity initiative and he led creative teams to four continents making digital shorts and photo sets that documented some of the world’s most effective nonprofits such as OxFam, Rainforest Alliance, Women for Women International and the Clean Cooking Alliance.

Over the last decade Eric has become an accomplished photographer. His photographs have been exhibited by the National Geographic Society at the Conference of the Parties (COP22), the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco and in their ongoing “View from Above” exhibition at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. In 2021, Eric’s photographs were included in “A Decade of Change” the inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Climate Change in New York and Hong Kong curated by the British Journal of Photography. His work was included in “Whale Vision” an exhibition of photographs designed as an anti-whaling campaign in Reykjavik, Iceland. Eric has exhibited numerous times at the Los Angeles Center of Photography winning first place in competitions in 2022 and 2024.

He is currently represented by the Five3 Gallery in Laguna Beach, California. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America, The Royal Photographic Society, and the Los Angeles Center of Photography.