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Buck is the global creative company behind some of the most distinctive design, animation and brand worlds for brands like Apple, Meta and Google. From London and Amsterdam to LA, New York, Sydney and Vancouver, Buck’s work has helped define how leading tech and entertainment companies show up on screens everywhere.
In this episode of Uncut – recorded at Cannes Lions – Alex sits down with Buck CEO Emily Rickard to talk about what it really takes to run a 400-person, multi-studio creative operation and still keep the same culture of innovation and high standards.
Emily shares how Buck evolved from a 25-person production house into a global creative company trusted by Silicon Valley’s biggest tech brands, the story behind those early AR face filters for Meta, and why they built an Applied Research Group to make sense of AI and new tools across the business.
They dig into culture-led hiring, protecting a fiercely creative DNA while you scale, and how Buck’s “TGAI Fridays” and “middle-out” education model help directors, designers and technologists experiment with tech-driven craft without losing the storytelling core that defines good work.
Along the way, they get into the realities of creative leadership and talk about why emerging talent, fresh points of view and genuinely diverse teams still matter more than any tool.
To see more interviews with leaders from across a range of agencies and to find out how they grow, motivate and innovate their teams, check out The Subthread's Uncut series.
