We design the journeys that matter. We create experiences between brands and their customers – the indelible moments that invite new relationships, inspire behavior, build new value and shape the future. COLLINS1.com
Since the 1920’s, Naturalizer has crafted beautiful shoes with the perfect fit for women. We recently reimagined their brand, led their new product innovation and designed their flagship stores in NY and Chicago.
Read on to learn more - bit.ly/collinsnaturalizer.
We’re honored that AdAge selected as the first 'Design Firm of the Year'. Insane.
Thank you to our teams in San Francisco and New York for their imagination, and perseverance that helped us achieve this wonderful recognition.
Thank you to each one of our remarkable clients who give us their trust, their hopes and their biggest ambitions. You make us better.
Thank you to our peers, friends, and partners - we stand on your shoulders every day.
And thank you, Ad Age, for adding design as a distinct, potent discipline worthy of separate recognition.
In the end, design is not what we make.
Design is what we make possible for others.
And all of you make the impossible, possible.
https://adage.com/article/special-report-agency-list/ad-age-2019-design-agency-year-collins/2163396
JoyLab seamlessly balances your fitness goals and life goals by combining street-style details with the technology of a true performance-wear line. Read the case study on our site to learn more about Target's new exclusive athletic brand - http://bit.ly/collinsjoylab
Today COLLINS was listed - for the second time - in the “Top 50 Companies Creatives Want to Work Next”. We’re beyond honored to join Nike, Google, HBO, Disney, Dropbox, Spotify, Instagram, and Pixar, among others.
If, in fact, you might be looking to join us next on the west coast or the east coast please let us know. We hope to hear from you.
8,934 WNW creatives took part in this year’s Top Companies survey, and named 2,832 companies. Here are the 50 that rose to the top. For the first time, we're ranking the results in order. Click here to see who made the cut.
Put some awe back in your audio. Bose Frames is an innovative, design-driven debut into a whole new way to listen; one that has to be heard to be believed. After a year of work with our friends, designers and engineers at Bose, our case study is now up. bit.ly/collinsboseframes
Cheryl Johnson on artivism:
"Defined as the connection of art and activism, artivism takes various forms as an impassioned response to a tragedy or injustice. Within hours of a 2015 terror attack in France, illustrator Jean Jullien painted ‘Peace for Paris’ depicting the Eiffel Tower at the center of the peace symbol. The image went viral, garnering over one million likes. Last month, Banksy mocked the excess of art auctions by shredding his ‘Girl With Balloon’ right after it sold for $1.4M.
Artists highlighting issues through their work is nothing new, but the popularity of artivism today is proof that artists and designers can play as important a role as journalists in steering public conversation. Through artivism, they use their talents to shed light on important issues around the world, while encouraging people to mobilize and take action.
On Instagram, you can find visual representations of mass shooting victims, today’s elections, and Kaepernick's protest. Artivism has even infiltrated public spaces and events, with Refinery29’s instaworthy pop-up ‘29 Rooms’ featuring rooms designed to bring awareness to topics including voter registration, the ACLU and Black womanhood.
Has the popularity of artivism online shaped how you process news or complex issues?"
Mailchimp helps businesses be themselves, on a bigger stage. In working with our friends at Mailchimp on their new brand and identity, we sought to show what it means to grow a brand while staying true to who you are. You can see the full case study at www.wearecollins.com/work/mailchimp
“Whether you like it or not your brand story already exists.” Read more in Brian’s latest interview with The Innovator.
Brian Collins is Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder of COLLINS, a U.S. brand experience design company that works with both established…
Sending the elevator back down to nurture young talent is how we’re able to foster growth and development at COLLINS and within the industry. http://ow.ly/KXsq30lLqpo
Brian Collins doesn’t merely want employees; rather, he wants to foster growth and development in designers. It’s precisely the type of experience he didn’t get to have himself—COLLINS is the kind of place Brian never had in his 20s and 30s.
Summer's over when we say it's over. Until then, Volume 4 of COLLINS Sounds on repeat. https://spoti.fi/2MW2Abv
A few thoughts on Cannes, from one of our designers who recently returned from the Young Lions Design Competition. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6418180086243028992
This Wednesday the 27th Brian will be a featured speaker at MoMA's R&D Salon entitled "Friction." To be discussed: is "seamless" preferable and are bruises always to be avoided?
Catch the live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2ir77y5ho0&feature=youtu.be
So grateful to have partnered with Ladies Get Paid to host a session on helping women to literally find their voice, run by the powerful Jackie Miller of BespokenNY.
"Last night we truly found - and amplified - our voices. Jackie Miller, co-founder of Bespoken led us in a hands-on 'voice-on' Ladies Get Paid worksh…
Our head of product and marketing, Topher Burns, isn't sweating the SXSW haters.
Here's why SXSW is more important than ever before.
On a flight to Austin as we speak, our Managing Partner Claire Morris celebrated International Women's Day by sharing her top women to watch this year at SXSW with AlleyWatch.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, I feel not just honor-bound but downright excited to share a list of some of the fabulous women I’m most excited to check out at SXSW.
Putting the C back in CES: our thoughts on how devices are becoming more human.
CES, in its many iterations over the past 50 years, has been about devices. The VCR debuted there in 1970, the camcorder in 1981.
The hottest topic at CES this year wasn't a device. Our thoughts on women in tech.
The conference was a very different place in one important way: I wasn't outnumbered on the showroom floor like I have been in the past, says a managing partner at Collins.. From Campaign US
Dizzying and giddy at the best of times, the COLLINS team is on the ground at CES and learning all we can. Stay tuned next week for our digest of CES Signals for 2018.
Wow.
COLLINS was just listed beside Spotify, Tesla, Disney, Apple, Google, Patagonia, Ideo, R/GA, Netflix, HBO, Facebook and Pixar as one of the "Top 50 Companies Creatives Would Kill to Work For."
And, for the record, no one has to kill anyone to work here. But being a little mad does, you know... help.
Thank you to everyone who responded that way. And, more important, thank you to each and every one of the remarkable people in our San Francisco and New York City offices who crush it every single day.
Bravo, all.
And thank you to Working/Not Working for publishing this survey in the first place.
COLLINS Creative Director Tom Wider covers a lot of territory on his career story (so far) in this interview with Rob Johnston with "Meet the Creatives."
Go, Tom.
Originally from New Hampshire, Tom Wilder is Creative Director at Collins. Before he worked for MGMT.design and MTWTF. His work has been…
Today we announce great news.
Today is the official appointment of advertising and creative leader, Claire Morris, as Managing Partner at COLLINS. It is a remarkable win for our company and our future.
In a new role for COLLINS, Morris will be responsible for leading our client relationship team, as well as overseeing company operations across our East and West coast offices. She will play an integral role in leading our company, building our client partnerships as we continue to scale and broaden our scope.
Claire brings over two decades of agency experience across five international cities, including eight years spent in the UK and two years in Geneva. She has worked at Havas, Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam, Taxi, and 360i. She helped to double the size of Taxi in a few short months - in staff and clients. That's when we first heard about her.
More recently, while working on the Canon business at 360i, Morris led integrated teams whose work went on win a series of impressive Cyber & Outdoor Lions at last year’s Cannes International Festival of Creativity.
During her career, Morris has collaborated with both start-ups and Fortune 50 companies across multiple categories including: technology, CPG/FMCG, financial services and luxury and fashion.
Our company, happily, is growing. Over the last two months we were shooting films in Montreal, England, Mexico and Chile, designing an exhibition in Manhattan, opening a store in New York, re-launching a popular technology brand in San Francisco, and starting our first food company. In the middle of this, we also designed this year's PopTech conference in Maine.
So now it's beyond essential that we move with discipline – and bring on the very best people in the world. Because, in part, I'd just like to sleep in on Saturdays again.
And, Claire - if your old advertising agency colleagues tease you about joining "a design company", please tell them that we set our course by the stars - and not by the lights of all the other ships.
Welcome aboard!
Yes!
We launched the new, improved, re-imagined, re-created and re-designed Dropbox.
Our work combines teams from COLLINS offices in San Francisco and New York City.
Hats off to partners Matt Luckhurst, Tom Wilder, Jules Foch, Ian Aronson, Jump Jirakaweekul, David Minh Nguyen, Caroline Bagley, Steve Reinmuth, and Anna Sternoff.
And to our remarkable clients within Dropbox itself, including Aaron Robbs, Jessica Svensson, Michael Jeter, Colin Whitehead, Nicholas Jitkoff, Patrick Rowell, Brandon Land and Fanny Luor.
The new brand idea and execution is testament to radical collaboration, imagination, love and, toward the end, lots of rosé.
Onward, Dropbox!
Silicon Valley’s most subdued brand gets shaken up–literally.
We just made the front page.
It's always good when a project you do is aimed to make a tangible, positive impact on a community.
This week, the Chronicle covered one such endeavor we just launched.
And while naming and branding any neighborhood is no simple task, doing so for a neighborhood in a city as proud of its heritage as San Francisco is doubly difficult.
The goal of our project was to create a better sense of place, of community, in a rapidly evolving neighborhood — within a city navigating through a new and complex era of development.
We began work with the Community Benefit District (CBD) in August last year. We were tasked with creating a name and identity that would capture what this place means to all of the people who live and work here. So this project originated with members of the Rincon Hill, Folsom Street and Transbay neighborhoods and not some faceless real-estate developer attempting to slap a cheesy sticker on a neighborhood to sell more condos.
The CBD was deeply engaging, diverse and set the tone for all of our work. We worked with hundreds of community members — small business owners, young families, retired residents, construction workers — including both neighborhood boosters and suspicious naysayers. We ran open forums, multiple workshops and conducted plenty of one-on-one interviews. We participated in hours of walking tours led by long-time residents to really understand the neighborhood’s history as well as its present and future.
The CBD felt strongly that the neighborhood must be organically embedded within the rich tapestry of San Francisco. So, to create sincere, city-wide ownership, we aimed to capture the area’s heritage while also expressing the many possibilities for its future.
To that end, the names Rincon Hill and Transbay remain. They will be contained within this larger region.
This new name does not follow currently popular naming conventions. Instead, we've aimed to honor history and capture a unique geographical composition. An extensive review of the area’s historical and planning documents yielded hundreds of options.
Of particular note to us was the notorious 2nd Street Cut, which coincidentally was the beginning of the historic separation of Rincon Hill. Our name encompasses that historical moment. "2nd Street" now defines the neighborhood's eastern boundary, while “East” positions it within the broader context of San Francisco.
Each bar of our new "E" symbol represents one of the three unique districts that make up The East Cut: Transbay, Folsom Street and Rincon Hill.
While San Francisco is an uncommonly opinionated city - it's the citizens of this neighborhood who define it, not a random corporation or developer.
Change is hard. Rincon Hill has been a key part of this city since the 1800's. Having someone alter part of its identity can feel...arbitrary. However, the community leaders wanted to take the lead in defining their own neighborhood for the people who live and work here. We hope it will be seen as a signal of its unabashed, unbridled character, flourishing modernity and, frankly, its benevolence.
We are proud to have worked with the people of The East Cut. We hope we've served them well in developing this new name and identity - and that it has captured the unique legacy and spirit of this neighborhood.
Bravo to CCO Matt Luckhurst, Steve Reinmuth, Erik Berger Vaage, David Minh Nguyen, Caroline Bagley with Christian Widlic and the entire crew at COLLINS.
And a special shout out to the many designers, artists and illustrators in the city - and this neighborhod - who volunteered their time and work to help us bring the idea to life. Even if it leaves a few people...puzzled.
Some people NEVER like change.
You can check out our solution here:
http://www.wearecollins.com/work/the-east-cut/
When NBC called Brian Collins to join them this week, he said 'yes' and quickly headed uptown to Rockefeller Center.
Brian spoke with our favorite anchor Ali Velshi about Bill O'Reilly, advertising and the future of brand in a hyper-connected era.
"We live in new branding economy, where what you say is not nearly as important as what you do," said Brian in this rapid-fire story.
http://bit.ly/2pw0HSU
Our brand new office. Two sunfilled floors. In San Francisco. South of Market. Construction finishing.
More news soon.
Maybe even...a party.
Brian Collins will speaking about our work here at COLLINS at
Design Indaba in Capetown, March 1 - 3.
The conference has become a remarkable global event. Based on the foundation of an annual festival starting in 1995, it now attracts creative people from around the planet.
The event was born from the upsurge of confidence in South Africa’s post-1994 future with a vision that "the creative shall inherit the earth."
Its primary aim is to advance the cause of design as a communication fundamental, a business imperative and a powerful tool in industry, commerce and culture.
It hosts more than 40 speakers and 2,500 delegates.
"Design Indaba has become a respected institution on the creative landscape and one of the few multisectoral events that celebrates all the creative sectors – including graphic design, advertising, film, music, fashion design, industrial design, architecture, craft, visual art, new media, publishing, broadcasting and performing arts."
Fuelled by Oreos, coffee and talent – co-founder of brand consultancy Collins, Brian Collins talks a little more about life, work and inspiration in New York.
Designing tomorrow.
On January 9th, the Ford Motor Company kicked off a giant event and press conference about the future of mobility. We were honored to work with Ford to create the theme, concept and environment design.
As Forbes Magazine said, noting the event was a game changer, "it was a bit surreal."
Or, as online industry site The Drive said: “You know it’s a new world in auto shows when Ford fills a Detroit hockey arena with breathless journalists—and its (cars) are relegated to a mere warm-up act.”
Instead of new vehicle news, Ford created a massive mini conference with top executives, thought leaders and city mayors to discuss a new vision of The City of Tomorrow and mobility itself. At the end, when journalists would typically swarm just to get shots of the new models, they were instead invited up to the stage for a conversation.
Bill Ford and his team spent most of the time with the invited guests talking about the City of Tomorrow.
And it was all sorts of awesome.
Hats off our amazing, relentless crew here at COLLINS including Nick Ace, Nicholas Rezabeck, Clay Kippen, Gabe Benzur, Chris Retcho, Seth Mroczka and Marc Lucas, who did not sleep for several weeks.
And congratulations to our architecture partners at the remarkable Parc Office, including Will Prince, Charlie Marshall and their extraordinary team. Some of who did get some rest. Eventually.
And extra bravos to our friends at Civic Entertainment who asked us in first the place - and to the remarkable event partners Gail & Rice.
Go further, everyone.
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JoyLab seamlessly balances your fitness goals and life goals by combining street-style details with the technology of a true performance-wear line. Read the case study on our site to learn more about Target's new exclusive athletic brand - http://bit.ly/collinsjoylab
Summer's over when we say it's over. Until then, Volume 4 of COLLINS Sounds on repeat. https://spoti.fi/2MW2Abv
Dizzying and giddy at the best of times, the COLLINS team is on the ground at CES and learning all we can. Stay tuned next week for our digest of CES Signals for 2018.
XpatNation: Peruvian In The USA
41 East 11th streetXpatNation: Japanese Americans
41 East 11th streetXpatNation: British in the United States
41 East 11th streetCardozo Journal of Law & Gender
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The Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency
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