STUDIO INSIGHT JUNE 2019
COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMMAKE YOUR WORK
FUTURE-READY
COLLINS explains how it helps brands
stay one step ahead of their customers,
and why form follows fun, not function
STUDIO INSIGHT
B
rian Collins had worked for advertising giant
Ogilvy for a decade when he noticed that
the design field was “divided in two”. On
one side sat the giant, global branding firms
that carried out well-behaved, corporate
work on a massive scale. On the other, were the smaller,
faster, design studios that produced inventive, original,
knockout work. He wondered what would happen if the
two worlds merged, if the “speed, passion, imagination
and creative ambitions” of the smaller firms were
scaled up, to provide the “opportunities from the giant
firms”. From this idea, COLLINS was born.
More than 10 years later, COLLINS’ work certainly has
scaled – its client list includes the likes of Spotify, Nike,
Dropbox, Mailchimp and Airbnb – but it also has the
nimbleness and “family” atmosphere of a smaller outlet. Of
his team, Collins says: “They just get keep getting better.
They watch out for each other. They’ll always push the bar
higher and higher.” We caught up with him to find out more
about the COLLINS team, and how he navigates working on
the sort of high-profile rebrands that set Twitter alight.The COLLINS website says you “build better futures.”
What does this mean in practice?
Brian Collins: A brand is a promise performed consistently
over time. That’s why we work so hard with our clients
on first defining their brands’ promises and identifying
the highest order values that drive them. We then shape
those promises to be relevant to their customers and the
communities they serve. From there, they can take more
confident, bolder steps into the future.
Look at our friends at Dropbox. The founders started
with a simple idea: everyone’s stuff could just live in theCOLLINS
COLLINS is a strategy and brand experience design company
based in New York City and San Francisco, which creates
communications, environments and products that transform
brands, drive business and improve people’s lives. Its clients
have included Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Dropbox, Equinox, Facebook,
Microsoft, Nike, Spotify, Target and The Guggenheim Museum.
http://www.wearecollins.comThe COLLINS team is split across New York and San Francisco.