Make your future so irresistible, it becomes inevitable.

COLLINS is a transformation consultancy and Ad Age’s 2023 Transformation Firm of the Year.

We help businesses at critical inflection points define, design and build new futures.

COLLINS at a glance:

15

Years leading transformations

198

Awards from Fast Company, D&AD, Forbes, One Show, Ad Age and others

223

Transformations completed

5

“Firm of Year” honors in past five years

$2.5T

Enterprise value trusted to us

5,543

Books in our library (Yup. We like books.)

COLLINS Coffeehaus Book Sale

The AIGA National Conference is in New York this week.

Sunday, we are holding a massive book sale at the COLLINS office with our friend and designer Rick Griffith from Matter.

12 - 5p. Sunday, October 15.

457 Grand St.
Brooklyn, NY.

Open to all.

We hope to see you there.

Brian Collins Named Among Frontify's 2023 Brand Visionaries

Brian Collins can be found on a lot of lists. Some include:

  • Top Tate’s Bakeshop Customers of 2022
  • Trivia Watch’s 60 Under 60 [2020, discipline - Star Trek]
  • New York City’s Loudest Uber Passengers, 2010 - present

It was nice to see the good people at Frontify put him on theirs, too.

And it was a bonus that Brian also ended up on Frontify’s Paradigms conference billing alongside COLLINS Chief Strategy Officer Taamy Amaize, last week.

Stay tuned for a recap of the action.

Artwork by Kristina Bartosova and Dev Valladares.

Michael Di Leo and Emily Sneddon talk Freeform at Monotype's Brand Talks Conference

When Freeform invited us to help them evolve their purpose and transform their brand, they made it clear they were committed to wholesale change.

Game on.

We worked with the crew at Freeform to build a new brand platform and visual identity that walked us both right to the edge of what we knew and what we didn’t.

And we worked with the good, inventive people at Monotype to transform the original 1957 cut of Helvetica into something completely unexpected and dynamic.

Michael Di Leo and Emily Sneddon took the stage at the Monotype-hosted Brand Talks conference to share how we did it with our friends at Disney.

Plenty of us were in the crowd. And they both (unsurprisingly) crushed.

You can see the work, here. Which, by the way, Fast Company just included among the Best Work of the Year in their Innovation by Design Annual Issue.

And again, bravo to our friends at Freeform.
Love at first watch, indeed

Fast Company Names Figma Innovation by Design Awards Winner

We began our relationship with the remarkable people at Figma three years ago.

Working closely with their leaders, we set out to tell the world about a truth that history often hides: Nothing great is made alone.

Today Fast Company named our efforts together the Best Brand Work of the Year.

Good clients = good work.

Bravo, all.

Story here.

BowFlex Relaunches

“Fitness” makes most of us think of a relentless, complicated, unforgiving journey to some imaginary, unattainable future state.

It’s time to change that.

Instead, why not a fulfilling practice that helps us enjoy the body we have now?

We worked closely with BowFlex to transform how people perceive fitness into something simpler—an approach that can strengthen us from the inside out, keep us in tune with what feels physically and mentally rewarding and fuels our joy of moving every day.

Case study coming soon.

COLLINS New York Office Recognized by The American Institute of Architects

At COLLINS, we believe the spaces we work from profoundly inform how we create within them.

In the words of Anne-Marie Willis, the acclaimed architect, researcher and writer, “We design our world, while our world acts back on us and designs us.”

Our friends at Thiel Architecture + Design helped us imagine and build our offices just off of Union Square years ago. Then they helped us do it again and we created our new Brooklyn clubhouse built for a new, remote-first world.

We could not love it more.

We’re also thrilled The American Institute of Architects like it, too. They honored it with their award of excellence for interior architecture of the year.

Frankly, we think they just liked all the books.

Goodbye Twitter?

Creative Review sat down with design leaders from around the industry, including our friends James Greenfield and Emma Follett, to get their takes on Twitter’s rebrand.

They were kind enough to reach out to COLLINS co-founder Brian Collins, too.

It’s all here.

Farbod Kokabi Named to Brand Impact Awards Jury

One of our favorite traditions rolls around each Monday.

At noon, the whole crew piles into Zoom from New York, San Francisco, Boulder, London, Hawaii and Woods Hole to chat, share updates and, most importantly, pass The Bouquet.

The Bouquet is an honor handed off to the most deserving team member from last week’s recipient. It can be for anything from nailing a key presentation to untangling a knotty problem to bringing the best energy to the office.

COLLINS Design Director Farbod Kokabi just three-peated.

It’s unprecedented, but unsurprising.

Farbod has impeccable taste, a contagious imagination, an outsized heart for his craft and colleagues, and easily, easily, the best hair game around.

He’s worked with the likes of Sony, A24 and Coca Cola. He co-owns and operates his own record label. He hits it out of the park for us week in and week out and, now, he has a new gig…

Farbod is joining the remarkable jury at this year’s Brand Impact Awards, including our good friends Lisa Smith, Kwame Taylor-Hayford and Liza Enebeis.

Well chosen, BIA.

If you haven’t already, there’s still time to submit your work for Farbod and company to take a look.

Best of luck.

💐💐💐

IIT Institute of Design Named Rebrand of the Year by DesignWeek

DesignWeek in London just named our work with the IIT Institute of Design as 2023’s Rebrand of the Year.

We are thrilled the recognition came in Rebranding—transforming brands for a new future is what we love to do.

But it was not the news we expected to wake up to, today.

It is bonkers, and an especially pleasant surprise because the cast of honorees we find ourselves included among is remarkable.

On behalf of our clients and our crew, we are beyond grateful to this year’s jury.

And congratulations to the good people at The Click, Ragged Edge, Magpie Studio, NB Studio, WeTransfer and all of this year’s Design Week winners.

You can see everybody, here.

Thank you, Design Week.
Thank you, to our incredible friends and clients at the Institute for their imagination in embarking on such a meaningful transformation.

And bravo, all.