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.

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

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.

“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.

If the COLLINS library doesn’t make it clear—we love reading.

But sometimes, it’s time to put down the books.

When we do, we usually find ourselves in a downtown karaoke room queueing up unabashed pop hits, guilty pleasures, heart-snatching ballads and more til late.

For COLLINS Sounds Vol. 14: a playlist handpicked by our homegrown musical talent.

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.

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.

💐💐💐

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.

This spring, Fast Company invited us to help launch a new feature series–REBRAND. The concept? For each upcoming print issue, take something that desperately needs a transformation and reimagine it; new strategy, new story, new name, new identity. Recasting it to play a more meaningful role in building the futures we all hope to see.

These transformations happen all the time, often quietly, and with ambitions that are questionable as frequently as they are helpful. Gambling has become “Gaming.” Junk Bonds re-skinned as “High-Yield.” PFAS are increasingly known, much more memorably, as “Forever Chemicals.” And the Patagonian Toothfish on your menu is now the far more appealing “Chilean Sea Bass - fresh from the clear, icy cold waters off the coast.”

It’s a grab bag.

The intent of REBRAND is to point out that, whatever their angle, these shifts can have a real impact. And to ask the question: How do we turn more of them to the world’s benefit?

For the inaugural topic, Fast Company gave us GMOs. Tricky waters, indeed.

See our thinking, here.

TEAM
Indgila Samad Ali
Dev Valladares
Tom Elia

Good things come in threes.

D&AD has shortlisted our work with the good people at Figma, Freeform and the Institute of Design.

Cheers to our teams, cheers to our remarkable clients and thank you, judges.