COLLINS Leads Launch of Fast Company's REBRAND Series

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

D&AD Shortlists Three COLLINS Projects

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.

Creative Bloq — A Day in the Life

COLLINS Senior Designer Emily Sneddon possesses a rare mix of even rarer traits.

It’s a dangerously balanced cocktail:

Equal parts sharp, driven, insanely talented, tasteful, caring, committed. With a healthy pour of hustle.

And it’s a knockout.

Creative Bloq sat down with her to talk work, growth and words of wisdom.

You can find the full story, here.

The New York Times — Don’t Call It a ‘Mood Board’ — It’s a ‘World’

At COLLINS, we may surf Pinterest and Are.na less than you would expect. And for good reason. Brian Collins is on the record saying:

“In the process of designing and creating and writing and coding and building and crafting and launching our work, we use many tools for exploration and inspiration.

We use our library, films, animation, travel, painting, theatre, drawing, hiking, dancing, cooking as well as interviews and conversations with our clients and their customers. There are so many different kinds of references and visual stimuli that it is hard to keep track of them all.

But if there is one thing that we have never used it is this:

Mood boards.”

So, it felt fitting when our friend Eve Peyser at The New York Times reached out to Brian for his thoughts on just that subject.

See the full story here.

BRITE Conference

Join us as Brian Collins speaks about transforming the future of brand at Columbia Business School’s annual BRITE Conference.

April 10, 2023.

Ad Age — Pepsi's New Logo

If you haven’t heard, Pepsi has a new look.

If you haven’t seen, everyone has thoughts.

Our friend Tim Nudd at Ad Age did the work to gather opinions from around the industry.

You can see Brian Collins’ take as well those from Pum Lefebure, Hamish Campbell, Andy Cooke, Craig Dobie, Yihuang Zhou, Howard Belk, Maria D’Amato, Meg Jannott, Amin Todai, Adriana Ivory, Stephanie Yung, Nicole Massaro, Greg Auer, Stephen Niedzwiecki, Carlos Ortega, Zack McDonald and Neil Cooper.

It’s all here.

PRINT — Joseph Han on Bigger Conversations

Our friends at PRINT sat down with COLLINS Creative Director Joseph Han to discuss the new “We ❤️ NYC” logo.

“People freaked— and are freaking— out. Everyone has a take, and everyone is more than happy to tell you about it. Maybe all the noise is warranted, but that’s not for me to call.

What is warranted is an examination of the response itself, especially for graphic designers. Look at what a logo just did, what a piece of graphic design just did — an entire city of busy, hustling, no-nonsense New Yorkers just threw a tantrum. Not to mention the rest of the world.

That’s remarkable.

Clearly, Milton Glaser’s iconic original logo is embedded in the nerve bundlings and memory banks of this city and people around the globe.

So, we can debate the execution of this new mark, but for me, it is of far more interest and consequence to talk about the unseen and often unfelt role of graphic design in the places we call home.”

See the rest of his thoughts here.

Design Week — Indgila Samad Ali Weighs In On We ❤️ NYC

Design Week interviewed COLLINS Senior Designer Indgila Samad Ali on the city’s new campaign logo.

“While she believes the goal behind the new initiative is well-intentioned, Samad Ali says that ‘absolutely anything meant to stand next to or reference the original Milton Glaser logo is going to pale in comparison’.

‘The original is much more than a brilliant piece of graphic art — it’s now a part of New York itself, if not its very heart. To have done this successfully would have required an impossible amount of good luck.’”

Full story here.

COLLINS is Ad Age's First Business Transformation Agency of the Year

Wow.

We are beyond honored to be recognized by Ad Age as their first Business Transformation Agency of the Year.

Ad Age stated the recognition is intended for companies who, with their clients, are “rethinking product offerings…reconfiguring how clients reach customers…recasting a company’s brand mission, or in general finding new ways for clients to…create new connections to incite loyalty, or increase and build their customer base.”

In short, it is a recognition that values strong outcomes as much as strong output. We like that.

And it is directly in line with the belief COLLINS was founded upon fifteen years ago:

Design is not what we make.

Design is what we make possible.

And speaking of possibility, none of this happens without:

  1. Each and every one of our remarkable clients. Thank you for your trust, partnership and industry leadership.

  2. Our incredible people. We have an extraordinary team spread across our San Francisco, New York and London offices, as well as around the world–from Australia to London to Los Angeles.

Thank you, Ad Age, and thank you, Adrianne for your thoughtful story.

And bravo to all of the rest of the A-List honorees, here, especially our friends and clients at Mailchimp for their In-House Agency of the Year award.

Onward, all.