About

Collins is a brand agency. We accelerate brand growth through design thinking.

We believe brand building is increasingly dynamic. Consumer expectations are rising. So too are the complexities of managing a bottomless list of brand touchpoints. Thriving in this context requires an approach that can sharpen a brand’s story and shape the total brand experience to deliver that story in meaningful ways.

Our design thinking process helps leaders do just that.

Through design thinking, our brand and digital strategists distill a brand’s authentic story and identify ways to align and amplify it. Our designers, art directors, writers, and hackers then infuse this story throughout the consumer journey so each touchpoint delivers rational and emotional value. The result is a brand experience so coherent, delightful, and distinctive as to be a competitive advantage that drives growth.

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We have developed our business model to be as dynamic and diverse as the needs of brands today.

Our capabilities fall into five groups:

Brand Stewardship

This practice is a full-service, long-term partnership to help leaders clarify and grow their brands. It has helped clients identify trends of consequence, define new audiences, clarify brand strategies, pinpoint brand-driven opportunities to impact business performance, iteratively build digital products, and forge integrated brand experiences.

Brand Strategy

This group includes brand, digital, and connection strategies. This practice has helped leaders define their brand's architecture, its positioning in the marketplace, its story, and how best to deliver that story.

Brand Design

This group refers to our brand identity design, packaging design, and product/service branding practices. These practices have built visual identity systems and branded interfaces that maintain coherence and distinctiveness across diverse touchpoints.

Brand Experience Design

This group encompasses our interaction, digital product, and retail design practices. These capabilities have helped companies reimagine and build the physical and digital experiences that intertwine their brands with people’s lives. Built experiences have included e-commerce websites, mobile apps, digital services, digital products, retail stores, retail installations, pop-up stores, and much more.

Brand Marketing

This group includes our advertising, in-store retail marketing, and branded content practices. These practices have helped leaders create the advertising campaigns, retail marketing programs, and branded content that amplify their brand’s story.

Design thinking is the inquiry for insight into the nature of, justification for, and management of change.

It is, we believe, the most effective and efficient means of getting brands to better places. That’s why it’s the backbone of our process. Here are the key ways our design thinking process helps leaders accelerate brand growth:

1. Create a “Focusing Problem”

We help leaders find clarity in any challenge by isolating the root problem from which all other issues arise.

2. Lead with Empathy

We build from consumers' needs and desires to engage them with thoughtful, meaningful solutions.

3. Convince with Craft

We are obsessive about craft because a brand’s craft gives credibility to its message.

4. Be Shareworthy

In many ways, brands are no longer promoted. They are socialized. Our design thinking approach considers this by “baking in” elements that enhance a solution’s spreadability and adoptability.

5. Navigate Complex Organizations

Our design schemas, storytelling techniques, and commitment to visualizing our logic reduces the time to get stakeholder buy-in.

Contact us

Address
88 University Place 11th Floor
New York, New York 10003
646.380.4685
info@collins1.com