Brian Collins

Brian Collins is an American designer, creative director, and educator recognized for his contributions to brand experience and design. Collins is the founder and chief creative officer of COLLINS, an independent strategy and brand experience design company with offices in San Francisco and New York. The firm has been recognized by Forbes as a company influencing the future of brand building. Collins advocates for a philosophy that design is not only about creation but also about enabling new possibilities, a perspective that has shaped his career in branding and design.

Prior to establishing COLLINS, Collins led the brand and innovation division at Ogilvy as chief creative officer, where he developed the agency's first design-led practice. At Ogilvy, he worked with clients such as The Hershey Company, Kodak, IBM, The Coca-Cola Company, BP, Motorola, Mattel, Vera Wang, American Express, Kraft Foods, Unilever, and New York City's Olympic Games bid, NYC2012. Notable projects include the Dove "Campaign for Real Beauty" in North America, which received the Media Image Award from the National Organization for Women. Business Week recognized his work for Hershey in Times Square as a retail "Wonder of the World," and his team's design of Helios House in Los Angeles, the first gas station using environmentally sustainable principles, is part of the Cooper Hewitt National Museum of Design collection.

Since its founding, COLLINS has received Agency of the Year honors from AdAge and D&AD. The firm has collaborated with international clients such as Spotify and Nike, as well as cultural institutions including the San Francisco Symphony and the Girl Scouts of the USA, helping organizations define and build their futures through transformative brand design. The company's global redesign and identity system for Spotify has been recognized by Fast Company, Wired, and Design Week. COLLINS has also appeared on Working Not Working's annual list of companies "Creative People Want to Work For Next," alongside Pixar, Tesla, Disney, Nike, and NASA, and was the first design company to be included on the AdAge A-List.

Collins is a frequent speaker at industry events and was the first graphic designer invited to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Creativity, Fortune, Graphis, NBC News, ABC News, and Fast Company, which named him an American Master of Design. His team has designed the AIGA 100th Anniversary Book and the Type Directors Club 60th Annual International Typography exhibition, utilizing generative typography. COLLINS's work reimagining the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as the New Bauhaus, received recognition from DesignWeek in London.

Collins serves as a professor in the Graduate Program of the School of Visual Arts. He is an alumnus of the Massachusetts College of Art & Design and has received an honorary doctorate from the Art Center College of Design and the Luminary Prize from Bell Labs. He is also a director of The One Club for Creativity, a nonprofit organization recognizing creative excellence in design and advertising. Through his firm, teaching, and public speaking, Collins continues to advocate for the role of design in shaping brand strategy and visual communication.