Ask Brian Collins about design, and he’ll say it’s not something his agency makes, but “what we make possible for others.” At COLLINS, where he is co-founder and chief creative officer, that core philosophy has landed the agency its second consecutive Design Agency of the Year nod—that, along with some impressive business results.
Whether it’s the just-launched work for Equinox Hotels, the brand refresh for gaming social network Twitch, or the totally reimagined identity design for ergonomic shoe brand Naturalizer, Collins says the through line is using design to conjure possibility. And clients are clamoring for that possibility: COLLINS increased new business by 40 percent and posted 12 percent year-over-year revenue growth in 2019, with zero client losses, despite a challenging year across the industry.
Take, for example, Twitch. As the leading live streaming network for gaming, Twitch had built a passionate following and broad user base. But while the users and the content they uploaded to the platform represented a diverse group, the organization’s branding had not effectively kept up. “Eight years into our existence, it felt like the time was right to shake things up,” says Twitch Global Executive Creative Director Byron Rex Phillipson. “We knew that any future vision or creative expression of our brand needed to walk the fine line of reflecting our community and culture, while broadening the aperture and opening our arms to new friends.”
“They had become the most successful live streaming platform for gamers in the world,” says Collins, “but their original brand idea was running out of road.” So COLLINS worked with the company to create an identity system, product design language, a tone of voice and brand architecture that could evolve with it. “They needed a clearer strategy, a stronger voice and a new design system to better reflect their expanding culture of inclusiveness,” Collins says—and that meant embracing all that was special or weird about Twitch and making it stronger.
The agency began its work by using the platform’s iconic purple as a base to build from. Designers added structures like a custom typeface and graphic “emotes” over that, along with a robust new color palette, allowing the expanding user base to express itself in the visual language of Twitch. This galvanized the brand in its supporting role to the community of users, embedding Twitch DNA in each member’s own personal hero story.