Figure 4 Dove Canada's "Beyond Compare" campaign. CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Brian Collins, David Israel; DESIGNERS: Leigh Okies, Helena Fruehauf, Satian Pengsathapon, Nathalie Hennequin.

It’s almost too delicious, this world Collins holds out for my delectation. The globe’s most well-heeled corporations, yearning for our stray sketches and oddball conceits. It’s tempting to take his words lightly, or to imagine them floating nicely in the ether, well above the fray of making brands that actually sell. On the contrary, Collins describes a world in which brands are pragmatically drawn to culture-making now just to fight facelessness, to continue to matter to a society that is increasingly suspicious of advertising and media-overwhelmed. Not coincidentally, his brand exercises are remarkably cost-effective, further underlining the reality of his predictions. The Hershey’s candy-factory store in Times Square began life as a living experience of the brand, but it’s also a selfsupporting business.

“We should go back to calling ourselves commercial artists,” he remarks suddenly. “I have no problem with that.” He leans in urgently. Collins has caught hell for speeches like this before, but his emphatic delivery marks him as someone obliged to tell an unlovely truth. “For some reason, our best and brightest [in design] fetishize the obscure,” he says. “It’s as if the only way your individual voice comes to life is in these arcane, wee little projects that no one outside the design profession ever sees.” He gives a fluttering golf-clap, chin aloft, mouth pursed. “Very, very nice! What ironic layers of veiled meaning! Such clever recontextualized vernacular idioms!” He stops clapping. “But so easy to do.”

Collins levels his gaze and speaks deliberately. “There is a larger prize to be won. Our best and brightest need to understand that working with massive brands, on work that is seen by the world—that is where we need them. We need to think more like artists and less like scientists. In five years, everyone will be able to be a designer; the barriers in the software will be completely removed. So, we need to invent like creators, and respond less like ‘problem solvers,’ simply accepting the agenda we are handed. We need to answer questions people didn’t even think to ask.” He rolls into a champion pause and stares me down. “We need real artistry soon, stories and imagination; that’s how brands will have to live in the world. If they don’t think of themselves as real artists, too— responsible for adding to the culture as well as to their business—they’ll be irrelevant. And soon.”