We chat with COLLINS Designer Caroline Bagley and Associate Designer Sohee Kim about Brutalist Websites, Summer internships, their first projects at COLLINS and their top 5 design crushes!
Three Questions Answered by Collins Designer Caroline Bagley 2018 for you in a sentence.
Opportunity.
Who are your top five design crushes right now?
What are your three must-read design books, blogs or podcasts and why?
Podcast: 99% Invisible. It’s a weekly design podcast from Oakland. They touch on design in every form, from architecture to waste management. My favorite episode is one where they discuss the “McMansion Hell” of suburban architecture.
Book: 'But What If We’re Wrong' by Chuck Klosterman. I don’t want to give any spoilers away. Just read it.
Blog: Brutalist Websites. I think the name pretty much describes it all.
Three Questions Answered by Collins Associate Designer Sohee Kim Where did you study and what were some of your first jobs?
I received my MFA from California Institute of the Arts with an emphasis in Graphic Design. Prior to that, I worked for a year on the Brand Design team at Amore Pacific, a global cosmetics company in South Korea, where I worked on a lot of packaging projects. I also interned at TBWA Korea with the Art Direction team.
What was your plan for graduating and what actually happened?
I went to grad school at CalArts so that I could develop my own personal voice. I wanted to be in the US, too, because the design market there felt more supportive and exciting than what I was used to. After grad school, it was important to me to work alongside a creative community where the designers were really confident and passionate about their own work. I found that, right away, in the team at COLLINS. They invited me to join them for a Summer Internship in San Francisco… and I’ve been here ever since.
Any passion projects/collabs you would like to share?
It’s not a personal project, but I really, really loved working on Airtime at COLLINS. Airtime is a group video platform that allows Gen Z to share videos, images, and GIFs together in real-time. There’s a certain chaos to the experience that captures the energy of hanging out with your friends and being in the moment. This naturally lent itself to my design aesthetic: part wild, part fun, part raw. It was my first project as a full-time employee and the client selected my exploration for the final brand direction, which was super exciting and also a little overwhelming. But I had a ton of support and guidance from my colleagues — Christian, Kris and the whole SF COLLINS crew— who collaborated with me to shape and refine the system. I also had the chance to help make the brand video — doing everything from storyboards, casting, and set direction — which was all so fun and new!
Where to find COLLINS online.
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