Behind The Scenes

Join us on January 17 for Behind the Scenes presented in collaboration with COLLINS.

Behind the Scenes pulls back the curtain on the untold stories of failure—the raw, unpolished moments that don’t make it into our case studies or portfolios.

Failure is not just a possibility; it’s a prerequisite for bringing any bold idea to life. This series creates a safe space to explore the messy, challenging, and deeply human side of creative work—the moments that shape our journeys as much as the successes they lead to.

On January 17, we’re thrilled to welcome Keith Yamashita, Brian Collins, and Cindy Gallop to the stage. Together, they’ll share their most epic and honest stories of failure—moments that were as humbling as they were transformative.

Important Note: To honor the vulnerability and courage of our speakers, this event will not be livestreamed, and recording of any kind is strictly prohibited. Depending on the sensitive nature of what’s shared, an edited video may be made available afterward—or it may not.

Our Speakers

Keith Yamashita | The Institute for Moral Imagination

Keith Yamashita has dedicated a life to creating a world that’s more creative, more beautiful, more just, more inclusive. He is a co-founder of The Institute for Moral Imagination (TIMI). We live in a species-defining era. TIMI ignites humankind’s creativity—so we can imagine and build a future in which we all thrive.

TIMI undergirds artists, change-makers, leaders, and everyday citizens with the nourishment, inspiration, deep muscle, and capacities to claim their full agency in building preferred futures.

In past lives, Keith founded SYPartners (a transformation consultancy), the kyu collective (one of the world’s largest creative collectives), and This Human Moment (an online community working through the suffering of the pandemic to find a new humanism on the other side). Keith holds an M.A. in Organizational Behavior and a B.A. in Quantitative Economics from Stanford University.

@keithyamashita (Instagram) | www.t-i-m-i.com

Cindy Gallop | MakeLoveNotPorn

Cindy Gallop is the founder and CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn, launched at TED 2009 – ‘Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference’. The huge global response led her in 2013 to turn MakeLoveNotPorn into the world’s first user-generated, human-curated social sex videosharing platform: socializing and normalizing sex to make it easier to talk about, to promote consent, communication, good sexual values and behavior, as sex education through real world demonstration. MakeLoveNotPorn’s mission is to help end rape culture by spearheading the Social Sex Revolution - the revolutionary part isn’t the sex, but making it social. Cindy and her team are building MakeLoveNotPorn Academy, a 0-18 and beyond global aggregator hub for the best of the world’s sex education. Cindy speaks at conferences globally and consults, describing her approach as ‘I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business.’ Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @cindygallop.

Brian Collins | COLLINS

Brian Collins is a designer and co-founder of COLLINS, the business transformation company based in San Francisco and New York City. The company started with two laptops, four desks and an idea: Make the future so irresistible, it becomes inevitable.

Since then, the company has won Agency of the Year honors over the last 5 years from AdAge – including Business Transformation Agency of the Year – and D&AD. Their clients include some of the world's leading companies including Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, Robinhood, sweetgreen, Airbnb, The Guggenheim Museum and The Coca-Cola Company.

Before launching COLLINS in 2008 with Leland Maschmeyer, Brian led the design and brand innovation division at Ogilvy Worldwide for over a decade.

He is a frequent speaker worldwide and was the first graphic designer invited to speak at The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

About COLLINS

COLLINS is a transformation and design consultancy with offices in San Francisco and New York City. We help businesses at critical inflection points define, design and build their futures. Clients have included Spotify, Facebook, The Girl Scouts, Twitch, Robinhood, Coca-Cola, Nike, Dropbox, Microsoft, Target, Figma, Equinox, Blackstone, and the San Francisco Symphony, among others.

COLLINS has won Agency of the Year five times from Ad Age (2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024), including Business Transformation Agency of the Year.

COLLINS has also been honored as D&AD’s Agency of the Year in 2021.