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Former Pentagram Partner Astrid Stavro has been named vice president, creative director at international strategy and brand experience firm Collins, which this year also opened a studio in Brooklyn and hired Wieden+Kennedy’s Lauren Ranke as vice president, people.
As she leads projects directly, Stavro will work closely with clients to distill business challenges into compelling ideas and brand systems.
“From running my own design practice to co-founding Atlas to being a partner at Pentagram, every experience has been unique, amazing and rewarding in different ways,” Stavro said in a statement. “I have learned about design, the business of design, managing creative teams, nurturing and mentoring young designers and making mistakes.
“As the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset said, ‘Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be.’ What excites me most about joining Collins is not what I have done, but what we can do.”
Based in London and fluent in five languages, Stavro will support Collins’ European clientele.
“The nomadic sense of belonging has made me quite chameleonic. Understanding the culture of a place and its people is essential. The fact that I live in London and speak European will hopefully enable closer, more meaningful and culturally relevant experiences and relationships,” she said.
Prior to joining Collins, Stavro led the redesign of London-based culture magazine Elephant and worked with Barcelona Design Museum, Camper, Vitra, Phaidon, McKinsey & Company, Acciona and AB InBev.
She led her own studio in Barcelona for ten years, and in 2013, co-founded the acclaimed brand and design consultancy Atlas with Pablo Martín. In 2018, she was invited to join Pentagram as a partner.
Her work has received more than 150 international awards, and she is a visiting lecturer at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and the Royal College of Art. Stavro is an elected member of Alliance Graphique Internationale, the world’s most prestigious design association, and also currently serves as the president of the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD).
“After multiple conversations with Leland Maschmeyer and Brian Collins, I realized that – besides the ambition to create timeless and meaningful work – we shared the same insatiable passion, curiosity and ways of thinking about the transformative power of design,” Stavro said.
“She’s a key part in charting our future. We’re looking for the most creative talent in the world,” said Collins Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer Brian Collins, also in a statement. “And when I reached out to Astrid, she said yes in a heartbeat. We were looking for dazzling intelligence, and I personally look for three things: character, energy and talent. And she has those in droves. We can’t wait to see what we will do together.”