About us

Counterspace is an experienced digital agency. Our founder began designing & developing digital products in the early emergence of the digital, gaining experience launching products for the Smithsonian Institution, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Time Warner. Today, we are still designing and developing best in class, award winning products for our clients. 

A brief history of counterspace

Form & Function

1995 The beginning

Brett Yancy Collins’ (our founder) digital journey began in the early 1995, while working for a company called Ignition. A multimedia company led by Robert Abbott, and partnered with Learn Technologies Interactive (LTI) led by Luyen Chou in New York City. Working with clients like The Smithsonian, Time Warner Electronic Publishing and Sprint, Brett learned the art of designing pixels, and planning. Now known as user interaction.

Sex, drugs & rock n’roll

1997 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

After winning Communication Arts design awards in 1997, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame called. Brett Yancy Collins led the project pitch against several New York Based agencies and won the million dollar contract sponsored by AT&T to design and develop a new website for the RockHall.

Design thinking

1998 Rational Rose

Working with Rational Rose, where Jakob Nielsen, one of the creators of the Unified Modeling Language (UML), and the proponent of blue links, Brett learned how the UML could be harnessed for the planning of digital products. Adding the concepts of UML to the wireframing process he already created, Brett added functionality. Wireframing took on a new direction, merging technology with content. 

The digital era

1999 The Discovery Channel

Everyone wanted to be online, and the rush of companies searching for experts expanded quickly in the late 1990’s. Way ahead of the curve, Brett worked with the Discovery Channel to create a way for people to create their own video clips using Discovery video clips.

Brand development

1999 Bacardi Global Brands

Designing the first full flash enabled website brought a new level of client, and Bacardi Global Brands led the way.

The Works

2000 The Works

As a sabbatical in early 2000, Brett took a position developing the curriculum for a non–profit art, science & museum in Newark, Ohio. He designed the first digital curriculum, sourced all of the hardware on eBay and achieved Smithsonian Affiliation for the Museum. It was quite a year!

Giving back

2002 The Susan G. Koman Foundation

A big part of Brett’s design philosophy is helping not for profit companies leverage the power of design thinking and strategy. During the early 2000’s he worked with the Susan G. Komen Foundation, The New York Department of Education, The United Federation of Teachers and the DCCC.

Counterspace incorporates

2002 Counterspace

With 8 years of experience under his belt, 40 plus design awards, Brett opened the doors of the official counterspace office, well his home office!

Integrating design with technology

2005 Akamai

The integration of his UX/UI design skills partnered with clean swiss design problem solving began to bring in just a few clients. In 2005, client relationships with Akamai, Columbia University and the USGA began.

Transforming a book publisher

2005 HarperCollins Childrens

The ability to integrate flash technology into complex CMS systems led to the winning of the HarperCollins Children’s website. The contract was won against a few NYC companies, and they never knew what hit them. Harvard University, Merrill Lynch, Mastercard and Citibank were all in the client roster.

Architecting a Hedge Fund Platform

2007 Merrill Lynch

Brett’s ability to design dashboards was informed by the design and developed of CD-ROMs in the 1990’s and this ability assisted him in the UX/UI and interface design for a platform that supported the Merrill Lynch Hedgefund division.

Working on the Economy

2007 Economist

Between 2004 and 2008 counterspace was sought by all sizes of clients, all trying to grasp how technology and design create new products. During these years the concept of design thinking and UX was in its infancy, and companies did not yet ask the right questions.

Back to rock n’ roll

2008 eMusic

Counterspace had evolved into a digital consultant company by 2008, and we were working with eMusic, Columbia Law School, Scholastic and many start up companies that were seeking our expertise to assist them to get to their next round of funding.

MOOG engineering not audio

2009 Moog

Working with vShift, an agency in NYC, counterspace led the digital transformation of many companies. In 2009 the highlight was MOOG, not because of the design but because of the process. Through a complete wireframe process, we were able to bring all of the heads of the company together with a singular vision for their website and content.

MOOG Homepage

The mobile era

2009 Dell

Brett always stayed at the forefront of technology and design, and mobile is no exception. As the UX and design arm of Joule, a New York Agency, counterspace led the rapid expansion of AT&T, Dell, Macys and Virgin Mobile into the mobile market place.

Faster Forward

2010 Akamai

After working with Akamai for more than 6 years, evolving their logo, designing their NOC room screens and creating on and offline advertising Brett was creating designs that led their marketing across multiple channels.

dell-iphones-mockup.jpg

Leading Dell Mobile

2011 Dell

During 2011 through 2014, counterspace created hundreds of mobile apps, ad campaigns and mobile websites for Dell, AT&T, Macy’s and Alienware.

Mobile Movie Trailers

2012 Paramount

With the explosion of bandwidth and mobile devices, movie studios couldn’t wait to get their movie trailers online. Counterspace worked some expert mobile developers to take a different look at movie trailer UX and design.
Crownpeak

Crownpeak CMS

2013 Crownpeak

In the middle of the new decade CMS solutions were in a highly competitive market with each. Each year new coding languages were emerging, and new open source platforms threatened established enterprise CMS solutions. 

Mobile Advertising

2014 Adelphic Mobile

Adelphic is a mobile and cross-channel programmatic advertising platform connecting brands to audiences and enabling meaningful engagement with individual consumers. With Adelphic, marketers can influence consumer behavior in real time, maximizing the return on their mobile advertising investment.
Adelphic Mobile

Student Reading

2015 Scholastic

Scholastic TrackIt! Summer; provides administrators, teachers and students with an intuitive, easy-to-use central location for recording, storing and reporting student reading progress all summer long.

Back to Health Care

2016 Uniphy Health

The Uniphy Health Clinical Communications Platform is designed to help healthcare organizations meet the clinical communications needs of today, with a clear transition path into the value-based future of healthcare.
United Health
The Quilting Company

Crafting

2017 The Quilting Company

Building off the tradition and excellence of established brands including Fons & Porter, McCalls, Quiltmaker, and Quilting Arts, Quilting Daily is dedicated to inspiring, educating and equipping quilters of all interests and skill levels. Our website, online education programs, video services, and magazines all serve to meet the needs of the quilter wherever they may be. Quilting Daily. We’ve got Quilting Covered.

Let’s schedule a chat.