Collab co-founder and executive creative director Adina Levin (pictured with one of her pups, Annie)Photo: Courtesy of Collab
How she got her start: When she was a kid, Adina Levin loved theatrical production. She acted in plays, she built sets, and in the early 2000s, she started her first design business. "As projects would come in, I’d invest in equipment and hire new people from interdisciplinary backgrounds," she says. "Each project gave me a new set of capabilities. By the mid-2000s, I had built out a full fabrication shop."
Since then, Levin has been designing and fabricating and while building teams and expanding operations for Collab, a Brooklyn-based fabrication and creative technology studio. "From movie sets to museum installations for the Children's Museum of Manhattan, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, and the Universal Hip-Hop Museum to music experiences for MTV and Beyoncé, each year we expand our capabilities," she says.
What sets her company apart: Collab has built a team that comes from film and theatrical production, exhibit design, architecture, fabrication, and product development. It began in a 5,000-square-foot shop in Manhattan and has expanded into a 14,000-square-foot location in Bushwick.
"We now house full wood and metal shops, CNC routers for metal and wood, rapid prototyping equipment, lighting equipment, projection technology, and 22-foot ceilings that allow us to design, test, and build just about anything," Levin says.
What sets Collab apart, she adds, is its "ever-curious, playful, whimsical, Charlie and the Chocolate factory culture—when we’re not building projects for clients, we’re building our own inventions and immersive theatrical installations."
What innovation means to her: Levin says for her, innovation is a natural default. It's about approaching every project from the perspective of how to create moments that turn into memories. "Many companies and creative teams recycle ideas to create scalability," she says. "That is a good business approach. But our philosophy and nature is to always be in a little over our heads. It’s where the best work is done—where innovation happens."
Levin adds that Collab has built many projects to date, and it has technology at its disposal from those past projects that can be implemented into more exciting applications in future projects, but in a way that creates an entirely new experience. That includes "one that has no visible signs of past projects; that’s the key component of innovation," she says. "Constantly pushing to do things better than they’ve been done before."
Another highlight of the hip-hop museum pop-up is this light tunnel built to replicate walking into a club in the '80s. "The biggest compliment we got was from an executive from BET," Levin says. "When she went through the installation, she started crying. She came up to me and said it felt like she was walking back in time and into her youth."Photo: Courtesy of Collab
Memorable moments: Collab recently designed and built The Revolution of Hip-Hop for the Universal Hip-Hop Museum. It was a pop-up and preview of the Bronx museum, which will open in 2024. "We designed the space to feel like you’re walking back in time to the golden era of hip-hop," Levin explains. "Since [the pop-up's] opening, the museum has hosted events with world famous DJs, celebrities, and hip-hop artists. Whenever I’m at one of these events, I smile because the whole thing worked out so well."
The space includes a light tunnel built to replicate walking into a club in the '80s and a virtual graffiti experience. "Taking something from sketches to the real world and then watching people experience it exactly as you dreamt, that’s special," Levin says. "The biggest compliment we got was from an executive from BET. When she went through the installation, she started crying. She came up to me and said it felt like she was walking back in time and into her youth. That was a very special compliment."
Her biggest hope for the events industry: "I’m hopeful and excited for the future of events, because we are living in a time where we can use creative technology and entertainment technology to transform environments into thematic spaces that tell stories and deepen experiences," Levin says. "We no longer need Disney-size budgets to create Disney magic. We can create experiences that stimulate the senses like never before. This provides unlimited potential for creating meaningful events and gatherings. It also opens up all types of new jobs and opportunities in the event space."
This feature is sponsored by 6Connex, your all-in-one event technology to manage and host successful events at scale and in any format—in-person, hybrid, virtual, or webinars.
