The best design agencies in New York

01

Clay Global

UI/UX, web, and branding studio building digital products and brand systems for tech and enterprise clients.

At a glance:

Global, remote-first, with a New York office (148 Lafayette St) plus San Francisco, Austin, Denver, Lisbon, and Belgrade. Focus: UI/UX, web design, brand identity.

Overview:

Clay started as a UX practice for mobile and enterprise software and expanded into full brand and web design. The team works across product strategy, identity, and front-end build for startups through Fortune 100 companies.

Services:

UX/UI design, web design and development, brand identity, product strategy, motion design, design systems.

Notable clients:

Google, Amazon, Slack, Coinbase, Snapchat, Sony, Coca-Cola, Stripe.

Best for:

Tech and enterprise teams that need product-grade UX and a brand system in one place.

02

COLLINS

Transformation and brand-experience consultancy known for category-defining rebrands.

At a glance:

Offices in New York and San Francisco. Focus: brand strategy, identity, experience.

Overview:

One of the most decorated studios in the field, COLLINS pairs creative ambition with systemic rigor, often reframing a brand's purpose rather than just restyling its logo.

Services:

Brand strategy, visual identity, brand experience, naming, motion.

Notable clients:

Figma, Spotify, Dropbox, Twitch.

Best for:

Established brands ready for an ambitious, culture-shifting reinvention.

03

Gretel

Independent branding, strategy, and design studio building identity systems for culture, media, and consumer brands.

At a glance:

Founded 2005 (Greg Hahn; Ryan Moore, ECD). New York City. Focus: brand identity, motion, editorial.

Overview:

A New York studio known for bold, image-driven identity work across screen and print, with in-house motion, typography, and 3D that carries a brand from strategy through campaign.

Services:

Brand strategy, visual identity, motion and broadcast design, editorial design, experience design.

Notable clients:

Netflix, Nike, MoMA, Vice, MasterClass, Knoll.

Signature work:

Identity for POPL, the burger spot from the team behind Copenhagen's noma.

Best for:

Media and consumer brands that need a confident visual system with motion built in.

04

Red Antler

Brand company for startups and new ventures, best known for launching direct-to-consumer names.

At a glance:

Founded 2007 (JB Osborne, Emily Heyward, Simon Endres). Brooklyn, NY. Focus: startup branding, strategy, launch.

Overview:

The go-to studio for building category-defining startup brands, working across strategy, identity, and the full consumer experience from day one.

Services:

Brand strategy, naming, visual identity, packaging, digital and launch campaigns.

Notable clients:

Casper, Allbirds, Brandless, Burrow, Keeps, Prose.

Best for:

Venture-backed startups that need a brand built to scale from launch.

05

Base Design

International identity and communications network with a New York studio.

At a glance:

Founded 1993 (Brussels). Studios in New York, Brussels, Geneva, Melbourne, Ho Chi Minh City. NY studio at 13 S William St. B Corp certified.

Overview:

Base builds brand identities across strategy, digital, packaging, editorial, and environmental design, with a strong typographic and cultural-institution sensibility.

Services:

Brand strategy and identity, UX/UI, web, packaging, editorial, signage, typeface design.

Notable clients:

Apple, The New York Times, MoMA, NY Mets, JFK Terminal 4, Union Square Hospitality Group.

Signature work:

Rebrand of the auction house Phillips.

Best for:

Cultural institutions and brands wanting an identity-led studio with global reach.

06

Mission Control

Remote branding and design studio working with a small roster of clients per season.

At a glance:

Fully remote, asynchronous-first. Focus: brand identity and design.

Overview:

A small senior team offering branding and design for startups and growth-stage companies, deliberately limiting the number of concurrent clients.

Services:

Brand strategy, visual identity, design.

Best for:

Founders who want senior-level branding attention and a small-team engagement model.

No public named-client list located, so those fields are intentionally left blank rather than filled speculatively.

07

RoAndCo Studio

Design-led branding studio for fashion, lifestyle, and culture brands.

At a glance:

Founded 2006 (Roanne Adams). TriBeCa, New York City. Focus: brand identity, art direction, web.

Overview:

A multidisciplinary studio known for refined, editorial branding and art direction, blending strategy with a strong aesthetic point of view.

Services:

Brand strategy and identity, web and ecommerce design, packaging, art direction, editorial.

Notable clients:

Needed, Rifle Paper Co.

Best for:

Fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands wanting a polished, art-directed identity.

08

Order

Brand identity design office known for rigorous, systems-driven work.

At a glance:

Founded by Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth. Brooklyn, NY (with Miami). Focus: brand identity, systems, typography.

Overview:

A design office focused on brand identity and guidelines, working to the principle that everything is done for a reason and never for decoration. The founders also run Standards Manual, the independent publisher behind the reissued NASA and NYC Transit Authority graphics standards manuals.

Services:

Brand identity, naming, guidelines, environmental and signage design, typeface design, publishing.

Notable work:

Kickstarter rebrand, Floyd.

Best for:

Companies wanting a disciplined, systems-led identity with strong typographic craft.

09

Mother Design

Independent brand and design studio, the design arm of the Mother family.

At a glance:

Founded 2006. New York (77 10th St, Brooklyn), London, and Los Angeles. Focus: brand strategy, identity, experience.

Overview:

An independent brand and design company of strategists, designers, and writers, working across identity, experience, spaces, and product for clients large and small.

Services:

Brand strategy, visual identity, art direction, motion, experience design, typography.

Notable clients:

Facebook, Nike, TripAdvisor, Bloom & Wild.

Best for:

Brands wanting a strategy-led identity with cross-sensory, experience-driven execution.

10

DIA

Branding studio specializing in kinetic identities and typographic systems.

At a glance:

Founded by Mitch Paone. New York and Chamonix, France. Focus: motion-driven identity, type.

Overview:

DIA pioneers identity systems where motion is foundational, pairing brand guidelines with generative tools and typographic systems.

Services:

Brand identity, kinetic and motion systems, typography, generative design tools.

Best for:

Brands that want a distinctive, motion-native identity rather than a static logo.

11

Athletics

Cross-disciplinary brand studio working at the intersection of design and technology.

At a glance:

Founded 2004. New York City / Brooklyn. Focus: brand systems, digital product, sites and tools.

Overview:

A brand studio that builds usable identities, websites, and tools, integrating strategists, designers, UX specialists, and creative technologists.

Services:

Brand strategy and identity, web design and development, UX, generative brand tools.

Best for:

Organizations that want a brand system designed to work as a live, usable toolkit.

12

Siegel+Gale

Global brand consultancy built on the discipline of simplicity.

At a glance:

Founded 1969 (New York). Part of Omnicom. Offices including New York, London, Dubai, Shanghai.

Overview:

Siegel+Gale applies a simplification methodology to strategy, identity, naming, and experience, with particular strength in regulated and complex categories.

Services:

Brand strategy, naming, brand architecture, identity, customer experience, its "World's Simplest Brands" research.

Notable clients:

Citibank, Pfizer, Humana, PayPal, American Express.

Best for:

Enterprises in complex or regulated industries that need to win through clarity.

13

Wolff Olins

Global brand-transformation consultancy known for bold, provocative rebrands.

At a glance:

Founded 1965 (London). Part of Omnicom. Offices in London, New York, San Francisco.

Overview:

Wolff Olins is built around the idea that strong brands carry a distinctive point of view, and it specializes in high-stakes rebrands that signal fundamental change.

Services:

Brand strategy, identity, brand experience, naming, brand architecture, organizational alignment.

Notable clients:

Uber, TikTok, The Met, Google, (RED), London 2012 Olympics.

Best for:

Established organizations that need the market to understand something has fundamentally changed.

14

Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv

Legendary identity firm behind many of the most recognizable American logos.

At a glance:

Founded 1957. New York City. Focus: trademarks and identity programs.

Overview:

A firm that helped define modern, idea-driven identity design, responsible for enduring marks built on simplicity and abstraction.

Services:

Brand identity and trademarks, exhibitions, print and motion graphics, environmental design.

Notable clients:

NBC, Chase, Mobil, PBS, National Geographic, US Open.

Best for:

Institutions and corporations that want a timeless, symbol-driven identity.

15

Pentagram

The world's largest independent design consultancy, partner-owned and multidisciplinary.

At a glance:

Founded 1972 (London). New York is a major office. Partner-owned, no outside holding company.

Overview:

Pentagram is run by its partners, each a practicing designer who leads client work directly, across graphics, identity, products, environments, and digital.

Services:

Brand identity, editorial, packaging, wayfinding and environmental graphics, digital, typeface design.

Notable clients:

Microsoft, Citibank, MoMA, Saturday Night Live, The Public Theater, the High Line.

Best for:

Large or cultural clients wanting partner-level attention on a landmark project.