16 Amazing Design Agencies You Should Know About

Published in

Prototypr

16 min readOct 31, 2016

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Update 1/9/18: I’m going to start appending cool agencies I run across to the bottom of this article, but without the in-depth convo. This article is my list of companies to keep an eye on, and I hope it is for you too.

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The design shop world is a crowded one, but designers (especially ones in tech) typically only recognize the big names like Huge, IDEO, etc. There are many smaller agencies that produce incredible work, but they’re harder to surface and difficult to qualify as a quality agencies.

Why is this important? Great design agencies create innovative solutions. They tend to have the flexibility to explore abstract ideas that product-focused companies don’t. Ideas breed new ideas, and designers need them to stay creative.

Imagine the possibilities if designers just knew about design agencies and the amazing work they produce.

To start, I compiled a list of 16 noteworthy agencies. For each, I explain why they deserve recognition and provide examples of their best work.

The agencies on this list meet the following criteria:

Have at least one office in the US;
Are lesser-known to the product design community;
Rely on talented product, UI, and UX designers;
Produced cutting-edge, impactful, or award-winning work.

I’ve also grouped them into 3 categories:

UX, Product Design, and Engineering Focus
Marketing/Branding/Production Focus
Social Good Focus

Important notes:

My evaluation of their strengths is based on my research, articles, and interviews.
Number of employees may change.

1. UX, Product Strategy, and Engineering Focus

Work & Co
New York City, NY/ Portland, OR / Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
~143 employees

What makes them different:

Work & Co is a digital experience firm with a strong basis in UX research, design, and development. They are phenomenal at designing effortless, inspiring interfaces to amaze and engage their clients’ customers.

Notable clients & work:

They’re best known for their game-changing redesign of the Virgin America website. When it was released in 2014, their work sent shockwaves throughout the design world. They proved that large corporations can not only embrace design, but also offer engaging experiences.

“Beyond the cutesy gloss is the first radical rethinking of the flight booking experience in a decade. The typical multi-page flow has been reduced to a single screen designed to fit the mental map of the user rather than forcing them through a legacy path dictated by outmoded technology.” — Wired Magazine

Here’s a full list of their clientele, which includes Apple and the NBA. Work & Co won “Most Significant Industry Evolution” at the 2014 UX Awards, and “Winner for Best UX” at Webby 2016 for their own company site.

Takeaways:

Hire them to make top-notch digital experiences that produce tangible, effectual results for your brand.
Work there if you want to work with a well-rounded product design and branding agency.

Further readings:

Creativedash
Roseville, CA
~9 employees

What makes them different:

Creativedash is a small studio that produces big, visually stunning work. While many design agencies cover UI design in their projects, Creativedash’s work possesses a distinctive feel — cheery, friendly, bright, while staying on top of design trends in tech.

Notable clients & work:

In the past, they’ve worked with high-profile clients like Nike, Squarespace, and Saving Star, whose mobile app was named “Best New App” on the App Store. Check out their 66.5K+ following on Dribbble, which showcases their incredible visual and motion design work.

Takeaways:

Hire them if you want stunning UI, visual, and animation work for your product.
Work there if you like tiny teams and want to produce visually engaging digital products.

Ramotion
Palo Alto, CA / Krasnodar, RUSSIA
~15 employees

What makes them different:

This design agency has a robust record of working with tech startups. Their highly skilled development and design teams are located in Russia, while the small management team is based in Palo Alto, CA. Despite the geographic distance, Ramotion truly understands the demands, desires, and mindset of Silicon Valley tech startups.

Notable clients & work:

They worked with Tile to increase onboarding engagement, and did so very successfully. They also helped Osmo create a design system for their product, work which contributed to Osmo being named one of the best inventions by TIME in 2014.

Takeaways:

Hire them if you have a high potential product and need branding and UX design to make it a success.

Work there if you want to contribute to the future of promising Silicon Valley tech startups.

Further reading:

Redesigning Tile’s Onboarding Process

Brave UX
Washington, D.C.
~8 employees

What makes them different:

Brave UX’s work can be characterized as charming, bright, and effective. They focus on engineering and barebones UX, and that shows in their portfolio. Over the phone, founder Lee Finkel energetically explained that having utmost empathy for not only the user, but also the business, is part of what makes them successful.

Notable clients & work:

Two of my favorite examples on their portfolio are Upturn and EqualFuture. Underneath the beauty and cheery interface lies a rock-solid layer of UX and research.

Additionally, they worked with the US Department of Health and Human Services to create a desktop app called Felix, which motivates government workers to improve their health habits. Brave UX tapped into the psychology of habit-forming to make what is traditionally boring into something fun.

Takeaways:

Hire them if you want to create a product backed by grounded usability, crafted with a bright and attractive demeanor, and lead by a small agile team.
Work there if you want to make products that put UX front and center.

Further reading:

An App for Making Government Workers Happier (Felix) by FastCo Design

8ninths
Seattle, WA
~11 employees

What makes them different:

8ninths is a UX firm dedicated to designing VR/AR experiences for enterprise applications. It’s one of the first of its kind, and a smart industry move. Companies will soon start moving in the VR/AR direction, and when they don’t have the bandwidth to produce their own designs, they’ll come to agencies like 8ninths.

Notable work:

8ninths was one of 7 agencies chosen by Microsoft to attend the Hololens Academy. They’ve worked with Citi, Oculus VR, and Samsung Gear to design captivating concepts and VR demos. I’m expecting this agency to be on the forefront as AR and VR technology advances.

Takeaways:

Hire them to create AR/VR experiences for your company.
Work there if you want to design experimental, cutting-edge AR/VR on multiple products and for different contexts.

Odopod (acquired by Nurun in 2011)
San Francisco, CA/ New York City, NY
~51–200 employees

What makes them different:

Odopod’s repertoire includes research, UX, and development. However, some of their most outstanding work blends physical and digital experiences together. Though they were acquired by Nurun in 2011, they still operate independently.

Notable clients & work:

For Tesla, they created a tantalizing car-customizing experience to give users a taste of what it might feel like to own one. If you’ve walked into a Tesla store and played with the monitors, you know how much fun it is to personalize the Tesla of your dreams. They also redesigned Hawaiian Airlines’ site, which won an Interactive Media Award.

Last but not least, they transcended digital in their mobile app project with Levi Stadiums by creating a hyper-integrated game arena experience. Thought it’s not without bugs and problems, the thoughtfulness and ingenuity in the design is strikingly clear.

Side note: One of Odopod’s past designers, Dan Becker, was recently mentioned in “64 People You Should Know in Design” on Medium. Check out the article to learn about today’s leaders in design.

Takeaways:

Hire them if you want a design firm with marketing acumen, or if you need help designing a holistic experience.
Work there if you want to design experiences that blend the digital and the physical.

2. Marketing/Branding/Production Focus

Welikesmall
Salt Lake City, UT
~20 employees

What makes them different:

Welikesmall (WLS) is known for their crisp production, digital work, and technology-agnostic approach. For example, they created an interactive TV-mobile interactive display for Nike Air Jordan and designed storage ads and trucks.

Notable clients & work:

WLS worked with Adobe to create the first live VR event in the world, an impressive feat for a technology so new. With a beautiful blend of visual, product, and physical experience design, the agency created the softwares that allowed Adobe Summit conference-goers to be in multiple places at once — Las Vegas, and the conference itself. Through this, WLS demonstrates a remarkable ability to adapt quickly to new technologies.

The agency has a host of other works to inspire you for the rest of the day, namely their Reebok campaign. Be sure to watch the video.

Takeaways:

Hire them if you want to work with out-of-box thinkers and creatives to help you with your next branding or product initiative.
Work there for a close knit creative team, and to work on beautiful and atypical projects.

Further reading:

“Be More Human” Reebok campaign (watch!)
1912Pike.com Starbucks content platform

Hello Monday
New York City, NY / Copenhagen and Aarhus, DENMARK
~36 employees

What makes them different:

This is the Beyoncé of design agencies, except Scandinavian. They’ve won numerous awards for visually stunning digital work, which include website, mobile apps, illustrations, and museum exhibits, among others. As an HelloMonday-er told me in a phone call,

“If you’re looking for a car and wanted the best, you go to the Mercedes-Benz. If you want one that doesn’t exist, you go to Hello Monday.”

In essence, they work in the experimental, boundary-breaking realms of digital experience design.

Notable clients & work:

Their strength is in storytelling and branding through truly incredible visual and UI design, though they tend to sacrifice UX for UI on the more artistic projects. Be sure to check out these examples of their best work: j.views DNA Project, the Wove band, and their own home page. Past clients include National Geographic, NASA, and Youtube. They are constantly breaking the borders of design by designing nonconforming digital experiences, and it shows in the many awards they receive. See here for a full list of their winnings.

Takeaways:

Hire them if you’re looking for artistic, jaw-dropping digital work for your brand/company.
Work there if you’re all about the aesthetic and want to create some of the web’s most beautiful branding and digital work.

Further reading:

National Geographic — A Bear’s-Eye View of Yellowstone
YouTube Kids — Building a safe YouTube environment for kids (iOS/Android)
Google Jigsaw — Fighting for freedom of expression

Kettle NYC
New York City, NY / San Francisco, CA
~70 employees

What makes them different:

Kettle NYC is an agency that works on web/mobile products, branding, and digital/social media strategy. They possess a bright, quippy energy to their work, and their strongest skills include branding and web design.

Notable clients & work:

They’ve created successful campaigns for Sunglass Hut and Persol, designed and built the award winning site for Brooklyn Bridge Park, and completely reimagined the MadLibs app for iOS and Android. Take a look at their agency site for a unique experience.

Takeaways:

Hire them if you want a brilliant digital creative solution for your brand, particularly a branding solution.
Work there if you want to create brand and marketing driven digital work — this means designing content that goes beyond traditional layouts and rules.

Code and Theory
New York City, NY / San Francisco, CA / London, UK / Manila, PHILIPPINES
~375 employees

What makes them different:

Code and Theory is an award-winning creative digital firm that does two things extremely well: making impressive digital experiences, and designing successful digital media campaigns. Their style is energetic and modern.

Notable clients & work:

This agency recently redesigned Bloomberg.com, Vogue.com, NBCUniversal.com, and this summer launched NBC Sport’s 2016 Rio Olympics website.

For the Bloomberg.com project, Code and Theory’s work sent huge waves rolling through the design world. News outlets like Wired called the redesign the “future of web news,” while others described the site visuals as “Instagram filters on acid.” Whether the visual design is good is up to you, but we can’t deny the brilliance of Bloomberg’s new UX.

On the brands side, the agency worked with Burger King to create a wildly successful campaign for BK’s new hot dogs… with Snoop Dogg. It won them a Cannes Lion award this summer.

Takeaways:

Hire them for social media strategy, campaigns, and beautiful web experiences.
Work there for a wide range of quirky projects and the chance to work with the amazing creatives there.

Further reading:

3. Social Good Focus

Big Tomorrow
San Francisco, CA / Austin, TX
~30 employees

What makes them different:

Big Tomorrow’s website doesn’t say much about what they do or how they do it — and that’s on purpose. So I contacted the agency’s principal, Nick de la Mare, for coffee and a brief interview. This is what I learned:

Big Tomorrow (BT) is a 3-year old service design agency, typically focused in healthcare, education and entertainment. Their sweet spot is experience design and strategy, but they have the capability to build and deliver their concepts for clients. Few organizations can connect the various elements of experience design (physical, UX, etc) together as flawlessly and succinctly.

BT doesn’t bias towards any one type of output. Instead, they decide their output medium based on their client’s goals and research subjects. It’s refreshing reminder that the solution to modern problems is not always an app or a website.

Notable clients & work

BT has been working with the University of Texas system to improve education for traditionally underserved populations. They’re designing the core experience, service model, and hardware components for a new university model in the Rio Grande Valley. They’re also designing a new competency-based education platform for UT students across the state.

BT has been working with Clarify, a Bay Area startup, to create a patient-centered experience system to coordinate physicians, hospitals, and other caregivers.

Takeaways

Hire them if you know that some experience needs fixing, but don’t know how to fix it, or why it’s broken; if you have a big question and are open to a solution you weren’t expecting.
Work there if you want to be an interdisciplinary service designer, and if you want to do strategy and ideation.

Hyperakt
New York City, NY
~17 employees

What makes them different:

Hyperakt is a social good agency that aims to increase non-profits’ visibility by designing branded digital experiences for them. They’re a mission-driven group with a strong commitment to producing socially meaningful impacts. Despite their schedule, the agency sets aside time for the pursuit of curious side projects. Some of these (i.e. On the Grid) have gained traction.

Notable clients & work:

Hyperakt has worked with companies like AdCouncil, Spotify, and Genentech. While they mainly design websites, they also produce beautiful print work like they did for a United Nations Global Compact report, detailing the challenges facing corporate sustainability. In another project, they gave a visual voice to the Harlem Stories Project, a theater group that inspires leadership and local activism amongst Harlem children.

They also made an interactive map of global refugee migrations since 1975 to increase awareness. Seeing that the agency’s founders are refugees themselves, it’s a clear example of how the agency adds a deeply human and personal touch to their work.

Lastly, they’re the ones behind the famous On the Grid project, a collection of local-curated experiences in global locations such as Vancouver and Amsterdam. It’s a quippy, personable site. Check it out.

Takeaways:

Hire them for strategy-driven brand identities, storytelling, and designs that harness rich storytelling to educate about social issues.
Work there if you’re all about sparking conversation and doing social good. If the idea of engaging in meaningful side projects excites you, you’ll fit right in.

Further reading:

Hyperakt participating in the conversation about the refugee crisis
How two refugees created a design agency that’s changing the world
On the Grid — a project by Hyperakt

Daylight Design
San Francisco, CA / Münich, GERMANY / Seoul, SOUTH KOREA
~15 employees

What makes them different:

Daylight Design focuses on social good projects, which have included humanitarian, environmental, and health causes. They do branding, UX, service, and physical product design — a breadth of capabilities that is rare to see in design agencies.

Notable clients & work:

Daylight Design worked with UNICEF to create the UNICEF Kid Power app. When kids use a wearable to track their physical activity, they unlock food packages for severely malnourished children around the world. It’s a brilliant idea that taps into children’s inherent altruism, encourages physical activity, and addresses a big problem.

With HopeLab they created the Zamzee, a social physical activity tracker that clips on to children’s clothing. It inspired a 59% increase in moderate to vigorous movement among users. Hopelab went on to partner with the President’s Challenge Program.

Takeaways:

Hire them if you’re on a social good mission and need help arriving at a human-centric solution, and want to further develop your brand.
Work there if you want to design with incredible design thinkers and researchers to create out-of-the-box solutions to social problems.

Further reading:

UNICEF Kid Power case study
UNICEF, Target team up to sell kids’ fitness bands that help save lives

Design Impact Group
New York City, NY / London, UK / Nairobi, KENYA / Mumbai, INDIA
~15–20 employees

What makes them different:

Design Impact Group (DIG) was founded by two leaders in the design field, Robert Fabricant (previously VP Creative @ frog) and Ravi Chhatpar (previously leading emerging markets bizdev @ frog).

DIG focuses on social impact and human centered design, particularly in emerging market contexts. DIG leverages the expertise of Dalberg to support large scale social change in global health and financial inclusion. All of their work is grounded in deep user insights and participatory methods to amplify the voices and needs of underserved communities.

Notable clients & work:

They’ve written numerous reports on about the digital literacy gap between men and women in India, and piloted mobile services to increase smallholder farmer revenue. Additionally, they created a visual toolkit to help increase the use of a life-saving antiseptic for newborns. It’s a part of a multi-year partnership with USAID Center of Accelerating Innovation and Impact (CII) to incorporate design thinking into USAID programs. For more examples, check out their site.

Takeaways:

Hire them if you need ethnographic research, and to turn those insights into actionable solutions.
Work there if you’re a designer, ethnographer, or usability researcher who has interest in emerging markets, can bridge broad strategic systems thinking to tangible solutions, and want to make an impact on communities.

Starting 1/9/18: newly added agencies!

https://www.humanafterall.co.uk/

Thanks for reading! A few things:

Let me know in the comments which great agencies we missed!
Please recommend or share this article if it was valuable to you.
Questions about the design space? Why I wrote this article? Something else? Let’s chat.