Influential Graphic Design Firms

by 

Justin Bifolco

August 3, 2022

Graphic Design is known for being competitive. Even more so, creating your brand is difficult. However, one thing that helps, is reviewing other successful brands. What is better than the most influential design firms?

Nevertheless, despite the difficulties of building a brand, there are a number of success stories. In which, firms and their partners have gained international praise for their design work. Their graphics have been able to create powerful and memorable brand activation campaigns.

Moving forward, all of the entries on our list have developed a brand strategy. This way, they can connect with their target audience. Their client list features big names who rely on the creative prowess of these agencies.

Here are 20 of the most successful and influential graphic design firms in the industry:

Pentagram

Primarily, Pentagram is “the world’s largest independently owned design studio.” The graphic design giant is owned and run by 25 partners. With that, their quality is expressed in their client list. For instance, this list features big names like Rolls-Royce, United Airlines, Verizon, and Warner Bros. 

Headquarters:

London, United Kingdom

Locations: 

1. Austin
2. Berlin
3. New York
4. San Francisco

Notable clients:

1. Citibank
2. United Airlines
3. Saks Fifth Avenue
4. Harley Davidson
5. Alexander McQueen
6. Clear Channel
7. The National
8. The Daily Show
9. One Laptop Per Child
10. Revlon
11. Cosmopolitan
12. The Oprah Winfrey Show
13. Grey Goose
14. Tiffany and Co
15. Vanity Fair

Sagmeister & Walsh

Next, we have Sagmeister & Walsh. This is the design partnership of Stefan Sagmeister & Jessica Walsh. To note, Sagmeister is an Austrian graphic designer, storyteller, calligrapher, and typographer. Also, Walsh is an American artist known for her illustrations and art direction. Now working solo, Sagmeister creates non-commercial work at Sagmeister Inc. . Whereas, Walsh creates branding & advertising work at & Walsh.

Headquarters:

New York City, New York

Notable clients:

1. Snapchat
2. 7Up
3. The Gap
4. BMW
5. The Museum of Modern Art
6. The Guggenheim Museum
7. NYTimes Magazine
8. Lou Reed
9. Jay-Z
10. Brian Eno
11. David Byrne
12. Random House Publishers
13. The AIGA
14. Autodesk
15. Levis
16. Adobe

Services offered:

1. Album covers
2. Posters
3. Uniquely packaged designed books

Wolf Olins

After that, there is Wolf Olins. This is a British advertising agency and corporate identity consultant. They were formed in 1965.

Headquarters:

London, United Kingdom.

Locations: 

1. London
2. New York City
3. San Francisco

Notable clients:

1. Uber
2. Alibaba
3. Zigbee Alliance
4. GrubHub
5. The Metropolitan Art Museum
6. Spotify
7. Orange
8. The Hyatt
9. Virgin Media
10. (RED)
11. AOL
12. Target
13. Unilever
14. GE
15. PwC
16. Microsoft
17. Google
18. Skype
19. Expedia
20. FutureLearn

Landor

Landor is a brand consulting firm founded in 1941 by Walter Landor. He developed many elements in the creative design field. For example, research, design, and consulting methods that are still used. Clearly, Landor’s brand positioning is very strong. Hence, making them one of the most influential design firms.

Headquarters:

San Francisco, California

Locations: 

1. Bangkok
2. Beijing
3. Cape Town
4. Chicago
5. Cincinnati
6. Dubai
7. Geneva
8. Hamburg
9. Hanoi
10. Hong Kong
11. Jakarta
12. Kuala Lumpur
13. London
14. Melbourne
15. Mexico City
16. Milan
17. Moscow
18. Mumbai
19. New York
20. Paris
21. Seoul
22. Shanghai
23. Singapore
24. Sydney
25. Tokyo

Notable clients:

1. Nike
2. Coca-Cola
3. The WW
4. FedEx
5. Levis
6. Apple
7. Volvic
8. Kraft
9. Jameson
10. BMW
11. Henkel
12. Old Spice
13. Citroën
14. Proctor and Gamble
15. Juicy Couture
16. Rolex
17. John Deere

Meta Design

Meta Design is a creative brand consultancy formed in 1979. It provides a number of branding services to its clients. For instance, brand strategy, brand creation, brand experience, and brand activation. Remember, creating these experience strategies makes for dedicated clients. Consequently, they return for your products and services.

Headquarters:

San Fransisco, California

Locations: 

1. Beijing
2. Berlin
3. Düsseldorf
4. Geneva
5. San Francisco
6. Zurich

Notable clients:

1. Apple
2. AT&T
3. eBay
4. FIFA
5. Intuit
6. Lamborghini
7. Netflix
8. Sony
9. Intel
10. Polo Ralph Lauren
11. 23andMe
12. Volkswagen
13. The Economist
14. New York Philharmonic
15. Texture
16. San Francisco Ballet

House Industries

Next up, we have House Industries. This is a type of foundry and design studio based in Yorklyn, Delaware. The company was created in the 1990s in Wilmington, Delaware. It was created by co-founders Andy Cruz and Rich Roat.

Headquarters:

Yorklyn, Delaware

Notable clients:

1. Hermes
2. The Cher Show
3. Eames
4. The New Yorker
5. Design With Reach
6. Ford
7. John Mayer
8. Heath Ceramics
9. Jimmy Kimmel Live
10. Vogue Japan
11. Agent Provocateur
12. MTV
13. Chronicle Books
14. Uniqlo
15. Baccarat
16. Herman Miller

Services offered:

1. Drawing
2. Font Creation
3. Lettering
4. Painting

Happy Cog 

As a full-service digital agency, Happy Cog helps organizations around the globe. In fact, this allows them to be a household brand name. Specifically, Happy Cog helps with a variety of marketing tools. For instance, visual designs, branding strategies, web development projects, and digital marketing campaigns. Their variety of services absolutely makes them a influential design firm.

Headquarters:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Locations: 

Philadelphia and New York City

Notable clients:

1. MTV
2. Papa John’s
3. Harvard Business School
4. Ben & Jerry’s
5. McGraw-Hill Education
6. US Holocaust Museum
7. Nintendo
8. Georgetown University
9. Fonts.com
10. Thomson Reuters
11. Zappos.com

Services offered:

Indeed, Happy Cog is primarily known for its focus on web standards. That being said, a focus on web standards improves the user experience. Also, this design firm creates publication and service products including A List Apart Magazine (ISSN). In addition to, a bi-monthly newsletter.

Furthermore, they also produce themes for the Shopify e-commerce platform. Until 2013, they provided special web hosting services. This was done through Happy Cog Hosting. To add, this type of hosting is a way that clients can create and maintain their site.

Metalab

Furthermore, we have the development platform MetaLab. This is a development platform that facilitates a reliable way to develop applications.

Headquarters:

1. Victoria
2. British Columbia
3. Canada

Notable clients:

1. Slack
2. Google
3. Finery
4. Amazon
5. Facebook
6. Lonely Planet
7. TED
8. Otter

Urban Influence

Urban Influence considers itself a collection of brand architects. This company offers branding, design, and an interactive studio.

Headquarters:

Seattle, Washington

Notable clients:

1. Intego
2. Revelry
3. SEO Moz
4. Endurance
5. Sprout
6. Polaris
7. Chef’n
8. Watson
9. Cinchshare
10. Pronto
11. Redfin
12. DNA

Mucho 

Mucho is a global boutique design studio. Their work spans a variety of services. This includes, advertising, branding, and illustration.

Headquarters:

Barcelona, Spain

Locations: 

1. Newark
2.  Barcelona
3. Paris
4. San Francisco
5. New York
6. Sydney
7. Berlin
8. London

Notable clients:

1. AIGA
2. Alma Hotels
3. BCD
4. Betway
5. BMW, Canal+
6. El País
7. EMI Music Spain
8. Future Designs
9. Gap Inc.
10. Google
11. HP
12. Kodak
13. Majestic Hotel Group
14. Mars, Museum of Lincolnshire Life
15. Phaidon Press, Random House Mondadori
16. San Francisco Art Exchange
17. San Francisco Civic Center
18. The Collection
19. The Observer
20. University of California

Branding Services offered:

1. Management
2. Narrative
3. Strategy

McFaul+Day

McFaul+Day is an Internationally renowned creative agency. For this reason, McFaul+Day partners with some of the finest brands worldwide. These partnerships allow them to craft and maintain cultural relevance.

Headquarters:

Chichester, UK

Notable clients:

1. LucasFilm
2. New Balance
3. Pepsi
4. BBC
5. IBM
6. Microsoft
7. SXSW
8. Clarks
9. Audi
10. Virgin Atlantic
11. Sony
12. Levis
13. Samsung
14. Kidrobot

Frog Design

Headquarters:

San Francisco, California

Locations: 

1. San Francisco
2. Austin
3. New York
4. London
5. Milan
6. Munich
7. Shanghai
8. Gurgaon
9. Seattle
10. Amsterdam
11. Tel Aviv
12. Tokyo
13. Sydney

Notable clients:

1. Apple
2. Lumen
3. SiriusXM
4. SuperSonic
5. Porsche
6. BT
7. American Dental Association
8. Associated Press, Audi
9. GE
10. Honeywell
11. UNICEF
12. Bill Gates
13. Intel
14. Sharp

Studio Dumbar 

Studio Dumbar is a highly influential Dutch graphic design agency. To note, their work has helped shape international design for four decades. Their international reach definitely gives them a title of an influential design firm.

Headquarters:

Rotterdam, Holland

Locations: 

1. Rotterdam
2. Shanghai
3. Seoul

Notable clients:

1. Apple
2. Nike
3. Rijksmuseum
4. Dutch National Police
5. Transavia
6. Vincent Van Gogh Museum
7. Dutch Railways
8. EUNL
9. Hong Kong Polytechnic University
10. NPO
11. Randstad
12. The Dutch Government

Services offered:

1. Brand strategy
2. Visual Identity

The Chase

The Chase is a website design and digital marketing service. This company specializes in website design, search engine optimization, and pay-per-click advertising.

Headquarters:

Manchester, England

Locations: 

Preston and London

Notable clients:

1. Alibaba
2. Amnesty International
3. BBC
4. Disney
5. Fujitsu
6. Hewlett Packard
7. Museum of London
8. Shell
9. Smirnoff
10. Yellow Pages

Services offered:

1. Advertising
2. Architecture
3. Digital
4. Film

Dessein

Dessein is a boutique design agency. In particular, this design firm specializes in branding and creative design strategies. In addition to an emphasis on custom packaging.

Headquarters:

Perth, Australia

Notable clients:

1. Black Swan State Theatre
2. Northbridge Brewing Company
3. EPM, Ezyfix
4. Great Temptations
5. Mondo Nougat
6. Zwena
7. Albany Entertainment Centre
8. Whiteman Park
9. Poach Bear

Services offered:

1. Branding
2. Displays and Exhibitions
3. Logo Design
4. Packaging Design
5. Photography
6. Print materials
7. Signage
8. Style Guides
9. Vehicle Graphics
10. Website Design

Leo Burnett

Leo Burnett Worldwide is a global advertising agency based in Chicago. Above all, this agency values creativity, data, and technology. Leo Burnett believes that these work together to transform human behavior. With this, they can create growth for their clients.

Headquarters

Chicago, Illinois

Locations: 

1. Chicago
2. Toronto
3. Montreal
4. Santa Domingo
5. Guaynabo
6. Guatemala City
7. London
8. Paris
9. Brussels
10. Frankfurt
11. Prague
12. Seoul
13. Beijing
14. Shanghai
15. Manila
16. Jakarta
17. Sydney
18. Johannesburg

Notable clients:

1. Kelloggs
2. McDonald’s
3. Coca-Cola
4. P&G
5. Samsung
6. GM
7. Fiat
8. Bell
9. LCBO
10. Ikea
11. Elections Canada

AKQA

AKQA is renowned as a global design and innovation agency. With that, AKQA employs around 2,000 professionals in 23 studios.

Headquarters:

San Francisco, California

Notable clients:

1. Aarhus
2. Amsterdam
3. Berlin
4. Copenhagen
5. Gothenburg
6. London
7. Milan
8. Paris
9. Venice
10. Atlanta
11. New York
12. Portland
13. San Francisco
14. Washington
15. D.C.
16. Gurgaon
17. Shanghai
18. Singapore
19. Sydney

SuperUnion

Superunion is a global brand and design consultancy. Along with that, this firm was formed after five agencies merged in January 2018. Today, Superunion employs 500 people across 14 offices.

Headquarters:

London, United Kingdom

Locations: 

1. Amsterdam
2. Bangkok
3. Beijing
4. Berlin
5. Bogota
6. Buenos Aires
7. Cairo
8. Cape Town
9. Dubai
10. Hamburg
11. Hong Kong
12. Jakarta
13. Johannesburg
14. London
15. Madrid
16. Mexico City
17. Moscow
18. Mumbai
19. Munich
20. New York
21. Paris
22. Sao Paulo
23. Seoul
24. Shanghai
25. Singapore

Notable clients:

1. Colgate-Palmolive
2. WPP
3. BBC
4. London Symphony Orchestra
5. Dell
6. Deloitte
7. Ford
8. Nestle
9. Tesco
10. Equinox
11. Level
12. Chivas
13. Pizza Hut
14. Land Rover
15. Invictus Games
16. Pfizer
17. AirAsia
18. Mazda
19. Audi
20. Electrolux
21. FIFA
22. Cirque de Soleil
23. HSBC
24. Credit Suisse

Winkreative

Winkreative is a strategic and creative partner for visionaries, inventors, and entrepreneurs. It focuses on narrative based advertising and branding projects. 

Headquarters:

Zurich, Switzerland

Locations: 

London, United Kingdom

Notable clients:

1. Air Canada
2. Deutsche Telecom
3. Lexus, Loews Hotels
4. Louis Vuitton
5. Porter Airlines
6. St. Moritz
7. The Avior
8. The Knightsbridge Estate
9. Wimbledon

Pearlfisher

Pearlfisher is a future focused, strategic design agency

Headquarters:

London, United Kingdom

Locations: 

1. New York
2. San Francisco
3. Copenhagen

Notable clients:

1. Access Entertainment
2. B&O Play
3. Cadbury
4. Jim Beam
5. Starbucks
6. Wolfgang Puck
7. Yoplait.

Brand philosophy:

1. Body
2. Community
3. Leisure
4. Luxury
5. Mobility
6. Nature
7. Taste