Arek Dvornechcuck
Branding Expert
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Anyone who’s spent even a little time in Brooklyn and been exposed to its vibrant culture and ever-growing design community.
Brooklyn is a place that vibrates with creative energy.
Brooklyn is a bustling hub that has become a fertile ground for all sorts of creatives and design firms.
Each bringing a unique flair to the world of marketing and visual storytelling.
In this blog post, I dive into the top 9 firms in Brooklyn (where I live) exploring their offering, pricing, recent work and more.
Gander takes the top spot for their commitment to simplicity and authenticity.
Don’t be fooled by their no-nonsense designs – each and every piece is visually compelling without relying on complex imagery to get the message across.
Gander strategically cuts through the noise of your average brand designs.
Their highlighted portfolio showcases their signature style, with projects for brands like Pop Up Grocer, an innovative grocery shopping experience.
They also spearheaded the design for Celebrate Brooklyn 2023, an outdoor performing arts festival.
On top of that, they’re the brains behind the viral success of online brands like Mercado Famous, a provider of premium goods from Spanish farms.
Another fantastic example is their partnership with Magic Spoon, a custom breakfast cereal subscription service.
Contact: 347. 903. 4236
Employees: 2-10
Founded: 2015
Location: 20 Jay St, Brooklyn, New York, 11201 US
Visit Gander now
Franklyn puts a slightly more unconventional spin on their approach to brand design.
There’s perhaps no better example of this than their project with Zagat back in 2021, wherein they made waves by turning amusing customer reviews into promotional material.
Franklyn is brilliant at telling a brand’s story in an out-of-the-box way.
This is a perfect showcase of what Zagat is all about – a restaurant scoring and review platform like Yelp.
They would go on to flex their range with the redesign for coworking space company WeWork in 2023, which Franklyn happens to be a member of.
Their familiarity with how WeWork operates allowed them to craft designs personalized to WeWork’s philosophy.
They put cartoonish figure sketches at the forefront of most of the promotional material for WeWork, giving the brand a comfortable and friendly vibe.
This visual style not only made WeWork much more memorable, but also associated them with a pleasantly simplistic and personal aesthetic.
This communicated flawlessly to the audience that WeWork spaces have workers’ best interests in mind.
Contact: +1 718-304-0737
Employees: 10-49
Founded: 2012
Location: 111 N. 7th Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11249, United States
Visit Franklyn now
Gretel has long been known as one of the most versatile design studios in Brooklyn.
One of their most notable recent works is their impeccable translation of the Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup’s artistic movements into a lively visual identity.
Gretel is able to precisely capture the ethos of their client brands.
Another example can be found in their rebranding project for the Rhode Island School of Design, in which they made creative use of typefaces to revitalize RISD’s visual presence.
Nowadays, there are some clients that complain about leadership and organizational challenges within Gretel.
But even the negative reviews still attest that the studio is still very much composed of a highly talented creative workforce.
Contact: +1 212-226-6211
Employees: 10-49
Founded: 2005
Location: 197 Clifton Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11216, United States
Visit Gretel now
PORTO ROCHA’s mission is to develop designs that engage deeply with the world we live in.
This is proven in their excellent branding project with the Sundance Film Festival, which centered on taking inspiration from cinema’s standard widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9.
PORTO ROCHA is dedicated to being a “by designers for designers” resource.
This lended itself well to an evergreen brand image that challenges the traditional festival design of temporary and makeshift promotional material.
Their affinity for designs that speak to our understanding of the world around us can also be seen in their rebrand for BPM Music, the world’s biggest library of DJ-ready tracks.
For this project, they took inspiration from the concept of mixing in music production to infuse the essence of different cultures with BPM Music’s new visual identity.
They also worked with Wix Playground to create “Design Threads”, an exhibition showcasing the work of 30 design leaders and 250 responses from the design community.
Contact: info@portorocha.com
Employees: 10-49
Founded: 2016
Location: 75 Stewart Ave Unit 315, Brooklyn, NY 11237, United States
Visit PORTO ROCHA now
Hyperakt is a design studio that is driven by one thing: the courageous defense of social justice.
One of the largest entries in their portfolio, The Refugee Project, showcases this admirably.
Hyperakt believes in boldness, optimism, and honesty.
Working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Hyperakt was able to tackle the challenge of turning 40 years of refugee migration data into a design-driven narrative.
To do this, they teamed up with technologist Ekene Ijeoma.
Together, they created an interactive experience that visualizes the political, social, and economic facets of each refugee displacement.
They also engage in plenty of pro bono work, helping non-profit or fiscally sponsored organizations with a budget under $500,000 to push inclusivity and antiracism.
They also assist community-focused projects, given that the communities set aside at least $5,000 for materials.
Contact: https://www.hyperakt.com/contact
Employees: 10-49
Founded: 2001
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Visit Hyperakt now
Order, powered by the visionary duo of Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth, brings precision and purpose to the dynamic world of design.
Built from the ground up with a $1.9 million Kickstarter campaign, Order has become one of the premier design studios for brands looking for an aesthetic that prioritizes harmony above all.
Order's design strengths lie in precision, purposeful creativity, and versatility.
And indeed, they showed their skill in tailoring designs precisely to a client's needs.
This is shown by their project for Crux, a platform for transferring tax credits through clean energy infrastructure.
Their work with Collective Ten, an industrial studio, also showcases this.
The designs they made for these two companies brilliantly communicate the professionalism and skill that goes into their trades.
They also provide that same precise touch to projects that require more artistic license.
A great example of this is the work they did for Skateyogi, a skateboard school in Brooklyn.
Their branding project with artist and textile designer Rebecca Atwood is another great example of a more expressive style.
Contact: 347-903-4722
Employees: 2-10
Founded: 2017
Location: 212 Franklin Street, Brooklyn, New York 11222
Visit Order now
Red Antler is yet another branding firm that excels at translating complex brand identities into coherent and striking visual language.
One of their most recent exploits can be found in their project with Folx.
Red Antler’s striking brand aesthetics carry across various industries.
Folx is a groundbreaking digital health platform meticulously designed for the specific medical needs of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Using vibrant hues of purple, beige, cyan, black, and yellow, Red Antler created a visual theme that draws inspiration from the colors of the LGBTQIA+ flag.
Not only that, however, they also successfully managed to depict the continued expansion of the LGBTQIA+ community.
The rest of the graphic system used for Folx is full of other inventive twists.
These include quotation marks taking on the form of a “69”, and exclamation points that bear a cheeky resemblance to a butt plug.
Contact: info@redantler.com
Employees: 100-249
Founded: 2007
Location: 20 Jay Street Suite 420 Brooklyn, NY 11201, 212.677.5690
Visit Red Antler now
COLLINS is a renowned design consultancy with several accolades under their belt.
They were named the Design Agency of the Year by Ad Age for three years in a row between 2019 and 2021.
Collins is celebrated for the rebellious spirit that they infuse into everything they touch.
D&AD named them the Design Company of the Year as well, and they were most recently crowned the Business Transformation Consultancy of the Year.
All of these were earned by their daring approach to design.
COLLINS infuses brands with a rebellious spirit, as exemplified by their work with Guild.
The visual identity they imparted to the career opportunity platform resonates a clear urgency for career mobility.
This is most obvious in the new logo, making use of a typeface featuring dynamic, flowing lines that perfectly captures today's agile workforce.
If you're interested in learning how to make a masterful logo like the one Collins did for Guild, check out my logo design process.
Contact: +1 646 760 0800
Employees: 51-200
Founded: 2007
Location: 457 Grand St, Ground Fl. Brooklyn, NY 11211
Visit COLLINS now
Mother Design is an avant-garde studio that follows what they call their Trinity: to do good work, to have fun, and to make a living.
This is perhaps best exemplified by their portfolio since Kathryn Jubrail and Kirsty Minns were inducted into the Mother family in 2020.
Mother Design believes brands should resonate in hearts, minds, and homes.
Since then, Mother Design has produced remarkable creations, such as their work for Pepsi.
A standout project in their recent portfolio, they truly transcended the conventional by infusing Pepsi’s new visual identity with an auditory experience.
This created a multi-sensory approach that perfectly shows how Mother Design pushes the envelope when it comes to design.
By redefining the boundaries of brand design, they achieve just that.
And in an industry whose lifeblood is innovation, this makes Mother Design an absolute powerhouse.
Contact: (+1) 212 254 2800
Employees: 51-200
Founded: 2006
Location: 77 10th Street Floor 3 Brooklyn, NY 11215
Visit Mother Design now
Brooklyn's design and branding scene are thriving, thanks to these top 9 firms that embody innovation, creativity, and strategic thinking.
Each firm brings a unique perspective, collectively contributing to the borough's status as a design powerhouse.
As these agencies continue to shape the visual landscape, Brooklyn remains a beacon for those seeking cutting-edge and impactful branding and design solutions.
How much do these agencies charge?
Most of these agencies will quote you hundreds of thousands of dollars even for simple brand identity projects.
If you're a startup with a limited budget, you can save money by hiring an experienced designer like myself.
Professional designer who often worked at agencies like the above, can provide high quality services but for affordable price.
