New York design firms

Manhattan
design agencies

The design agencies that actually work out of Manhattan — from SoHo to the Financial District — and who each one fits.

See the ten Compare the facts
The borough

Manhattan holds the deepest concentration of design talent in the country, and the widest range: century-old identity houses, global consultancies, product studios, and boutique shops, spread from the SoHo lofts through the Flatiron and down to the Financial District. This page lists agencies genuinely based in Manhattan, with a real address in the borough, and spans the full range rather than one corner of it.

Compare

The agencies side by side, on the facts

Founding, Manhattan neighborhood, and focus laid out plainly — never a score.

AgencyFoundedManhattan baseDisciplines

Facts only — founding, neighborhood, and disciplines. No rankings; the right agency depends on the brief.

The agencies

The ten, in full

Each profile leads with what the agency is genuinely built for — start from the job, not the reputation.

Profile 01

Pentagram

The multi-partner institution.

Visit pentagram.com

The rundown

Pentagram runs as a collective of partners who each lead their own team, so an engagement is really with a specific partner rather than a house style. Its Manhattan office is one of the most influential design rooms anywhere, and has been for decades.

Known for

Identity and design work for Microsoft, Citibank, MoMA, Saturday Night Live, The Public Theater, and the High Line.

Where they fit

Large or cultural clients who want partner-level authorship on a landmark project.

Details

Location
Manhattan
Also in
London · Austin · Berlin · Paris
Brand identityEditorialPackagingWayfinding
Profile 02

Clay Global

Product-focused UI/UX, web, and branding studio.

Visit clay.global

The rundown

Clay began as a UX practice for mobile and enterprise software and grew into a full brand and web studio, handling product strategy, identity, and front-end build in one place. It treats brand and product as a single problem rather than two separate briefs, from a SoHo base.

Known for

Digital products and brand systems for Google, Amazon, Slack, Coinbase, Snapchat, Sony, and Stripe.

Where they fit

Teams that want product-grade UX and a brand system from the same partner.

Details

Location
148 Lafayette St, SoHo
Also
Remote-first · San Francisco HQ
UI/UXWebBrand identity
Profile 03

Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv

The studio behind some of America's most enduring marks.

Visit cghnyc.com

The rundown

With a lineage running back to 1957, this studio produced logos that have outlasted most of the companies that commissioned them. It works on marks built on simplicity and abstraction, meant to last decades rather than be refreshed every few years.

Known for

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

Where they fit

Institutions and corporations that want a timeless mark rather than a trend-responsive system.

Details

Founded
1957
Location
Manhattan
Website
cghnyc.com
Brand identityTrademarksEnvironmental graphics
Profile 04

AREA 17

A digital agency spanning brand, experience, and technology.

Visit area17.com

The rundown

Founded in New York in 2003 with a second studio in Paris, AREA 17 blends design, technology, and branding to build large-scale websites and digital products. It created Twill, an open-source CMS toolkit that now powers sites well beyond its own roster, giving it unusual depth on the engineering side.

Known for

Digital platforms for cultural institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago and the International Energy Agency, plus a replatform for Pentagram. Twill is used by Nike and The New York Times.

Where they fit

Organizations that need a substantial, well-engineered website or digital product, not just an identity.

Details

Founded
2003
Location
New York and Paris
Website
area17.com
Digital productBrandExperienceTechnology
Profile 05

Sylvain

A strategy and design consultancy at the commerce-and-culture intersection.

Visit sylvain.co

The rundown

Sylvain helps influential organizations navigate cultural shifts and launch brand-defining initiatives from its Grand Street studio, pairing brand strategy with design and innovation. It leans on cultural insight to move brands forward rather than simply restyle them.

Known for

Brand and innovation work for Google, GM, Bloomberg, Target, Microsoft, Marriott, and American Express, plus recent cultural work for the WNBA.

Where they fit

Established organizations that want culturally sharp strategy tied to design, not design alone.

Details

Location
176 Grand St, Manhattan
Also in
LA · Richmond · Amsterdam
Website
sylvain.co
Brand strategyDesignInnovation
Profile 06

Base Design

A global network with a genuine Manhattan practice.

Visit basedesign.com

The rundown

Base runs as an international network of studios that collaborate on large projects while keeping local leadership, so the New York team leads North American work with the wider network behind it. Its sensibility is typographic and restrained, with a long history serving cultural institutions.

Known for

Brand work for Apple, The New York Times, MoMA, the New York Mets, and JFK Terminal 4, plus the 2024 rebrand of the auction house Phillips.

Where they fit

Cultural institutions and brands that want senior local leadership with international reach on the same project.

Details

Location
13 S William St, Financial District
Network
International studios
Brand strategyIdentityPackagingEditorial
Profile 07

DD.NYC

A full-service Manhattan design agency.

Visit dd.nyc

The rundown

DD.NYC covers branding, web design, packaging, and video from a single team, working across a broad mix of industries from real estate and healthcare to lifestyle. It positions itself as an all-in-one option for companies that want design handled end to end.

Known for

Branding, web, and packaging programs for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to founder-led startups and nonprofits.

Where they fit

Businesses that want one agency to cover brand, web, and packaging rather than assembling separate specialists.

Details

Founded
2015
Location
Manhattan · M/WBE-certified
Website
dd.nyc
BrandingWebPackagingVideo
Profile 08

Big Human

A digital product studio for startups and brands.

Visit bighuman.com

The rundown

Big Human does product design, development, and branding across mobile apps, web apps, SaaS, and ecommerce from its Manhattan studio, working mostly with startups. It has incubated its own products over fifteen-plus years, which shows in how tightly it scopes a first build.

Known for

The team behind HQ Trivia and Vine, with client work for Whistle, Rockefeller Center, Gemini, and Netflix.

Where they fit

Founders who want a hands-on partner to take an app or product from idea to launch.

Details

Location
51 E 12th St, Manhattan
Focus
Startups
Product designApp developmentUI/UXBranding
Profile 09

Trollbäck+Company

A motion-native branding studio that helped define how brands move on screen.

Visit trollback.com

The rundown

Founded by Swedish designer Jakob Trollbäck in 1999, the studio built its name pairing brand strategy with motion, becoming a go-to partner for television networks and culture-driven brands. Its identities are designed to live across broadcast, film, and digital as much as in print.

Known for

The communication system for the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals, TED conference title sequences, and network branding for AMC, TNT, and ESPN.

Where they fit

Brands whose identity needs to move, across video, broadcast, and screen.

Details

Founded
1999
Location
88 Pine St, Financial District
BrandingMotionBroadcastExperiential
Profile 10

Cake & Arrow

A research-led UX studio for insurance and financial services.

Visit cakeandarrow.com

The rundown

Founded in 2002 and formerly Alexander Interactive, Cake & Arrow works almost exclusively with insurance and financial services from its Fifth Avenue studio, which is the sharpest domain focus of any firm on this page. It is research-led and fluent in the regulatory and distribution complexity that defines the sector.

Known for

Product and experience work for Chubb, Travelers, Aflac, MetLife, Northwestern Mutual, and The Hanover.

Where they fit

Carriers, brokers, and financial-services firms whose products have to work for customers, agents, and internal teams at once.

Details

Founded
2002
Location
149 Fifth Ave, Manhattan
UXService designProduct strategyResearch
FAQ

Manhattan, answered

Manhattan has more range at the extremes: the century-old identity houses, the global consultancies, and the largest full-service agencies are mostly here, alongside boutiques. If you want breadth of options in one borough, or a specific institution like Pentagram or Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, Manhattan is where they are. Brooklyn skews more toward founder-led boutiques.

SoHo and the surrounding Grand and Lafayette Street blocks are a long-standing design district (Clay, Sylvain). The Flatiron and Fifth Avenue stretch holds another cluster (Cake & Arrow), and the Financial District has drawn studios like Base and Trollbäck to its older, larger floorplates. The scene is more spread out than Brooklyn's tight pockets.

Almost all of them do, and several have global client rosters and international offices. The Manhattan address matters most for in-person work, workshops, pitches, ongoing collaboration. For remote engagements, treat the location as where the team sits rather than a requirement.

The borough is especially deep in corporate and institutional identity (Pentagram, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, Base), strategy-led branding (Sylvain), motion (Trollbäck), and specialized product and UX work (Clay, Big Human, Cake & Arrow). If you need enterprise-scale or landmark institutional work, Manhattan is the strongest borough for it.

Start from the job, not the reputation. A timeless corporate mark points to Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv; a landmark cultural project to Pentagram or Base; a strategy-led rebrand to Sylvain; a product and brand system to Clay; insurance or financial software to Cake & Arrow. The profiles lead with what each is genuinely built for.

On average the largest and most established agencies sit in Manhattan, and those price accordingly, but the borough also has mid-sized studios at a range of rates. Cost tracks the size and reputation of the specific firm more than the borough, so a Manhattan boutique isn't automatically pricier than a sought-after Brooklyn one.