Although you may not think it, design is a part of everything we do and use. An artist has carefully thought about the size of the handle on your coffee mug, the color scheme of your favorite website, and the material of your office carpet—even in the mundane, design is everywhere.
As we continue to move through the progressive digital age, technological advances are drastically impacting the design industry. With new benefits from artificial intelligence (AI), easy global artistic collaboration, and improved sustainability efforts—the design industry is thriving with the new wave of technology.
So, let’s take a look at twelve companies currently making their mark in the design industry.
DecorMatters
The first design company kicking this list off is DecorMatters, a blockchain-based design platform that allows users to release their inner interior designer. Users can leverage the app’s augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence to design their entire homes with real products they can buy through the platform.
Since its inception in 2017, DecorMatters has built partnerships with over 30 fan-favorite furniture brands and retailers, making the app a one-stop interior design shop.
CEO and founder Farris Wu told Cloudways that he was first inspired to create DecorMatters after watching the success of the AR game Pokemon Go. He believes “that home design and furniture shopping should be enjoyable, not stressful.”
Decorilla
Also in pursuit of revolutionizing the interior design game, is the New York-based platform, Decorilla. This personalized service is bringing professional interior designers to the masses.
By simply filling in a questionnaire about the space in question, Decorilla’s team of designers sends a variety of concepts. Once one is chosen, the designer helps the client source all the products and provides a 3D visualization of the new room.
The company’s LinkedIn describes its service as facilitating “the connection between professional interior designers and savvy dwellers by giving them a simple process and effective platform to work together online.”
Kardiel
Kardiel is a family-run business that focuses on good-quality materials and small-scale production. Their original furniture designs focus on mid-century modern. However, they can also leverage their furniture-making skills to replicate original mid-century designs.
The founders “Debbie, Jason, Brando, and John are borderline obsessed with Modernism from all eras.” They’re “inspired by design influences from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s and love to mix them with contemporary modern and Scandinavian furniture designs.”
With their products featured in Forbes, Architectural Digest, and Harper’s Bazaar, Kardiel is garnering quite a reputation within the furniture and design industry.
Studio McGee
Meet the husband and wife design team behind the successful Netflix show Dream Home Makeover.
Syd and Shea McGee founded Studio McGee back in 2014 and are now dominating the design industry. From curating collections to offering interior design services and selling their own design collaborations—Studio McGee does it all.
“The team’s signature aesthetic and vast portfolio is featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Domino Magazine, Domaine Home, House & Home, and Elle Decor, to name a few.”
Yardzen
With Yardzen’s help, anyone can get creative with their outside space. Most online design tools focus on the interior of a customer’s house; however, Yardzen’s online design packages can help anyone transform their yard. Clients simply input their budget, photos, and preferences into the website, and they’re paired with a designer who can help them create their ideal outdoor space.
The company was born after the founders, Allison and Adam Messner, escaped the Northern California Tubbs fire in 2017. A few months later, “they navigated the landscaping process and shared the realization that there has to be a better way. One that doesn’t cost property owners like them tens of thousands of dollars for the design alone.”
The outdoor design specialists have already been mentioned in the Fast Company’s ‘Most Innovative Companies 2022’ and by Forbes magazine in their ‘Next 1000’ list.
Glow
Meet Glow, the design company that does it all. Based in NYC, this husband and wife team “partners with startups to design world-class products and build amazing teams.”
The duo helps businesses with strategy and branding design systems, product design, and even hiring your design team.
One of their past clients includes Fitbit, where they led “the design of some of these top selling and best-rated wearables, including the Versa, Charge 2, and Alta family.” They’ve also worked with Copa Airlines, where they worked with the Copa team to “restructure the navigation of Copaair.com, redesign the ConnectMiles website with a sleeker, more premium visual identity, and support the development of the new loyalty experience.”
DivBrands
Need help launching a brand? DivBrands has got you covered. They’re a “data-driven e-commerce business that efficiently delivers people the products and brands they actually want.”
This global team is spread across 19 countries and has launched 17 different brands. DivBrands does everything from market research to product design and top-notch in-house creative work.
Their LinkedIn profile describes their work process as blending “the science of analytics, big data, and advanced automation with the art of copywriting, branding, creativity, and end-to-end business excellence.”
MapsPeople
Helping to bring maps into the digital age is Danish company, MapsPeople. Their core product, MapsIndoors, “is a dynamic mapping platform based on Google Maps, designed to make people’s lives easier and to give our customers a chance to increase their revenue.”
Although established in 1997, the company evolved into a Software as a Service company back in 2009, as they focused on making the world more accessible through MapsIndoors.
With offices in Denmark, the USA, Singapore, and Germany and partners that include Google, JP Morgan & Chase, and Siemens, MapsPeople’s smart design technology is already being leveraged by leading worldwide corporations.
Stark
No matter whether you’re a designer, developer, or product manager, Stark’s automated tools can help users create a masterpiece.
Since 2017 Stark has been helping customers build websites, online shops, apps, and SaaS products through its browser extensions and plugins.
“More than 40,000 designers, developers, product managers, and accessibility experts from over 12,000 companies use Stark’s suite of integrated accessibility tools in their daily product development cycle,” the company website reads.
With 12 different plugin options available, Stark caters to every type of designer and product.
Awesomic
By matching tasks with designers, Awesomic can help agencies, startups, and e-commerce of all sizes save time and money.
Through a monthly subscription, this design platform allows users to delegate all design tasks from banners to landing pages and can see the results after one business day. Awesomic used the Y Combinator S21 accelerator and raised $2.5m from top US investors.
Founder Roman Sevast and many Awesomic team members are based in Ukraine, and their united resilience shows this company is a force to be reckoned with.
Beautiful.ai
Used by one million users worldwide, Beautiful.ai is bringing the genius of artificial intelligence (AI) into presentation design.
“Our design-AI has been taught the rules of good design and applies them in real-time as you add or edit content, making it easier to build stunning visual presentations that look professionally designed 10x faster,” says Beautiful.ai’s Linkedin page.
Different products and solutions are available depending on team size and intended users, like marketing and sales teams, startups, and students.
With help from Beautiful.ai, boring slideshows can be a thing of the past.
Modyfi
Modify understands that the creative process can be disjointed, constantly checking for feedback and sharing files. But, their next-generation AI-powered browser-based technology can revolutionize the image editor game.
Its suite of tools, multi-user collaboration logins, and integrated apps provide users with a frictionless customer experience.
Interested parties can join the waitlist on their website to get access.
Disclosure: This article features a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
