Best for
A company that wants brand and product experience treated as one continuous system, not handed off between separate teams.
Handsome's client list runs from FedEx's retail experience to a virtual reality piece for Dell Technologies' social impact story — the kind of range that comes from treating branding, product, and digital experience as one discipline rather than three separate service lines.
- Clients
- FedEx, Audi, Dell Technologies, Facebook, Nickelodeon, Keller Williams
- Model / Platform / Where
- Branding, product design, and experience design; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Positioned for an established brand with a multi-phase engagement, not a single quick deliverable.
- Skip if
- You need a narrow, single-service project — Handsome's value is in the range across brand and product, which shows up in scope and timeline.
Best for
A company that wants the design work itself over a local studio to physically visit.
Clay runs remote-first with no Austin office, but its case-study list reads like a cross-section of who builds software at scale — an interactive product demo for an enterprise messaging platform, a partner-ecosystem site for a payments infrastructure company, augmented-reality commerce for a social platform. The studio's distributed model means Austin clients work with the same team as its San Francisco and New York accounts.
- Clients
- Slack, Stripe, Snapchat
- Model / Platform / Where
- UI/UX design, product design, and branding; San Francisco, CA (remote-first, with team members in New York, Austin, Denver, Lisbon, and Belgrade)
- Budget signal
- Enterprise and growth-stage engagements; not positioned for a bootstrapped first product.
- Skip if
- You specifically need a team you can walk into in person — Clay has no dedicated Austin office, even though it maintains distributed team members in the region.
Best for
A company building at the intersection of hardware and software that needs both handled by the same design team.
argodesign's practice covers product strategy, industrial design, and software experience design under one roof — a structure built specifically for products where the physical object and the interface controlling it have to be designed together.
- Clients
- CognitiveScale, Magic Leap
- Model / Platform / Where
- Product strategy, industrial design, and software experience design; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Positioned for a funded hardware or deep-tech company, not a purely software MVP.
- Skip if
- Your product is software-only with no physical or hardware component — argodesign's differentiator is specifically the hardware-software combination.
Best for
A B2B tech company that needs its brand and its product interface designed by the same team, so the two stay coherent as the company scales.
BRIGHTSCOUT's client list skews B2B emerging tech specifically — companies at a stage where the brand and the app UI are being built or rebuilt at the same time, and where a mismatch between the two undercuts the sales story.
- Clients
- NewRelic, Rebrandly, Starburst, Raytheon
- Model / Platform / Where
- B2B branding and app design/development; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Positioned for a funded B2B startup or growth-stage company, not a bootstrapped first product.
- Skip if
- You need consumer-facing branding — BRIGHTSCOUT's practice is built specifically around B2B and enterprise tech.
Best for
A product team, from early-stage startup to enterprise, that needs UX/UI design embedded directly into an existing engineering process.
Funsize works across mobile, web, wearables, and connected devices, and its client list spans both Fortune 500 design teams augmenting their own staff and startups building a product from scratch.
- Clients
- Volvo Cars, Dell, Adobe, Toast, GoDaddy
- Model / Platform / Where
- UX/UI design, digital product design, and user research; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Accessible for a focused design engagement; scales for a full product build.
- Skip if
- You want a single fixed-scope deliverable with no collaborative back-and-forth — Funsize's model leans on close, ongoing work with the client's own team.
Best for
A B2B company with an established marketing team that wants web design paired with ongoing digital strategy, not a one-off build.
Solid Digital's practice centers on brand alignment — making sure a company's website actually reflects and reinforces its positioning — which shows up in a service mix weighted heavily toward web design bundled with digital strategy work.
- Clients
- Case studies available on request
- Model / Platform / Where
- Web design, web development, and digital strategy for B2B companies; HQ Chicago, IL, with an Austin office
- Budget signal
- Positioned for a company with a real marketing budget and an in-house team to collaborate with, not a solo founder's first site.
- Skip if
- You want a purely local Austin vendor — Solid Digital operates as a multi-city practice with Austin as one of several offices.
Best for
A hardware-adjacent startup that needs digital and physical product design handled together, not split across separate vendors.
Pushstart specializes in connected products and interfaces — the design problem that sits between a physical object and the app or interface controlling it, relevant to IoT, consumer electronics, and food & beverage technology alike.
- Clients
- Case studies available on request
- Model / Platform / Where
- Product design, UX/UI design, and packaging for connected physical and digital products; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Accessible entry point for a defined product design engagement.
- Skip if
- Your product is purely digital with no physical or connected-device component — Pushstart's specialty is specifically where hardware and software meet.
Best for
A company that needs a custom mobile or web app built end-to-end, not assembled from a template.
Jackrabbit's client list spans non-profit, B2B, and entertainment work, unified by a focus on bespoke builds rather than off-the-shelf app frameworks — relevant when a product's requirements don't fit a standard template.
- Clients
- The Miracle Foundation, Belong Gaming, The University of Texas at Austin, Core Spaces
- Model / Platform / Where
- iOS, Android, and custom web app design and development; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Accessible entry point for a defined app build rather than an open-ended retainer.
- Skip if
- You need a large enterprise engineering team — Jackrabbit is built for a focused app project, not a sprawling multi-year platform build.
Best for
A consumer product or beverage brand that needs packaging and identity built with real strategic depth, not a quick logo pass.
Helms Workshop's client list runs through some of the best-known names in consumer packaged goods and spirits, and the studio's process leads with brand strategy and naming before any visual work begins — a slower, more deliberate approach than most packaging shops use.
- Clients
- Tecovas, Whole Foods, Nestlé, Jack Daniel's, Hershey, MTV, Disney, Harley-Davidson
- Model / Platform / Where
- Brand strategy, identity design, and packaging; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Positioned for a full brand and packaging engagement, not a fast logo refresh.
- Skip if
- You need web or app development — Helms Workshop's center of gravity is brand and packaging, not digital product work.
Best for
A purpose-led brand or nonprofit that wants a web partner who treats design and SEO as one connected discipline, not two separate line items.
GLIDE's client list leans toward organizations doing meaningful, mission-driven work — a motorsports venue, a medical college, a humane society — and the studio's own certifications around sustainability and data protection reflect the kind of client it's built to serve.
- Clients
- Circuit of the Americas, Yeti Coolers, RetailMeNot, Baylor College of Medicine, TacoDeli
- Model / Platform / Where
- WordPress and Shopify web design, development, and SEO; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Positioned for a full custom website build with SEO built in from the start.
- Skip if
- You need a large-scale enterprise software platform — GLIDE's focus is marketing and brand websites, not complex application development.
Best for
A brand that needs a full-scale advertising and brand agency behind a campaign, not just a digital design shop.
T3 has operated as a full-service advertising agency since 1989, built around the philosophy of proving a brand's value through action before messaging catches up to it — the kind of agency built for a brand launch or repositioning with real media weight behind it.
- Clients
- Case studies available on request
- Model / Platform / Where
- Brand strategy and integrated advertising campaigns; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Campaign-scale pricing appropriate for national advertising work, well above a standalone identity project.
- Skip if
- You need a lean digital-only engagement — T3 operates at full advertising-agency scale.
Best for
A financial services or fintech company modernizing a legacy platform that needs both UX and engineering handled by the same team.
Praxent works exclusively in financial services — banking, lending, insurance, wealth management — and that focus means the team already understands the compliance and legacy-system constraints most general design agencies encounter for the first time on a client's project.
- Clients
- Church Extension Plan
- Model / Platform / Where
- UX/UI design, product management, and software development for financial services; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Positioned for an established financial institution's digital transformation project, not a quick MVP.
- Skip if
- Your product has no financial services or fintech component — Praxent's entire practice is built around that one vertical.
Best for
A challenger brand that wants advertising built specifically to take on a much bigger, established competitor.
Door Number 3 has built its reputation on campaigns for brands positioned as underdogs — work that's earned recognition in national outlets for finding an emotional angle a larger, better-funded competitor missed.
- Clients
- Case studies available on request
- Model / Platform / Where
- Brand development and integrated advertising; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Campaign-scale pricing for a brand with real media spend behind a launch or repositioning.
- Skip if
- You need a standalone digital product or web build — Door Number 3's practice centers on brand and advertising campaigns, not software.
Best for
A growing brand that wants strategy, design, development, and marketing bundled into one team rather than coordinated across separate vendors.
HMG Creative's client list spans small local startups to global names, and the studio's boutique size keeps a single point of contact across the full engagement — branding through to the marketing campaign that follows launch.
- Clients
- Marriott, IKEA
- Model / Platform / Where
- Branding, web design and development, and digital marketing; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Positioned for a full-service engagement bundling design and ongoing marketing, not a single fixed deliverable.
- Skip if
- You want a narrow specialist in just one service — HMG Creative's model is built around bundling strategy, design, and marketing together.
Best for
A local or regional business that wants a long-term, relationship-driven web design partner rather than a one-off vendor.
Monkee-Boy has worked with the same kind of Austin-rooted clients — restaurants, local museums, service businesses — for more than two decades, building a practice around long relationships rather than one-time projects.
- Clients
- Case studies available on request
- Model / Platform / Where
- Web design, custom web development, and digital marketing; Austin, TX
- Budget signal
- Positioned for a full custom website build with an ongoing maintenance relationship.
- Skip if
- You need a large-scale enterprise or app development project — Monkee-Boy's practice centers on web design for small and mid-sized organizations.
Best for
An institution or nonprofit that needs a website built and maintained on a rock-solid open-source CMS foundation.
Culture Foundry's notable projects include presidential library archives — work that demands both a polished public-facing design and a content system robust enough for an institution to manage independently for years afterward.
- Clients
- LBJ Presidential Library, Clinton Digital Library
- Model / Platform / Where
- WordPress and Drupal web design and development; HQ Seattle, WA, with an Austin studio
- Budget signal
- Positioned for an institutional client with a long content-management horizon, not a quick brochure site.
- Skip if
- You want a fully local Austin-only team — Culture Foundry operates as a distributed practice with Austin as one studio location.
Austin Design Companies
