Best Design Agencies in Atlanta (2026)

Introduction

These 12 Atlanta design agencies cover identity, editorial, packaging, wayfinding and environmental graphics, and each has an active studio in the Atlanta area in 2026. They range from Midtown and Downtown firms founded around 1990 to small founder-led studios, and were chosen for recent work and the strength of their client lists.

Atlanta's design market is shaped by the large companies headquartered here, including Coca-Cola, Delta, The Home Depot, UPS and Chick-fil-A, which keep steady demand for identity, packaging and annual report work. The built environment has been busy too. The city hosted eight FIFA World Cup matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2026, with temporary wayfinding across the MARTA network, and Hartsfield-Jackson's $7.5 billion ATLNext programme continues to need signage and wayfinding design. There has been some consolidation as well: Metaleap Creative, one of the city's best-known editorial studios, has joined the agency Yes&.

Every studio here has an active office in the Atlanta area in 2026, including Roswell in the northern suburbs. The list runs in no fixed order of merit, since the right choice depends on the kind of design you need, your budget and how closely you want to work with the people doing it.

The best design agencies in Atlanta

1. Matchstic

Founder-led · Atlanta · matchstic.com

Matchstic is a brand consultancy founded in Atlanta in 2003 by Blake Howard and Craig Johnson, who still lead it as creative director and president. The team now works remotely across 13 states, with Atlanta as its base. Its services run from research, naming and brand architecture to visual identity, employer branding and website design.

Clients listed on its site include UPS, Chick-fil-A, Publix, WestRock, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Yale and Rain Bird, with recent case studies for Ollion, Brightwild and Human Rights First. Through 2026 the studio has published a run of pieces on brand valuation for manufacturers and on how brands are read by AI systems, which gives a fair picture of where its strategy work is heading.

2. Jones Worley

Independent · Midtown · jonesworley.com

Jones Worley has worked from Piedmont Avenue in Midtown since 1990, covering brand identity, marketing communications, wayfinding and experiential graphic design. President and CEO Cynthia Jones Parks became the first African-American woman named an AIGA Fellow in 2019. The firm marked its 35th anniversary in December 2025, the same month a PBS documentary covered its work on the 1996 Olympic Games.

Transit is a large share of the work. For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Jones Worley worked with MARTA, as part of an HNTB team, on a temporary FIFA-branded wayfinding and experiential graphics programme serving more than 2.5 million riders. It supports Hartsfield-Jackson's ATLNext master plan with wayfinding and signage design, and named and branded NAVI, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority's autonomous vehicle service, which launched in 2025. Other clients include Delta, Coca-Cola, Georgia Power and the CDC.

3. Lorenc+Yoo Design

Independent · Roswell · lorencdesign.com

Lorenc+Yoo Design (its website now uses the name Lorenc Design) is an environmental graphic design studio in Roswell, north of Atlanta, led by Jan Lorenc. Its work covers wayfinding, exhibits and museums, retail and hospitality environments, corporate interiors and architectural sculpture.

A January 2026 case study describes the wayfinding system for Lakeview, a mixed-use development in Alpharetta, designed to orient drivers and pedestrians within one scheme. The studio has a two-decade relationship with Wind Creek Casino, including the BB King's Blues Club venue, and also takes on international projects, with a dedicated contact for work in China and the wider Asia-Pacific region.

4. Metaleap Creative

Part of Yes& · Atlanta · metaleapcreative.com

Metaleap was founded in 2002 by José Reyes, its executive creative director, with Nikolle Reyes as principal and managing director. It is best known for editorial design, with 45 magazine redesigns across 24 titles and more than 25 gold and silver awards from the Society of Publication Designers. The studio has since joined Yes&, an agency headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, with an Atlanta office in the Galleria area.

Editorial clients include Southern Living (its 60th anniversary redesign), National Geographic, Food & Wine and Howler. Branding and packaging work covers Bevel for Walker & Co., Fulton & Roark, Three Taverns Brewery and Wildsam Field Guides, plus an annual report for Coca-Cola Consolidated. Ask how projects are now staffed between the original team and Yes&.

5. Copeland

Independent · Atlanta · copelandbrand.com

Copeland is a brand design firm founded in 1981 and led by Brad Copeland, an AIGA Fellow. Its core is identity, naming and visual systems, with packaging, web, environments and animation handled in-house or through a partner network.

Recent projects include the full identity, website and merchandise for Sail4th 250, the tall ships gathering on 4 July 2026 marking America's 250th anniversary, and the design of the book ATL Rising. Again. Other clients range from Drawdown Georgia and the Medal of Honor Valor Trail to Darling Fibers and DataVisor.

6. Resource Branding

Independent · Buckhead · resourceatlanta.com

Resource has been working since 1999 and describes its focus as branding for people and places. Its services are split across strategy, identity, digital (motion, websites and presentations) and environmental work, including signage and placemaking. The studio lists 18 Graphis Design Annual honours, LogoLounge recognition and a 2024 Global Architecture & Design Award.

Much of the work is for real estate and mixed-use developments, such as Westbound at The Works, The Weld and Solis Peachtree Corners, alongside Mill Creek Residential's headquarters and Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux. It suits developers who want naming, identity and on-site signage from one team.

7. Sky Design Graphics

Five US offices · Downtown · skydesigngraphics.com

Sky Design Graphics was founded in 1990 and works on placemaking, architectural signage, wayfinding strategy, environmental branding, donor recognition and exhibits. Its Atlanta office is on Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard downtown, with further studios in San Francisco, Arlington, Tampa and Nashville.

Projects on its site include the KPMG Atlanta Ignition Center, historic signage on Auburn Avenue, and work for Dentons, TVA in Nashville and UC Davis. A multi-office firm is useful for clients rolling out the same signage standards across several cities.

8. Biscuit Studios

Independent · Atlanta · biscuitstudios.com

Biscuit Studios is a graphic design studio on Mercer Street SE whose services span brand identity, web design and development, social content, publications and trade show graphics. It describes its team as local loyalists, and much of its work is for Atlanta schools and non-profits.

Higher education is a strength: clients include Emory, Georgia Tech, Columbia, Johns Hopkins and Yale, alongside The Georgia Trust, Herman Miller and Atlanta Girls' School. Its July 2026 writing on AI, site security and accessibility reflects the web maintenance side of the business.

9. Treebird Branding

Woman-owned · Buckhead · treebirdbranding.com

Jaci Lund founded Treebird in 2013, and it now runs as a fully in-house branding, design and marketing agency on Peachtree Road. It has built more than 400 brands, with a particular focus on restaurants, small businesses and multi-family housing.

Hospitality clients include Bacchanalia and Star Provisions, Clark's Steakhouse, Pancake Social and Tucker Brewing, and the studio says it has worked with four Michelin-starred restaurants. Menu design, photography and pattern work sit alongside identity, which suits restaurant groups that want one partner from logo to printed menu.

10. Visual Soldiers

Independent · West Midtown · visualsoldiers.com

Visual Soldiers was founded in 2015 and is run by managing partners Amanda VandenHeuvel (creative director) and Jeff Corey (CTO). It joins branding to design and development, covering identity, enterprise WordPress, app design, packaging, presentations and ad creative. The studio says it has launched more than 200 brand systems.

Recent work includes the brand and platform for RxHarmony, a website and platform overhaul for Modyfi Health, the Everhaus wellness brand and a digital overhaul for The Works, the 80-acre development on the Westside. Clients can buy a design subscription or a full-scope project, and projects average about 12 weeks.

11. Rhyme & Reason Design

Woman-owned, independent · Old Fourth Ward · rhymeandreasondesign.com

Rhyme & Reason Design was founded by Karen McKenzie (creative director) and Scarlett Rosier (director of operations) and has offices in Atlanta, Charlotte and Denver. It covers branding, websites, print, campaigns, video and animation.

Its main niches are destination marketing, national non-profits and Greek-letter organisations. At the start of 2025 it rebranded Calhoun-Gordon County in north Georgia, from a new name and logo to merchandise. Other work includes Visit the Northshore in Louisiana, Explore Brookhaven, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Sigma Delta Tau.

12. Salt & True

Black-owned, independent · Atlanta · saltandtrue.com

Salt & True is a sister-run studio founded by Serra Miller and Taylor Jones, both University of Georgia advertising graduates. It handles brand strategy, naming and identity, then the applications that follow: web, packaging, signage, editorial and presentation design.

The client list leans towards small and mission-led businesses, including The Studio Pilates, HealthMpowers, Cognosos, Tiger Life Gourmet and Shenuts Boiled Peanuts, most added to its portfolio during 2025. It suits founders and smaller organisations that want the same two people involved from strategy through to launch.

What to look for in an Atlanta design agency

Start with the kind of design you need. Several studios here are generalists across identity, print and web, while Jones Worley, Lorenc+Yoo, Sky Design Graphics and Resource all do environmental work. Signage and wayfinding call for a different skill set from a logo: knowledge of materials, fabrication, accessibility rules and how people move through a site. If your project includes physical space, ask to see built work and talk to a past client about the installation.

Look for experience in your sector. Atlanta studios have built clear specialisms, from transit and airports to real estate, higher education, restaurants and magazines. A studio that already knows your approval chain (a transit board, a developer's leasing team, a university's brand office) will usually move faster through it.

Check who will do the work. Many of the studios on this list are founder-led, and the founders are often the designers. Larger or multi-office firms can take on bigger programmes but may staff a project from another city, so it is worth asking which office and which people will lead yours.

Finally, agree how files and approvals will be handled before the first round. Identity projects produce guidelines, master artwork and many variations, and environmental projects add drawings and fabrication proofs. Settle where the latest version lives, how feedback is collected, who signs off, and that you will own the editable source files at the end.

How Fabric helps design agency teams

Fabric gives a design studio one workspace for its files, client feedback and project knowledge, with AI search across all of it. The agency setup works well for studios running several clients at once: one space per client, holding the brief, references, working files, presentations and call notes.

Design work produces large libraries of artwork, photography and layered files. Fabric's cloud drive streams files on demand so they take no local disk space, and shared team folders always show the latest version. Search works by meaning across documents, images and PDFs, and colour search finds assets by shade, which helps when hunting for a past palette. Similar search surfaces images with related composition, colour and subject, and early concept work can be gathered on a canvas that embeds Figma files alongside images and notes.

For reviews, clients can leave threaded comments on any file through a shared link without creating an account, and annotations let them highlight and comment directly on PDF proofs and guideline documents. Drawing and comments on images are listed as coming soon. Finished guidelines or a presentation can be published as a web page, with password protection and link analytics showing when each named recipient opened it.

On Team plans, self-writing docs can maintain a page for each client from meetings, Slack and the workspace, covering decisions, deliverables and open items. That history is useful when a brand comes back for a refresh years later.

Password protection and link analytics are included on Pro and Team plans, and self-writing docs on Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best design agency in Atlanta?

There is no single answer, as it depends on the project. For transit and large public wayfinding, Jones Worley led MARTA's World Cup programme in 2026. For editorial design, Metaleap has redesigned 45 magazines and won more than 25 Society of Publication Designers awards. For brand identity for national companies, Matchstic's clients include UPS, Chick-fil-A and Publix.

Which Atlanta studios specialise in wayfinding and signage?

Jones Worley, Lorenc+Yoo Design and Sky Design Graphics all have long track records in wayfinding and environmental graphics. Resource Branding combines signage and placemaking with identity work, mostly for real estate developments.

What is the difference between a design agency and a branding agency?

The two overlap. Design agencies tend to be judged on the craft of what they make, across print, packaging, environments and digital, while branding agencies lead with strategy, positioning and naming. If your main need is strategy, see our list of branding agencies in Atlanta.

What happened to Metaleap Creative?

Metaleap has joined Yes&, a Virginia-headquartered agency with an Atlanta office. Its founders, José and Nikolle Reyes, remain involved, and the studio continues to work on branding, publishing and packaging.

Do Atlanta design studios work with clients outside Georgia?

Many do. Jones Worley designs for transit agencies in Florida and elsewhere, Sky Design Graphics has offices in four other cities, Rhyme & Reason Design also works from Charlotte and Denver, and Matchstic's team is spread across 13 states.

Related lists

Design agencies in other cities: New York · Los Angeles · London · Chicago · San Francisco

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