Best Design Agencies in Helsinki (2026)

Introduction

Helsinki has a compact but deep design scene, and the seven agencies below cover most of it: product and industrial design, packaging, interiors and exhibitions, and graphic design for culture, retail and the public sector. Each one runs a working studio in the city in 2026.

Much of the work here comes from a recognisable client base. Consumer design brands such as Iittala and Fiskars commission products and packaging, industrial companies such as Ponsse and Kone hire studios for cabins, machines and brand systems, and the City of Helsinki, its museums and its cultural venues account for a large share of identity and publication work. The local design community stays active: Grafia’s Vuoden Huiput 2025 competition, judged in February 2026, drew 644 entries across 15 categories, up from 631 the year before.

The list leans towards multidisciplinary studios. Brand strategy specialists appear on our branding page and digital product teams on the UX page. Firms were chosen for the range and quality of their recent work and for a verified Helsinki studio, and the list runs in no fixed order of merit.

The best design agencies in Helsinki

1. Aivan

Partner-run · Hernesaari · aivan.fi

Aivan has worked since 2007 and describes itself as the largest and most versatile design and innovation studio in the Nordics. Six partners run it, with a team of more than 90, from the former Henry Ford factory in Hernesaari. Its work is organised into products, brands and spaces, and its awards include the Kaj Franck Design Prize in 2019 and a Red Dot Best of the Best for the cabin of Ponsse’s Scorpion harvester in 2021.

Clients span heavy industry, consumer goods and boats: Ponsse, Kone, UPM, Fiskars, Iittala, Finnair, OP, VR, Nautor’s Swan and Axopar Boats among them. Aivan’s yacht work has won Motor Yacht of the Year and European Yacht of the Year. It suits clients who want product, brand and space designed by one team.

2. Pentagon Design

Independent · Kallio · pentagondesign.fi

Pentagon Design is a strategic design agency working across strategy, brand identity and packaging, from offices on Vilhonvuorenkatu in Kallio.

Recent case studies include a sustainable packaging concept for Metsä Spring’s Muoto, and visual identity work for Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and the Mannerheim Museum. The mix of education, culture and industry clients is typical of its roster.

3. Tsto

Independent · Kallio · tsto.org

Tsto is a graphic design studio run by designers Jonatan Eriksson, Matti Kuntuu and Antti Uotila. It works on visual identities, publications, websites, motion and typography.

Featured projects include work for Marimekko, Jacobin magazine and the Flow Festival 2023 identity, along with Sorbus’s “Wasted Years”. Its portfolio suits cultural, music and fashion clients.

4. Hahmo

Independent · Kamppi · hahmo.fi

Hahmo is a Helsinki design studio with several decades of brand design behind it, working on identities, logos, posters, visual communication and websites from Eerikinkatu in Kamppi.

Its client list leans towards the public sector and culture: the City of Helsinki, Musiikkitalo (Helsinki Music Centre), the Finnish National Agency for Education, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Governing Body of Suomenlinna, alongside Nokia and Ideapark. Public bodies that need clear, long-lived identity systems are its core audience.

5. Studio Joanna Laajisto

Independent · Helsinki · joannalaajisto.com

Studio Joanna Laajisto is a Helsinki studio for interior, product and exhibition design, with brand identities for retail and hospitality as a further strand. Its stated principles are functionality, quality and aesthetics.

Projects include the Finnair Schengen lounge at Helsinki Airport, Finnish Design Shop’s headquarters and showroom in Turku, the Torni Hotel, Noli hotels in Otaniemi and Katajanokka, and the “Crafted through time” exhibition for Artek in Tokyo. Recent Helsinki work covers restaurants, retail and an events space at Eteläranta 6 for the Architecture and Design Museum.

6. Werklig

Independent · Hakaniemi · werklig.com

Werklig is a Finnish brand and design agency based in the Ympyrätalo building in Hakaniemi. It calls itself “the Nordic Brand Alchemist” and works with socially engaged brands in food and drink, culture, technology, places and beauty.

Its case studies include Kyrö Distillery, the City of Helsinki (“the most functional city in the world”), Amos Rex, Vaisala, Plugsurfing, Mö, Finland’s first oat dairy, and Helsinki’s Kulttuuritalo. The archive adds JKMM Architects, Polar, Pure Waste, EMMA and the Parliament of Finland. Food and drink brands make up a large share of the work.

7. Agency Leroy

Independent · City centre · agencyleroy.com

Agency Leroy is a Helsinki creative agency on Uudenmaankatu with three service areas: digital (websites, UI/UX, apps, service design and webshops), brand (strategy, identity, marketing communication and graphic design) and an in-house studio for photography, film and motion, 3D and CGI, and generative AI.

Selected clients include Iittala, Framery, Ålandsbanken, TactoTek, Delfin and Krogerus, with Reima, Fiskars, Finlayson and Lamor on its wider list. The in-house studio is useful for clients who want product imagery and 3D produced by the same team that designs the brand.

What to look for in a Helsinki design agency

Decide first which kind of design you need. Helsinki studios split fairly clearly between industrial and product practices such as Aivan, interior and exhibition studios such as Studio Joanna Laajisto, and graphic design studios such as Tsto and Hahmo. A few, Pentagon Design among them, move between identity and packaging. Asking a graphic studio to design a product, or the reverse, rarely goes well.

Look at who the studio has worked for. Many Helsinki agencies carry a high share of public-sector and cultural clients, which brings experience of procurement, accessibility requirements and identity systems that have to last for years. Studios with consumer and industrial clients tend to know manufacturing, retail and export markets better.

Check the team size against the brief. Several studios here are run by two or three designers, which gives senior attention on every project but limits how much they can take on at once. Larger studios can run product, brand and space work in parallel, with project managers between you and the designers.

Finally, ask how files and feedback are handled. Design projects produce large volumes of renders, packaging dielines, layouts and photography, and feedback can easily scatter across email, PDFs and chat. A studio with one place for current files, and a clear way to collect and close off comments, saves time over a long project.

How Fabric helps design agency teams

Fabric gives a design studio one workspace for project files, client feedback and reference material, with AI search across all of it. Studios working on packaging design, product design or graphic design can keep each client’s renders, layouts and photography in shared folders that always show the latest version.

Heavy files sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams them on demand so they take no local disk space. Search works by meaning across documents, images and PDFs, and colour search finds visual assets by shade. Similar search surfaces related images by composition, colour and subject, which helps when looking for an earlier concept or photo. Moodboards and early directions can be laid out on the canvas, with Figma files embedded.

Client feedback runs through sharing. Share a file or folder with the client as a commenter, and they can open the link without creating an account. With annotations, they can highlight and comment on PDFs and documents, draw on an image and attach a comment to the drawing, or leave timestamped comments on video, including drawings on a frame. The studio marks each comment completed as it is dealt with, so a round of feedback works like a checklist. There is more on this in how to get client feedback on a design.

Finished work can be published as a web page for clients and stakeholders to view, with password protection where needed. Published pages are view-only, so feedback stays on the shared link.

Password protection is included on Pro and Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best design agency in Helsinki?

It depends on the discipline. For products and industrial design, Aivan has the largest team and awards such as the Kaj Franck Design Prize. For interiors, Studio Joanna Laajisto has designed spaces for Finnair and Artek. For graphic design, Tsto has worked for Marimekko and Flow Festival, and Hahmo for the City of Helsinki and Musiikkitalo.

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

A design agency usually makes things: products, packaging, interiors, publications and identities. A branding agency puts more weight on strategy, positioning and naming before design starts. Many Helsinki studios do both, and our list of branding agencies in Helsinki covers the strategy specialists.

Which Helsinki design agencies work on product and industrial design?

Aivan is the main multidisciplinary studio for product and industrial design on this list, with work for Ponsse, Kone, Iittala and several boat builders. Studio Joanna Laajisto also designs products alongside its interiors.

Do Helsinki design agencies work in English?

Most do. Several studios on this list publish their sites in English as well as Finnish, and many work for international clients or Finnish brands that sell abroad. It is worth confirming the working language for presentations and documents at the start.

How much does a design agency in Helsinki cost?

Studios rarely publish prices. Fees depend on the scope, the team size and whether the work covers one discipline or several. Ask for a fixed project quote with clear stages and rounds of revisions, so the cost of changes is agreed before work begins.

Related lists

Design agencies in other cities: Stockholm · Copenhagen · Oslo · London · New York

More in Helsinki: Creative agencies · Branding agencies · UX design agencies · Advertising agencies · Photography studios · Animation

Run your studio on Fabric: Fabric for designers · Design feedback · Best design feedback tools