Best Design Agencies in Melbourne (2026)

Introduction

Melbourne has one of the strongest independent design scenes in Australia, and the 10 studios below cover most of what a client might need from one: identity, signage and wayfinding, packaging, print, environmental graphics and digital work. They were chosen for recent projects, the range of their output and the quality of their client lists.

The city’s studios cluster in a few inner suburbs. Fitzroy, Collingwood and Abbotsford hold a dense run of small and mid-sized practices, and a single building on Dover Street in Cremorne houses several studios at once. Much of the work feeds Melbourne’s hospitality, arts and property sectors, though the larger studios also run national and global accounts. Recent examples include Büro North’s Gold and Best in Class at the 2025 Good Design Awards for Central Station on Sydney Metro, and the September 2025 return of SouthSouthWest’s “Only Intrepid” campaign for Intrepid Travel. A few familiar names have also moved on: Hardhat now sits inside Thinkerbell.

Every studio here has an active Melbourne studio in 2026. The list runs in no fixed order of merit. Brand strategy specialists are covered on our branding page and product and UX consultancies on the UX page, so this list leans towards multidisciplinary studios that make things.

The best design agencies in Melbourne

1. Round

Independent · Fitzroy · round.com.au

Round (also known as Studio Round) was founded in 2002 by Michaela Webb and Robert Nudds, after five years working in London. Its first major client was the NGV. The studio now has around 20 people and, as Broadsheet reported in October 2025, typically runs 15 to 20 projects at once.

The work spans identity, naming, signage, wayfinding, packaging and campaigns. Clients include Andrew McConnell’s Trader House group (a relationship of about 20 years), Koko Black, Melbourne Theatre Company, Brae and Chadstone, where Round worked on The Market Pavilion. Hospitality brands are a large share of the portfolio.

2. Studio Ongarato

Independent · CBD · studioongarato.com.au

Studio Ongarato works across branding, placemaking and wayfinding from Atelier Exchange on Elizabeth Street, with further offices listed in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Dubai and Toronto. Fabio Ongarato leads the studio, which has been working for more than 25 years.

Its cultural portfolio is unusually deep: brand identity, campaigns and signage for the National Gallery of Australia, a visual identity for the Art Gallery of South Australia, wayfinding for the Art Gallery of New South Wales’s Naala Badu building and naming and identity for MPavilion. Commercial clients include MECCA, Ace Hotel and Jackalope Hotel, and the studio has handled wayfinding for Arup’s Melbourne office.

3. Büro North

Independent · Cremorne · buronorth.com

Büro North is a wayfinding, signage and experience design studio based on Adolph Street in Cremorne, with further studios in Sydney, Brisbane and London. Its work for Central Station on Sydney Metro, which handles over 250,000 daily users across five transport modes, won Gold and Best in Class at the 2025 Good Design Awards.

Melbourne projects include Melbourne Airport, Marvel Stadium, ACMI, the Melbourne School of Design and branding, identity and wayfinding for the Melbourne Arts Precinct. The studio suits large public and transport projects where signage has to work with passenger flow and masterplanning.

4. SouthSouthWest

Independent · Clifton Hill · ssw.studio

SouthSouthWest (SSW) was founded in Melbourne in 2007 by Andy Sargent and Jonathan Price, and runs a second studio in Noosaville, Queensland. It works across identity, campaigns, brand systems, digital experience and placemaking, and has a ventures arm that co-invests in products.

Intrepid Travel has worked with SSW since its 2021 brand refresh, and the studio developed the next chapter of the global “Only Intrepid” campaign, launched in September 2025. Sport and apparel are a strong thread, with Nike, Air Jordan, lululemon, MAAP and the NBL among clients shown on its site, alongside Meta and KeepCup.

5. Studio Brave

Independent · Cremorne · studiobrave.com.au

Studio Brave was founded in 2002 by creative director Tim Sutherland and works from Dover Street in Cremorne. Its services run from brand strategy and naming through identity, print, digital, art direction and signage and environmental design.

Recent projects include identities for VicScreen, Victoria’s screen agency, the architecture practice Fender Katsalidis, the COMO hotel group, the developer CARR and the Ascot Vale Hotel. Arts, property and hospitality clients make up most of the list, which makes it a natural fit for organisations that need a brand to carry through into buildings.

6. Principle Design

Independent · Abbotsford · principledesign.com.au

Principle Design works from Victoria Street in Abbotsford and also serves clients in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. Its range is wide for a studio of its size: brand identity, wayfinding and signage, packaging, print, digital design and development, and content.

Clients include the University of Melbourne, the Victorian Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Service, Haines and Polites Lawyers and the hospitality brand Nori Maki. Health, education, government and the built environment are core sectors, so it suits organisations that need one studio across signage, print and web.

7. Fett

Independent · Fitzroy North · fett.com.au

Fett is a small studio on Grant Street in Fitzroy North covering branding, strategy, print, digital, environmental design and animation. It works with start-ups and local businesses as well as large Australian brands.

Food and produce are a recurring theme. Clients include Cobram Estate, the Olive Wellness Institute, Limestone Coast Pantry and the bakery Dough, along with Altamira Guitars. A smaller team means clients tend to deal directly with the people doing the design.

8. Contain

Independent · Abbotsford · containdesign.com.au

Contain describes itself as a design-led production studio for packaging and merchandise, working from Little Turner Street in Abbotsford. It handles structural packaging, custom vessels and apparel through to manufacturing, quality assurance and logistics, and is FSC certified.

Much of its work is made with other studios, which is useful for clients whose brand agency does not produce packaging in-house. Recent projects include Tsu Lange Yor packaging for Troye Sivan with Christopher Doyle and Co, Penfolds x Troye Sivan packaging designed by Any Other Name, Supernormal and Baker Bleu work with Round, and exhibition merchandise for the 19th Adelaide Biennial with Base Design.

9. Studio Malt

Independent · Collingwood · studiomalt.com.au

Studio Malt is a design and development studio on Down Street in Collingwood, working across brand, print, campaigns, digital and web. Having development in the same team makes it a practical choice for clients who want an identity and a working website from one place.

Recent projects include brand and packaging for Kabina Distilling and new websites for the Leukaemia Foundation, Crohn’s and Colitis Australia and UQ Residences. Augustus Gelatery, Heat Beads and Haskell Golf are among its brand and campaign clients.

10. Weave

Independent · Collingwood · madebyweave.co

Weave, formerly Interweave, combines strategic branding and design with experiential activations, working from Langridge Street in Collingwood. Its event and activation work sits alongside packaging and identity, which is a less common mix among Melbourne studios.

Drinks brands lead the portfolio. Weave built the brand story for Four Pillars Wild Isle Gin, refreshed packaging for the Tasmanian wine brand Devil’s Corner and rebranded Tooheys, a beer brand of around 150 years, for newer drinkers.

What to look for in a Melbourne design agency

Start with what you need made. Melbourne studios range from wayfinding specialists such as Büro North, which work with architects and engineers on transport and public buildings, to small identity studios that do most of their work for restaurants and retailers. Look at three or four recent projects close to your own in scale and sector.

Ask how far the studio carries a project. Some hand over artwork files at the end of identity work, while others manage signage fabrication, packaging production or website builds. If production matters, find out whether it is done in-house or with partners such as Contain, and who is responsible for quality on press or on site.

Check who will lead your project. Many Melbourne studios are founder-led with teams of fewer than 25 people, which usually means senior attention, but it also means capacity is limited during busy periods. Agree a timeline and the number of review rounds before work starts.

Finally, look at how the studio handles files and feedback. Identity and packaging projects generate large numbers of artwork files, mock-ups and print proofs, and wayfinding projects add drawings and site photography. Studios with one clear place for the latest files and a tidy approval record tend to avoid costly reprints and late changes.

How Fabric helps design agency teams

Fabric gives a design studio one workspace for its files, client feedback and reference material, with AI search across all of it. The graphic design setup is built around studios running several client projects at once, with briefs, artwork, proofs and notes kept together per client.

Working files sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so large layouts and image libraries 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 pulling references for a new identity or packaging range. Early concept work can live on a canvas that embeds Figma files alongside images and links.

For reviews, annotations let clients highlight and comment on PDFs and documents, which suits print proofs and signage drawings. Clients can also draw on images and leave timestamped comments on video. Clients can leave threaded comments through a shared link without creating an account, and finished guidelines can be published as a web page that updates when the source file changes. There is more on this in our guide to brand guidelines.

When a studio sends a pitch or a final identity, password protection keeps it private and link analytics shows when each named recipient opened it and how long they spent with it.

Password protection and link analytics are included on Pro and Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best design agency in Melbourne?

It depends on the project. For wayfinding and signage on large public buildings, Büro North won Gold and Best in Class at the 2025 Good Design Awards. For cultural and hospitality identities, Round and Studio Ongarato have the longest track records, and SouthSouthWest runs global campaign and identity work for Intrepid Travel and Nike.

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

There is a lot of overlap. Design studios tend to focus on making things: identities, signage, packaging, print and digital. Branding agencies put more weight on strategy, positioning and naming. For strategy-led firms, see our list of branding agencies in Melbourne.

Where are Melbourne’s design studios based?

Most of the studios on this list are in the inner north, in Fitzroy, Fitzroy North, Collingwood, Abbotsford and Clifton Hill. Büro North and Studio Brave are in Cremorne, next to Richmond, and Studio Ongarato works from the CBD.

What happened to Hardhat?

Hardhat joined Thinkerbell in 2024 and the Hardhat name has been retired, according to Hardhat’s own site.

How much does a Melbourne design studio cost?

Most studios quote per project rather than publishing rates. A small identity project from an independent studio usually costs far less than a wayfinding programme for a public building, which can run for years. Ask for a fixed scope with a set number of review rounds, and check what production costs sit outside the design fee.

Related lists

Design agencies in other cities: Sydney · New York · London · Los Angeles · Toronto

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

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