Best Design Agencies in Vienna (2026)

Introduction

Vienna has a dense scene of small, multidisciplinary design studios, and the 10 below are among the strongest working in the city in 2026. Most are owner-run offices of between a handful and a few dozen people, and most combine graphic, editorial, type and spatial work under one roof.

Much of the city’s design work comes from its cultural institutions. The Wien Museum, the MAK, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Technisches Museum Wien and the Vienna Film Commission all commission identity, publication and wayfinding work from local studios, and several of the firms here have built long relationships with them. Recent examples include Studio FREUDE’s new identity for the Technisches Museum Wien, shortened to “tmw”, and the redesigned Vienna Film Commission annual report that Lichtwitz presented in March 2025. Commercial clients follow, from Wiener Städtische and Drei to Austrian food and drink brands. The studios cluster in the inner western districts, with Neubau, Mariahilf and Margareten at the centre.

Every studio here has a Vienna office in 2026. We chose them for the range and quality of recent work, 2025 and 2026 recognition (Red Dot, German Design Award and designaustria among them) and the strength of their client lists. Strategy-led branding consultancies and product UX shops have their own pages. The list runs in no fixed order of merit.

The best design agencies in Vienna

1. Typejockeys

Independent · Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus · typejockeys.com

Typejockeys is a graphic and type design office founded in 2008 by Anna Fahrmaier, Thomas Gabriel and Michael Hochleitner. Typography sits at the centre of everything it does, from posters and books to screen work and corporate identities, and the studio runs its own retail type library, with Marie as its newest release.

Client projects shown on its site include work for Wiener Städtische, Drei, PEZ, Piatnik, the football club LASK and the streaming service JOYN, along with a typeface project called Post Sans. It suits clients who want a custom typeface or lettering to anchor a wider identity.

2. Studio Es

Independent · Margareten · studio-es.at

Studio Es is led by Verena Panholzer, a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). The studio works on visual identities, publications and digital work for culture, architecture, film, science and education, and its work has been recognised by the European Design Awards, D&AD, the Type Directors Club, ADC New York and 100 Beste Plakate.

Clients include Diagonale (the festival of Austrian film), the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Goethe-Institut, the architects AllesWirdGut and GRAFT, and the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig. Panholzer lectures widely, with talks in Brno and Trier in November and December 2026.

3. seite zwei

Independent · Mariahilf · seitezwei.com

seite zwei was founded in 2011 and is led by Christian Begusch, Stefan Mayer and Christoph Schörkhuber. It covers strategy, identities, art direction, publications, digital work and exhibitions, and its awards include silver and bronze at ADC Germany, a D&AD Wooden Pencil, a long run of CCA Venus awards and two Austrian State Prizes for the most beautiful books.

The client list leans on Vienna’s cultural institutions, including the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Architekturzentrum Wien, Wien Museum, Kunst Haus Wien and TU Wien, alongside WienTourismus, the Park Hyatt, Bene and Backhausen. Its book and publication work is a particular strength.

4. buero bauer

Independent · Wieden · buerobauer.com

buero bauer, led by Erwin K. Bauer, describes itself as an office for orientation and identity. It works across print, interactive and spatial design from the former Alpenmilchzentrale building in Wieden, and wayfinding and orientation systems are its core speciality. The studio also runs INCLUDE, a self-initiated programme on inclusive orientation design.

Projects include orientation, lighting and exhibition graphics for the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, inclusive orientation for the Wien Museum, an orientation system for the Viertel Zwei quarter and wayfinding at the Allianz Arena in Munich. It is a natural first call for buildings, campuses and museums.

5. Büro Perndl

Independent · Neubau · bueroperndl.at

Büro Perndl works on brand design, wayfinding, campaigns, books and websites, and takes projects through to finished production. Its portfolio is weighted towards culture and public institutions, with long-running work for the MAK and a rebranding of the Bundestheater Holding.

Other clients include the Wien Museum, the Verfassungsgerichtshof (Austria’s constitutional court), the Austrian Film Commission, Kunstforum Wien, Museum der Moderne Salzburg and the homelessness charity neunerhaus, for which it has produced annual campaigns. It also designs covers for the novelist Wolf Haas and for publishers including Hanser and Hoffmann und Campe.

6. Lichtwitz visuelle Kommunikation

Independent · Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus · lichtwitz.wien

Stefanie Lichtwitz runs this studio for corporate, editorial and communication design, which traded as Lichtwitz Leinfellner visuelle Kultur until 2020. Alongside client work she is a partner in Viktoria, a space for artistic research and social design, and the studio has an interest in urban design and participation projects.

Lichtwitz has designed the Vienna Film Commission’s identity since the commission was founded. Its new annual report, presented in March 2025, is a spiral-bound book of more than 100 pages with a screen-printed cover, set photography and figures printed on thin inserted sheets. Clients who need careful editorial work should look here.

7. Studio FREUDE

Independent · Leopoldstadt · freude.studio

Studio FREUDE (FRD Design GmbH) was founded in 2023 by Simon Pointner, Markus Wieser and Alexander Hofmann, and works across branding, interiors, digital interaction and experience design. It won a Red Dot in 2023 in Spatial and Retail Design for the VinziRast anniversary campaign, which used light sculptures made with the artist Fanny Allié.

Its rebrand of the Technisches Museum Wien uses a spark motif and the short form “tmw” across logo, colour and communication. Other work includes a rebrand of Schloss Drosendorf, a brand experience for Funkhaus.dada and the pro bono “Design for Good” exhibition at designforum Wien.

8. studio senseday

Independent · Vienna · senseday.com

studio senseday, founded by Jutta and Richard Ulmer, is a boutique studio that treats sound, scent and touch as part of a design system, alongside corporate design, packaging, web and motion. It took gold for Disputiful at the German Design Award 2025 in Excellent Communications Design, and the same project was recognised by the ADC and the International Sound Awards.

More recent work for the Swiss organic tea and cosmetics brand Musa Calma won gold at the German Brand Award 2026 and a 2026 International Sound Award. Other clients include the natural cosmetics brand Dr. Eberhardt and the leash maker Buddyrope.

9. Studio Riebenbauer

Independent · Alsergrund · riebenbauer.net

Studio Riebenbauer works across brand design, architecture, product and space, and digital and sensory experiences. Its headquarters is in Alsergrund, and it also runs a studio in Venice, Los Angeles. The approach is to make a brand tangible through objects and rooms as well as graphics.

Clients named on its site include Aesop, Airbnb, Gaggenau, Porsche, Puig, Red Bull and Vitra, which is an unusually international list for a Vienna studio. It fits clients who want identity, retail space and product thinking handled by one team.

10. Identity Lab

Independent · Mariahilf · identitylab.at

Identity Lab is a design studio run by Philip Reitsperger, with roots going back to 2013. It still does brand and visual systems work for culture and communication, and it now also runs AI workshops and builds AI workflows for clients. Its work for the dementia prevention association gehirngesund was recognised in the 2025 Red Dot awards.

Clients include the Musikverein Wien, the Wiener Symphoniker, the architects nonconform and the Biodiversity Monitor project. It suits teams that want a design partner who can also advise on bringing AI into their own production.

What to look for in a Vienna design agency

Start with the studio’s specialism. Most of the offices above are small and owner-led, and each has a centre of gravity: type, books, wayfinding, spatial work or sensory branding. Look at the three or four projects closest to your brief and ask who designed them, since in a studio of ten people the founder is often on the work.

Check the production chain. Vienna studios are used to working with local printers, sign makers and exhibition builders, and several take projects through to finished production. If your project involves print runs, signage or a building, ask who manages suppliers and who signs off proofs.

Think about language and scope. Several of these studios have clients in Germany, Switzerland and further afield. For a bilingual identity or a typeface that needs extended character sets, ask early, because the work takes longer than a single-language system.

Finally, ask how files and feedback will be handled. A museum identity or wayfinding project produces hundreds of artwork files, drawings and photographs, and comments arrive from curators, architects and directors at once. Studios with a clear review routine, and one place where the client can always find the current version, spend less time reconciling feedback.

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 setup for graphic design agencies keeps briefs, references, artwork and correspondence together for each client.

Large files, from layered artwork to type sources and site photography, sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files 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 work from an image, comparing composition, colour and subject, which helps when assembling references on a canvas for a moodboard.

For review, share a file or folder with the client as a commenter. Shared links work without sign-up, and clients can draw on images and attach a comment to the drawing, or highlight and comment on PDFs with annotations. The team marks each comment completed as it is resolved, so a round of feedback works like a checklist. There is a fuller walkthrough in how to get client feedback on a design.

Finished work can be published as a web page, which is view-only, with password protection for unreleased identities. On Team plans, docs that write themselves keep a running page for each client from meetings, Slack and the workspace, covering decisions, deliverables and open items.

Password protection is 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 Vienna?

It depends on the discipline. For type, Typejockeys is the clear specialist. For wayfinding and museum orientation, buero bauer and Büro Perndl have the longest track records, and for books and publications Studio Es and seite zwei have the strongest awards records.

Which Vienna design studios won awards in 2025 and 2026?

studio senseday won gold at the German Design Award 2025 and the German Brand Award 2026. Identity Lab’s work for gehirngesund was recognised in the 2025 Red Dot awards, and Studio FREUDE has two Red Dot distinctions.

How is a design agency different from a branding agency?

A design studio is usually hired to make things: identities, books, signage, exhibitions and typefaces. A branding agency starts with positioning and strategy, and the design follows from it. Many Vienna studios do both, but if strategy is the main need, see the best branding agencies in Vienna.

Do Vienna design studios work in English?

Most do. Several studios on this list, including Studio Riebenbauer, Studio Es and studio senseday, work regularly with clients outside Austria, and the larger ones present their work in English as well as German. Confirm the working language at the first meeting.

Which Vienna design studios specialise in wayfinding?

buero bauer and Büro Perndl both design orientation systems for museums, campuses and public buildings. buero bauer also runs INCLUDE, a programme on inclusive orientation design.

Related lists

Design agencies in other cities: New York · London · Berlin · Munich · Hamburg

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

Run your studio on Fabric: Fabric for designers · Best design feedback tools · Brand guidelines in Fabric