Top Branding Agencies in New York, NY (NYC)

Find the best branding agency in New York, NY (NYC) for your startup, B2B, SMB, enterprise or SaaS project.

Published in

TMDesign

22 min readApr 12, 2020

UPDATED: July 2, 2024

New York City, a global hub of commerce and creativity, is a fertile ground for businesses seeking to establish or reinvent their brands.

Branding agencies in this metropolis play a crucial role in shaping the identities of businesses, from startups to established enterprises.

Their expertise not only helps in standing out in a crowded market but also in resonating with the diverse and dynamic audience that New York embodies.

1. Ramotion

Ramotion is a NYC-based branding design company focused on visual identity and branding strategy.

Website: ramotion.com
Location: New York, NY, USA
Clients: Stripe, Firefox, Oppo, Descript
Hourly Rate: $100 — $149 / hr
Team Size: 50+ employees
Founded: 2009
Services: Branding, Web Design, UX/UI Design
Industries: Consumer products & services, Financial services, Information technology, eCommerce, Business services, Retail
Best for: Tech SMB and Startups
Clutch rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 (25+ reviews)

2. DeSantis Breindel

DeSantis Breindel is the B2B branding and marketing agency in NYC.

Website: desantisbreindel.com
Location: New York, NY, United States
Clients: Verifone, Prospiant, ENGIE Impact, CenTrio, LPL Financial, Tishman Speyer, HALO, ICF Next, Lathrop Gage, OneSpan
Hourly Rate: $200 — $300 / hr
Team Size: 25+ employees
Founded: 2002
Services: Branding, Advertising, Digital Strategy
Industries: Information technology, Business services, Financial services, Legal, Manufacturing, Medical
Best for: for marketers in technology, healthcare, financial services, and professional services seeking a leader in B2B brand strategy and experience, with a focus on customer engagement
Clutch rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 (55+ reviews)

3. C42D

New York branding agency for visionary companies, focused on research, strategy, naming, design, and development.

Website: c42d.com
Location: New York, NY, United States
Clients: Kindbody, YouTube, Shazam, Ogilvy, Google, Reebok, Foundation Capital, The Corcoran Group, CGS Health
Hourly Rate: $150 — $199 / hr
Team Size: 2+ employees
Founded: 2010
Services: Branding, UX/UI Design, Web Design
Industries: Medical, Business services, Financial services, Consumer products & services
Best for: early-stage companies in New York seeking a top branding agency to create compelling brands and engaging websites, offering services from research and strategy to web development
Clutch rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 (50+ reviews)

4. BrandTuitive

BrandTuitive is a branding agency based in New York City.

Website: brandtuitive.com
Location: New York, NY, United States
Clients: Nespresso, Simply Wine, ShopKeep, Horizen, Eva Fehren Jewelry, MRCE Foundational Engineering, Datacolor, Fulfill
Hourly Rate: $200 — $300 / hr
Team Size: 20+ employees
Founded: 2011
Services: Branding
Industries: Consumer products & services, Non-profit, Business services, Medical
Best for: businesses seeking to reveal their intrinsic brand identity through creativity deeply grounded in strategic thinking and a passion for delivering results
Clutch rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 (15+ reviews)

5. Beacon Branding LLC

A collaborative branding firm that partners with companies locally and around the world that are looking to discover or revitalize their brand identity.

Website: beaconbranding.com
Location: New York, NY, United States
Clients: Hostess, Sony, Sara Lee, Pfizer, Hasbro, Colgate-Palmolive, Wagner’s, EverBank, Jackson Hewitt, ProFoot
Hourly Rate: $150 — $199 / hr
Team Size: 2+ employees
Founded: 1992
Services: Branding, Logo, Market Research, Marketing Strategy, Print Design, Web Design
Industries: Business services, Consumer products & services, Advertising & marketing, Dental, Education, Financial services, Information technology, Media, Medical, Real estate, Retail, Supply Chain, Logistics, and Transport, Telecommunications, eCommerce
Best for: local and global companies seeking to discover or revitalize their brand identity, offering core services in market research, brand strategy, corporate and product identity, and brand management
Clutch rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 (10+ reviews)

How do we review these branding agencies in New York?

In evaluating the branding agencies, our approach is grounded in a comprehensive and objective analysis. We consider a variety of factors to ensure a thorough understanding of each agency’s capabilities and strengths. The criteria used for selection include:

Location: Proximity to key business districts and accessibility.
Clients: Diversity and caliber of their client base.
Hourly Rate: Pricing structures and value for money.
Team Size: Scale and expertise of the team.
Founded: The agency’s history and experience in the industry.
Services: Range and specialization of services offered.
Industries: Experience across different industries.
Best for: Ideal client profile or business size for the agency.
Clutch Rating: Independent reviews and ratings on Clutch.

How to choose a proper branding agency in New York?

Selecting the right branding agency from a list requires careful consideration of several factors:

Align Vision and Goals: Ensure the agency understands and aligns with your business goals and brand vision.
Assess Portfolio: Evaluate their past work to understand their creative approach and success in similar industries.
Consider Team Expertise: Look into the team’s expertise and their ability to innovate and adapt to trends.
Evaluate Communication: Effective communication is key. Assess how the agency communicates and collaborates with clients.
Budget Alignment: Ensure their services align with your budget without compromising on quality.
Check Client Testimonials: Client feedback can provide insights into their working style and reliability.
Understand Their Process: Gauge their strategic process and how it can be tailored to your needs.

New York is considered to be one of the most powerful states in the United States. The NY GDP rivals some of the world’s most productive economies. This is the crown jewel of the entire nation and one of the wealthiest cities on the entire planet. A city where the majority of Fortune 500 companies built their headquarters (like JP Morgan or Citigroup) and are constantly contributing billions of dollars to the nation’s economy.

In addition, it is also a popular place for all tourists and a cultural center that makes it one of the most fascinating cities in the United States. Whether you want to visit it for business purposes or for your leisure this city is truly fantastic. And it is quite simple to start a firm of your own with huge access to professional talents, limitless networking opportunities, tax incentives, numerous supporting programs, and seamless connectivity. The same goes as well for branding agencies NYC that are perfectly fitting the dynamic life of this state. So it is very important to understand all of the base and niche questions and topics while seeking out the brand firms NYC.

Demand for brand consulting NYC firms

New York City is a flourishing tech industry and the “City That Never Sleeps”. Apart from economic titans, New York City supports a thriving small business culture. New York is a base for nearly 2 million small enterprises, accounting for 50% of the private sector workforce. These rivals seek assistance from prominent brand consulting NYC firms to stay ahead of the competition.

While renting office space in New York can be ultimately expensive, city agencies are constantly supporting SMB development. Co-working spaces and incubators are the direct results that sprout up throughout the city, providing affordable workspace for newcomers and small businesses alike.

In New York, the stock market presents untapped fundraising potential for indigenous businesses. Venture capital funding for New York City businesses increased from $6.1 billion in 2014 to $17.2 billion in 2019, putting the city in second place behind Silicon Valley in terms of venture investments. Emerging enterprises rely on notable branding agencies NYC to increase their investments.

It’s unsurprising that NYC has evolved to be the world’s second-largest startup ecosystem and third in terms of unicorns, with between 6,300 and 7,800 active firms. Newcomers must establish a distinct competitive advantage to remain relevant in a sea of alternatives. As a result, entrepreneurs seek strategic and creative direction from best-in-class branding firms NYC.

Unique details about branding agencies NYC

All of the branding agencies NYC are dedicated to assisting businesses in improving or developing a brand. These branding firms analyze your current business image, target market, and competitors to assist you in increasing brand recognition, establishing a perceptible competitive edge, and (as a result) increase sales. However, there are tons of various factors that completely distinguish each branding agency. Let’s start with the fact that NYC is the world’s primary center for some of the world’s most popular industries, which does include:

Finance
Publishing
Retail
Fashion
Healthcare

Another significant point is that New York City is the world’s biggest economic capital base. So basically, what this means is that it has one of the most prominent markets and the highest concentration of Fortune 1,000 businesses, making it pretty much a famous place for constant competition.

By summing up these two bold facts together, one can say that by operating in such a competitive climate, brand consulting NYC agencies must be on a constant alert for any new technologies, techniques, or even digital trends that may somehow affect their high-quality work. That’s the reason why they have a thorough understanding of the world’s most popular industries and are capable of providing internationally competitive services that help lots of entrepreneurs to flourish and raise their businesses successfully.

What do branding agencies NYC do?

Apart from being a branding agency, who does refresh, rebuild, shape, and make a new brand logo for various businesses there are other things that lots of other things that a branding agency New York is very capable of. They do provide other branding services, which include the following:

Market research
Competitive analysis
Brand strategies management
Visual identity
Brand positioning
Promotions

According to independent research, 60% of regular customers are inclined to make regular purchases from a business they trust. Therefore, with a set of advanced tools and expertise these brand consulting NYC firms can help a business to increase a brand’s reputation, attract new clients, and maintain existing ones. Take into consideration that the vast majority of branding firms NYC work with companies of different sizes. However, their true expertise lies in assisting huge and scalable firms in achieving international recognition.

Why do you need a branding agency New York?

Almost every single branding agency New York does utilize modern technologies, astute design, and elegant development strategy. Thus, ultimately revolutionizing how consumers perceive and interact with brands and businesses. With an estimated total population of 8.5 million, New York is not a typical extensively large business hub, but it is a gateway for innovative and modern branding consulting companies. For that reason, we outlined a few reasons why you should consider employing a branding agency New York.

Global industry impact

As New York is a city filled with an enormous influence on both the local and worldwide industries (such as fashion, banking, and publishing), it has completely transformed branding firms NYC into experts in these business fields.

Reaching the local audience

To reach a designated audience for a business based in New York, an entrepreneur should collaborate with one of the branding firms NYC that has attained several competitive skills and knowledge. Some of which include a thorough understanding of one’s business industry market, competitors, and local environment. Thus, local brand consulting NYC agencies are considered to be the best choice.

Competitive Advantage

Every single branding agency New York does have a private set of tools and insights when it comes to researching the competitors. These are very critical for monitoring the scene for any potential opportunities and identifying emerging trends. Exactly that can assist your partner in pursuing various initiatives, enhancing your market presence, and raising you ahead of your rivals. Having said that, New York is also an ideal location for networking. This is the perfect field filled with fresh ideas and concepts, which results in a favorable return on investment for your business ROI.

How do branding agencies NYC understand success?

There is no doubt that a success factor for a common branding agency New York would be a flat increase in terms of sales. However, there are other, quite significant factors that do require attention and at the same time consideration of an entrepreneur, to fully understand the job of a branding agency. For that reason, below are three metrics that branding companies New York focus on to achieve the success of any given business branding project.

Website Traffic

Brand consulting NYC agencies do handle and manage the complexities of driving traffic on your platform. In other words, they do know how exactly they can attract potential clients. And it does come from an entirely different perspective than anyone may have suspected.

Instead of focusing on the digital marketing aspects that do impact online traffic, these branding firms NYC take a view that is outside of the box. They evaluate how a brand looks, feels, and evaluate the personality of the competitors. They produce a clear assessment of your target audience, determine the aspects that resonate with them and find the most effective approaches to communicate.

That was just a first step which most of the branding agencies NYC produces. After that, they incorporate these actionable insights into the design of your website and marketing content to attract the audience you’re aiming for.

So as you can see, internet traffic is a significant key performance indicator that all of the business firms have to grow. They’re very critical in their early development because these encounters result in leads, which in turn become a clear conversion. As a result, the more individuals who are constantly visiting and interacting with your website, the more likely they will make a purchase.

Audience Engagement

In most cases, the engagement between a consumer and a company’s platform occurs when the first one actively responds to any interactive brand contact. Whether it is the exchange of emails, social media sharing, or simply a discussion board on the product opinion, every option from this list does count.

Engagement occurs when a brand consulting NYC firm establishes a personal connection with the targeted audience. It is a relationship that the brand cultivates and nurtures. However, these relationships must be nurtured and carefully prepared for them to fully flourish. Therefore every action that can somehow affect customer retention must be involved. That way a branding agency New York can and will ensure that your brand performance will be greatly lifted.

Revenue & Customer Acquisition

The understanding of how a brand identity affects the consumer perceives a company and their likelihood to make a purchase. This is the golden rule that every leading branding agency New York is currently following. They are familiar with the customer journey maps as well as the research process required to get them to the point of client conversion.

Naturally, this is also partially dependent on the salesperson’s or digital marketer’s efforts. However, another portion of that deal is contingent upon brand awareness and the communication process before that. Clients must trust a brand before they would perform any action. Which needs a thorough and unified visual presence that provides all the information they need in an easily consumable way.

All of this can be accomplished by a fully functional, comprehensive, and unambiguous online presence. Additionally, every brand should prioritize pleasant experiences, impressions, and feelings to ensure that all marketing efforts will be beneficial to the target audience.

That’s why, by partnering with a brand consulting NYC firm, you can sufficiently increase the trust factor of your business and make the conversion process much easier and convenient. Your audience should be attracted to your brand and believe in its products. Otherwise, they will abandon their shopping cart, resulting in a negative influence and impact on your business.

How can branding companies New York push your business into a competitive market?

Apart from understanding the basic information that involves branding agencies NYC, one should also consider how exactly they will position your business in the competitive environment. These can be different practices and critical approaches that branding companies New York perform that can critically help an entrepreneur in solidifying his brand presence and outperforming industry rivals.

Marketing strategies

Branding firms in New York will not be satisfied with slapping a new brand logo on your website and calling it a day. It’s quite the opposite, as the first thing they will do is establish the foundation for all future initiatives, including marketing and advertising ones. By creating the identity that will carry your brand forward.

According to Lucidpress research, consistently demonstrating a brand across all media formats, will improve one’s income by 23%. In addition, the new brand identity that all of the brand consulting NYC agencies are generating will be tailored for all possible business channels. This also applies to marketing activities and efforts.

Once branding agencies NYC complete a project, they develop a slew of collateral for your business. They are not simply handing you one item and instructing you to run with it. They’re teaching you how to integrate these pieces of visual material, the unique interaction with your audience and different personalities across your organization, ensuring that your audience has a consistent and enjoyable experience.

That includes marketing efforts as well as different strategies and tactics that a branding agency can assist you with while improving traffic and revenues. The most professional branding agencies NYC provide comprehensive services that not only establish a distinct visual identity but also a consistent consumer experience.

Consistent branding is included in marketing campaigns, which boosts brand awareness and visitors to your website, retail, and social media platforms.

Premium tools that allow fast adaptation strategies

Design and marketing trends are constantly evolving. For instance, what works now on a website may not function next year. The same applies to your logo. It may be fashionable and cool now, but it may be boring, obtuse, or out-of-date in a year.

Essentially, the market is constantly changing, and you may need a branding agency New York that is prepared to adapt and supply you with creative ideas, materials, and strategies that are appropriate for a modern and evolving company. That is where their premium tools enter. These agencies are utilizing modern technologies and substantial resources that enable them to monitor the competitive scene and keep an eye out for emerging trends.

They have all of the necessary tools and services for tracking audience engagement, managing marketing campaigns, and conducting competitive research. Additionally, they are familiar with how these technologies work and are capable of applying them in a way that provides practical insights.

The results acquired from these tools also influence the content and variety of marketing actions, including SMM and email marketing. Additionally, they assist in determining the exact attributes a targeted audience is seeking for.

Market credibility

Credibility is critical, yet it may be easily lost. However, most of the expert branding companies New York can assist you in reclaiming and maintaining it. Through successful targeted marketing, design, and development methods, leading branding agencies may quickly restore your brand’s favor with your audience.

Brand consulting NYC agencies recognize the value of transparency and infuse your brand with personality — something your business may be lacking. Since a brand identity enables consumers to connect more intimately with businesses, employing a brand professional may help you develop an authentic relationship with your customers.

Additionally, the finest branding agencies NYC understand which visuals and content are the most effective with your audience. For example, they understand that millennial audiences value social responsibility, open corporate ethics, and minimalist design. Thus, they do know how to appeal to those values.

Finally, branding companies New York inject their initiatives with the accumulated experience, creativity, and passion to boost credibility and establish your market presence.

How much do branding firms NYC charge?

According to PayScale, the typical salary for a branding professional that is stationed in New York City is around $65,000. This is very important to understand, as the salaries of the branding professionals directly present the amount of money you need to have to complete the branding project of your own. The most often used billing structures for these brand professionals are hourly and project-based. However, it doesn’t end there as there are multiple factors involved in the total charge of services that branding companies New York do provide.

The cost of a project is mostly determined by:

Type of services
Amount of work/tasks
Timeframe
Number of specialists

Adding that up, we can estimate that the typical hourly rate for a branding professional ranges between $125 and $200.

How to choose a branding agency New York?

Before you start your search for a branding agency New York, it’s very critical that you first define your business objectives. As it is pretty much impossible to proceed without any business plan nor the goals that you want to achieve. Consider what you hope to accomplish by hiring brand specialists along with your product requirements.

Matching your requirements to the skills and expertise of a brand consulting NYC agency will make your decisions more transparent while increasing the chance of a successful digital product launch. Furthermore, here are a few additional points to consider when determining which company may be the best fit for your business.

Reviews

Customer reviews are the best thing that can ever happen when an entrepreneur is picking out a branding agency New York. Just as the title says, the feedback from past clients will inform a new entrepreneur of a company’s trustworthiness and the outcomes of different clients. They speak a lot about the company’s adaptability, reputation, and honesty when it comes to project planning and pricing.

Portfolios

Another good point worth pointing out is the portfolio section. They provide insight into the brand consulting NYC agency’s previous works and their capacity to create innovative solutions and propose successful initiatives. They will assist you in determining the quality of their services while learning about their experience with various types of projects and clients.

Process

Every respectful branding agency New York has all of its procedures sharpened for any business industry client out there. Successful brandings are the product of extensive research, the implementation of personalized storylines, and the selection of the appropriate media channels. Therefore, once you’ll be searching for the right specialists according to your needs, understand that they need to have a well-defined procedure that ensures solid positioning and a positive return on investment.

If you’ve read up all of the entries in this article perhaps you may be also interested in other areas that are brimming with branding agencies. We suggest you look through the San Francisco brand agency list and Los Angeles branding agencies, as both of them, have outstanding firms worth your time. Apart from that, we also do recommend taking a sneak peek into the worldwide branding companies ranking, we prepared specifically for you.

What is branding?

Branding is the process of imbuing a product with a distinct image that can build trust in the minds of consumers. It seeks an establishment of a clear distinction between a brand and its competitors in the minds of consumers. In general, branding covers the maintenance of a similar appearance and feel across all forms and formats of one’s product marketing. Branding experts, on the other hand, are professionals who understand how to develop a consistent branding strategy for a business and its products. They are the ones who know how exactly they can assist in interacting and impacting the target audience.

Process of producing a brand identity

You may not know where to start and how to keep on track when you try to tackle your brand identity. Following a simple process can help with this. Whether you are handling the effort yourself, hiring a design firm, or are a designer handling projects for someone else, this planning and tracking will streamline your efforts and communication with all stakeholders.

Scoping and Planning

First step, rally the troops and decide what the project will entail, what it won’t include, and when things will get done. Include all stakeholders from business owners to designers to marketing. Anyone who has a role or stake in the brand identity should take part or at least be informed of the decisions made in this step. This way everyone has the same expectations and goals, and there are no surprises.

Each organization has different needs depending on their makeup and finances. And, each design or marketing team has a unique skill set, so it is important not to promise more than the team can deliver based on the available skill set. If the organization requires tasks that the design skills don’t match, additional talent may be needed. Scale the project meet the organization’s needs. They may need to start with a logo, color scheme, fonts, and basic strategy if the budget or time is short. Other businesses may be looking for full implementation of the strategy.

Discuss and agree on the following aspects, and any others that come up.

Font families and pairings — Consider typography standards for the logo and/or organization name, digital needs, and print needs.
Logo and variants — Logos are often the heart of a brand image, but they are far from the only element. Allow for alternate versions like grayscale, orientation, simple, and detailed.
Graphics, imagery, and guidelines — Decide if other visual elements like icons, photographs, and illustrations or standards for these assets are included.
Color scheme — Discuss the extent of the palette needed; often this means one or two primary colors and accent colors.
Standards and Guides — Discuss the rule sets to be provided. This can include a style guide for content, usage, voice, or any other aspect of representing the brand from the web to print.

Researching

In the first step, you define the what of the project. In the second step, start to look at the why and how you’ll deliver on it. Research has two main components, internal and external.

Gather any internal marketing, mission, vision, or other existing documentation that should be complied with, or can help inform the designs. Often organizations can provide demographic customer information but their target market should include important psychographic or geographic traits that flesh out the overall picture and needs. (If you are unfamiliar with psychographic traits check out this Shopify video.)

If the organization hasn’t put much thought into these elements of brand and marketing yet, you can brainstorm or conduct interviews to help them define these aspects. Make sure to follow up all answers by asking why.

What are their favorite brands (inside or outside the industry), their heroes or influences? Who do they hate?
Does the organization have a sense of humor, or are they more formal? What about dimensions like emotion and reverence? Check out The Four Dimensions of Tone of Voice for help with this exercise.
How do/should customers view them? Is the brand funky? Creative? Serious and trustworthy?
What drives the organization? What are their passions? What do they stand for, or against?

The external research requires some digging into the market, industry and client base, typically from a competitive perspective. Check business sources like Glassdoor, Forbes, trade magazines, and other industry sources. Find out which competitors seem to be dominating and what they are doing that is unique from less successful businesses. What common themes exist that can be busted through for differentiating, without seeming too “out there”?

It’s never too early to begin collecting thoughts and findings in a creative brief so that you have everything in one place for discussions with stakeholders. A good creative brief contains:

A summary of the market, target customers, core beliefs, and goals
A persona of the brand personality
Multiple mood boards (that will be narrowed down and refined throughout the rest of the project)

Ideating

Armed with all your research, you probably have all sorts of visions in your head. Nows the time to start sketching. Brainstorm, and get all the ideas down on paper, whiteboard, or digitally. However you and your team work best, get it all out in the open where it can grow, or die. A few of the ideas will float to the top and start to solidify into potential concepts.

Those concepts should be added to the creative brief and taken to your stakeholders again. Your concepts should still be rather general at this point. You don’t want to spend too much energy on too many options, just get them detailed enough that you can select one or two in the briefing for further development.

Developing

Refinement and detail work can now begin on the one or two really great concepts you’ve selected with your stakeholders. Your chosen concepts should stand out from the competition, have pizazz, and allow for consistency and growth. Package each option in a professional way and include logos, color palettes, imagery, and font selections.

Your final design presentation should be conducted at the end of this step. Select the best option for final development. YOu’ll either have nailed it or need minor revisions. This last iteration should be included in your timeline to allow for minor adjustments.

Delivering

Now that the design approach has been finalized, it’s time to build out all agreed-upon deliverables. Don’t forget to document everything as well, particularly for the promised standards or guidelines for usage and style. Create all production-ready graphic assets, build the website, whatever deliverables were included in the scope. It can be useful to use the original scope as a checklist to make sure nothing gets missed. After they’ve been created, deliverables should be packaged up and delivered.

Summary

The process can a lot of value, without adding a lot of overhead. Always scale steps and deliverables to cover the needs of the organization and add checkpoints or tracking tools as needed for larger or more complex efforts. You should find that the structure helps avoid rework and missed deadlines.

In conclusion

So should you consider a branding consulting NYC agency? For one they have a lot of business industries that these companies are proficient at. Plus they do have a lot of knowledge, tools, and expertise to produce a quality digital product. However, when it comes to the prices of their services, for some people it might turn out to be quite an issue. So do consider your business budget according to your priorities and discuss this topic along with your cofounder.

Apart from that, for one to dive into the branding firms NYC highly competitive climate, these agencies typically build domain knowledge in the previously mentioned industries, which they typically work with:

Large enterprises
International competitive businesses
Funded startups

Thus, if your company is a big one and you’re looking to break into extremely competitive local or international markets, branding companies New York is your best bet. To find the right partner, you should:

Read the reviews
Go through the past work
Learn about the branding process

Disclaimer

This review is an independent analysis based on objective criteria and does not endorse any specific branding agency.

While every effort is made to provide accurate and up-to-date information, the rapidly evolving nature of the branding industry in New York means that details such as services, client lists, and ratings may change.

Businesses should conduct their due diligence and consider their specific needs when selecting a branding agency.