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15 Studios Creatives Are Excited About Right Now Beyond The Obvious
The article highlights 15 creative studios that are currently inspiring the design community, showcasing their unique approaches to branding and design. For brands, this underscores the importance of standing out through innovative practices and a strong visual identity, as well as the value of being recognized by peers in the creative industry.
Creative Boom: Inspiration Creative Industry 15 studios creatives are excited about right now (beyond the obvious) Not our picks, yours. These are the studios that have earned the most admiration from the creative community in 2026. Written By: Tom May 5 May 2026 Verònica Fuerte, founder of Hey Studio Every year, Creative Boom's State of Creativity survey asks thousands of working creatives about the studios and practices that inspire them most. With more than 1,000 responses, we thought we'd share the names that are resonating most with the community right now.
What follows is not a list of Creative Boom's personal favourites: we want to be clear about that. These are simply the studios that have come up again and again, unprompted, when respondents were asked which creative practices they most admire. It's worth noting that the perennial heavyweights received nominations too: Pentagram, Wolff Olins, Landor and Moving Brands all featured. But the 15 names you'll find below are ones that don't always generate quite so many column inches—hence we thought it was high time to right the balance. 1.
OK-RM Founded in London in 2008 by Oliver Knight and Rory McGrath, OK-RM operates at the intersection of design, publishing and cultural production. Books, identities, exhibitions, films, installations... for this studio, the discipline is a verb, not a noun. Commissions span fashion (1017-ALYX-9SM, JW Anderson, Kenzo, Vivienne Westwood), art (The Guggenheim, The Met, Lisson Gallery, South London Gallery, The Hepworth Wakefield, The Tate) and independent publishing, the latter through their own imprint InOtherWords. In 2024, a retrospective of their work titled "A Meaningful Order" was exhibited at X-Sign Space in Hangzhou, China.
In 2016, they designed the British Pavilion for the Venice Architecture Biennale, and in 2018, they were awarded the Grand Prix at the Brno Biennial. Credit: Lewis Ronald Ex-Nihilo. Design and Art Direction by OK-RM. Published by InOtherWords. Goldwin 0, Enquiry #3. Design and Art Direction by OK-RM. Newrope, ETH Zurich. Design and Art Direction by OK-RM. 2. Zak Group Zak Group is a London design office founded in 2005 by Zak Kyes, former art director of the Architectural Association.
Over two decades, it has built a quiet but formidable reputation across creative direction, brand strategy and spatial design – work that's as comfortable in a gallery as it is in a boardroom, with clients spanning fashion, art and architecture. Recent commissions include identities for Comme des Garçons, Rabanne, 818 and Sprinter; creative direction for Nike and the Woolmark Prize; and spatial environments for Dover Street Market and the Walker Art Center. The studio also builds worlds for artists and talent, including Max Richter, Virgil Abloh, Frank Ocean and Anne Imhof.
In 2026, Kyes delivered 'Identity Crisis', a touring lecture drawing on two decades of the studio's work. Playscape, International Woolmark Prize, 2022. Creative direction by Zak Group; directed by FKA twigs Miley Cyrus, Something Beautiful, 2025. Design by Zak Group 818 Tequila. Design and art direction by Zak Group; photograph by Thibaut Grevet Max Richter 01 by Comme des Garçons Parfums. Design and art direction by Zak Group 3.
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The article showcases emerging studios that could influence brand strategies, making it relevant and moderately impactful, but the concept of highlighting creative studios is not particularly novel.