Eighteen brand guides to architects and industrial designers — practices whose buildings and products are their best-known identity.
For architects and industrial designers the work is the advertisement: a building or a product carries the practice’s name further than any logo. These guides look at how practices name and present themselves, and at the dated changes in their ownership and leadership.
How to use these guides
Each guide covers how the organisation presents itself — its name, mark, palette and type — alongside dated facts about who founded it, who owns it and how it has changed, drawn from independent sources. A company’s description of itself is attributed to the company, and where a business has closed or merged we say so plainly. The table at the end gathers the essentials.
Architecture practices
Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG, Herzog & de Meuron, Snøhetta, Gensler, SOM and Heatherwick Studio.
- Foster + Partners — Foster Associates, set up by Norman and Wendy Foster in London in 1967, the 1992, 1999 and 2006 name changes recorded at Companies House, the Battersea studio by the Thames, and the 2021 HennickCo stake.
- Zaha Hadid Architects — The London practice Zaha Hadid had established by 1979, Patrik Schumacher’s leadership after her death on 31 March 2016, employee ownership from December 2021 and the June 2026 change of name to ZHA.
- BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group — The practice Bjarke Ingels set up in Copenhagen after PLOT, the acronym BIG, offices in Copenhagen and New York, dated buildings from 8 House (2010) to CopenHill (2019), and a Nordhavn headquarters completed in 2024.
- Herzog & de Meuron — The Basel practice Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron set up in 1978, an ampersand name kept as partners joined, and dated buildings from Tate Modern (2000) and the Beijing National Stadium (2008) to the Elbphilharmonie (2017).
- Snøhetta — A practice named after a mountain in Norway’s Dovre region, the Oslo collective of 1987, Kjetil Trædal Thorsen and Craig Dykers, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina competition, the Oslo Opera House of 2008 and the pixelated Norwegian banknotes chosen in 2014.
- Gensler — The San Francisco practice Art Gensler founded in 1965 with Drue Gensler and James Follett, a firm name taken from the founder’s surname, offices from Houston in 1972 to Shanghai in 2002, and the leadership handovers of 2005 and 2024.
- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill — Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings’s 1936 Chicago partnership, engineer John O. Merrill’s arrival in 1939, the shortening to SOM, and buildings from Lever House (1952) to Sears Tower (1973) and Burj Khalifa (2010).
- Heatherwick Studio — Thomas Heatherwick’s London studio of 1994, its King’s Cross workshop, and dated works from the UK Pavilion in Shanghai (2010) and the London 2012 cauldron to the New Routemaster bus, Coal Drops Yard and Vessel.
Industrial design consultancies
frog, IDEO, Teague, Smart Design, MAP Project Office, Industrial Facility, Layer, PriestmanGoode, Seymourpowell and fuseproject.
- frog — Hartmut Esslinger’s esslinger design of 1969 in the Black Forest, the 1982 change to frogdesign and a Palo Alto office, the Snow White language for Apple, the sale of a majority stake to Aricent, and the 2021 move into Capgemini Invent.
- IDEO — The 1991 merger of David Kelley Design, Bill Moggridge’s ID Two and Mike Nuttall’s Matrix Product Design in Palo Alto, a name taken from the combining form of “idea”, a Steelcase investment in 1996 and a kyu stake in 2016.
- Teague — Walter Dorwin Teague’s New York office of 1926, Kodak camera work from 1927, the partnership of 1945, a Seattle branch for Boeing from 1946 and the shorter name Teague.
- Smart Design — Founded in 1980 by Davin Stowell, Tom Dair, Tucker Viemeister and Tamara Thomsen, its CorningWare roots, OXO Good Grips from 1989–90, and studios in San Francisco, Barcelona and London.
- MAP Project Office — The industrial design consultancy Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby spun out of their London studio in 2012, its move into AKQA and WPP in 2018, and The New Standard collective formed with Universal Design Studio and Made Thought in December 2021.
- Industrial Facility — The London studio Sam Hecht and Kim Colin founded in 2002, its advisory work for Muji and Herman Miller, the 2010 Branca chair for Mattiazzi, the 2016 offshoot Future Facility and the 2018 Phaidon monograph.
- Layer — Benjamin Hubert’s London studio, relaunched under the name Layer in September 2015, with the Go wheelchair of 2016, Bang & Olufsen speakers of 2020 and 2021, a Hackney studio and the 101010 exhibition in Milan in 2025.
- PriestmanGoode — Founded in London in 1989 by Paul Priestman and Nigel Goode, the New Tube for London of 2014, the Get Onboard exhibition of 2019, Air 4 All in 2021, employee ownership from 2016 and a change of chair in 2022.
- Seymourpowell — Founded by Richard Seymour and Dick Powell in 1984, a Fulham chapel studio, client work for Tefal, Casio and Yamaha, the 2007 Loewy deal and Writtle Holdings’ 2011 purchase of the Loewy Group.
- fuseproject — Founded by Yves Béhar in 1999, client work for Jawbone, One Laptop per Child, Herman Miller and Happiest Baby, the 2014 and 2017 BlueFocus deals and Béhar’s 2023 buyback.
At a glance: founding, what each is known for and the latest change
Taken from each guide’s fact panel, as of October 2026. Follow the link for sources and detail.
| Brand | Founded | Known for | Latest |
|---|---|---|---|
| BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group | By Bjarke Ingels, Copenhagen (2005–06) | An acronym of Bjarke Ingels Group | Copenhagen and New York, among other offices |
| Foster + Partners | As Foster Associates, London (1967) | Founders: Norman and Wendy Foster | Studio in Battersea, London |
| frog | esslinger design, Black Forest, by Hartmut Esslinger (1969) | The Snow White language for Apple, seen on the Apple IIc | frogdesign, with an office in Palo Alto |
| fuseproject | San Francisco, by Yves Béhar (1999) | BlueFocus stake: Majority stake; full ownership in 2017 | Offices: San Francisco and New York |
| Gensler | San Francisco, by Art Gensler, Drue Gensler and James Follett (1965) | A practice named after its founder | Gensler, headquartered in San Francisco |
| Heatherwick Studio | London, by Thomas Heatherwick (1994) | Buildings, objects, a bus and a cauldron | Heatherwick Studio, London |
| Herzog & de Meuron | By Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron (1978) | The two founders’ surnames | Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. |
| IDEO | IDEO Product Development, Palo Alto, by merger (1991) | Founders: David Kelley, Bill Moggridge, Mike Nuttall | kyu: Hakuhodo DY unit takes an equity stake |
| Industrial Facility | London, by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin (2002) | Exhibition: Some Recent Projects, Design Museum, London | Monograph: Industrial Facility, Phaidon |
| Layer | Relaunched: Benjamin Hubert’s London studio, renamed Layer (2015) | The Go wheelchair and Bang & Olufsen speakers | Known for: The Go wheelchair and Bang & Olufsen speakers |
| MAP Project Office | London, by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, as a spin-off of their studio (2012) | Joined: AKQA and WPP, with Universal Design Studio | Industrial design consultancy within The New Standard, part of AKQA |
| PriestmanGoode | London, by Paul Priestman and Nigel Goode (1989) | The New Tube for London and aircraft cabin work | Known for: The New Tube for London and aircraft cabin work |
| Seymourpowell | London, by Richard Seymour and Dick Powell (1984) | Product, transport and packaging design for consumer brands | Known for: Product, transport and packaging design for consumer brands |
| Skidmore, Owings & Merrill | Chicago, by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings (1936) | Joined: Engineer John O. Merrill | Chicago-headquartered architecture and engineering practice |
| Smart Design | New York, by Davin Stowell, Tom Dair, Tucker Viemeister and Tamara Thomsen (1980) | OXO: Good Grips kitchen tools designed 1989, launched | Smart Design, New York |
| Snøhetta | By Kjetil Trædal Thorsen and Craig Dykers (1989) | A name borrowed from a mountain | Snøhetta, studios from Oslo to Melbourne |
| Teague | Walter Dorwin Teague’s design office, New York (1926) | Partnership: Sole proprietorship becomes a partnership | Teague, headquartered in Seattle |
| Zaha Hadid Architects | By Zaha Hadid, London (1979) | Led by: Patrik Schumacher | Employee-owned, London |
See also all collections.