Best for: Consumer-facing brands — particularly food & beverage, fintech, hospitality, retail, and lifestyle — that need identity, packaging, interiors, and digital to feel like one cohesive world. Also a strong fit for founders and regional businesses wanting international-caliber craft without a global-agency price tag.
Anagrama is one of those rare studios that built a global reputation without ever chasing it. Founded in a spare bedroom in Monterrey, they put their money into portfolio photography instead of office overhead — and the internet noticed. The result is a body of work that’s unusually consistent across dozens of categories, anchored by a Swiss-minded rigour that has nothing to do with where they’re from. The tradeoff is scale: this is boutique-volume work, not an enterprise retainer shop.
Reviewed by Chelsea Greene
The Full Read
Anagrama was founded in 2009 by three people who couldn’t have been more different on paper: Sebastian Padilla, a self-described design perfectionist. Gustavo Muñoz, an engineer who’d optimized supply chains for PepsiCo Latin America, and Mike Herrera, an art director with a background in comics and high craft. They set up in a spare bedroom in Muñoz’s house in Monterrey and broke into the international press with their very first public project — the branding for Theurel & Thomas, a French patisserie. It went viral in the design community before viral was a reliable strategy.
What followed was systematic. Rather than spending on office space, they invested in portfolio production — photographers, location scouts, prop stylists — and posted obsessively on Behance and their own site. It worked: Anagrama became one of the most-followed studios on Behance globally, and the volume of inquiries eventually required two full-time staff members just to handle incoming emails.
The work itself has a recognizable DNA: Swiss grid discipline, exacting typography, and a clean, almost cold precision that deliberately avoids regional clichés. They’ve applied it across branding, packaging, editorial, interiors, software, and architecture — a genuinely multidisciplinary practice that runs three parallel branches under one roof.
The caveat is scope. Anagrama is built for focused brand identity and packaging engagements, not for enterprise software design or complex digital products. Their price point reflects that accessibility, which makes them the right call for founders, regional businesses, and consumer brands who want world-class output without being priced out of the room.
What Anagrama Does
Three practice areas, often combined within a single engagement.
Branding
The studio’s primary and deepest practice. End-to-end identity work from strategy through production.
Naming Systems · Brand Strategy · Verbal Identity · Visual Identity & Logotype · Brand Applications · Packaging · Signage · Sales Peripherals · Printed & Digital Material
Interactive
Digital work connected to brand engagements — rarely a standalone hire.
Web Design · UI/UX · Usability Analysis · App Development · Front-End & Back-End Development
Architecture & Interiors
Physical brand expression: commercial spaces and interior design, led by partner Roberto Treviño.
Interior Design · Commercial Architecture · Spatial Branding
Editorial & Illustration
Usually folded into larger branding projects.
Books & Magazine Design · Typography Design · Poster Design · Infographics · Decorative Illustration · Icon Design · Pattern Design
Selected Work
A snapshot of recent named projects. Full case studies on the agency’s site.
Theurel & Thomas
Branding · Packaging
Full brand identity and packaging for Mexico’s first French-style patisserie — the project that put Anagrama on the international design map.
Comun
Branding · Interactive
Identity and digital work for a contemporary brand project.
Racelab
Branding · Interactive
Brand identity and interactive for a motorsport-adjacent venture.
Newtype Ventures
Branding · Interactive
Identity system for a ventures platform.
San Marino
Branding · Interactive
Full branding and interactive design.
Tlecan
Architecture
Spatial branding and architectural project.
Casa 1910
Branding
Identity for a heritage-positioned consumer brand.
Alongside
Branding
Clean identity work in the studio’s signature Swiss-influenced style.
Hire Anagrama If You Need…
- World-class brand identity and packaging for a consumer-facing product — food, beverage, hospitality, retail, or lifestyle
- A studio that can cover brand, physical space, and digital under one roof without you managing three vendors
- Swiss-rigor aesthetics with a Latin American sensibility — precise, clean, and free of regional clichés
- An internationally recognized design reputation at a fraction of the cost of comparably decorated Western studios
- Strong portfolio production and visual documentation of your brand for use beyond the project itself
Skip Anagrama If…
- You need a studio fluent in complex SaaS or enterprise product design — this is not their territory
- You’re expecting deep Clutch or DesignRush review coverage as part of your vetting process
- You’re operating on a large-scale retainer model requiring embedded, ongoing teams
- Your project is primarily digital-first and has no meaningful physical or identity component
Independent Verification
Press & Features
Communication Arts · AIGA Eye on Design · Creative Bloq · Designboom · Creative Chair
Behance
One of the most followed branding studios on the platform globally — 85,000+ appreciations and 65,000+ followers at the time of their Communication Arts feature, which is significantly higher today.
Note: Anagrama’s reputation is disproportionately built through design press and portfolio platforms rather than B2B review sites, which is consistent with a studio whose clients are largely consumer-brand founders rather than procurement-led enterprise buyers.
If Anagrama Isn’t the Right Fit
Clay Global
Premium brand identity and digital product design for tech, fintech, and SaaS. Higher budget floor, stronger for complex digital products.
Mission Control
AI-supported branding for early-stage fintech and B2B tech. Lower budget bracket, faster delivery.
Red Antler
Startup launch specialist — strong for venture-backed consumer brands needing brand, product, and go-to-market in one place.
Frequently Asked Questions
Listed at $5,000+ on Clutch, which places it in a more accessible bracket than most studios with comparable design pedigree. In practice, packaging or full identity engagements will land higher.
Founded in Monterrey, Mexico, with a second office in Mexico City, a virtual US presence, and a Tokyo sales representative. They work with clients globally and have emphasized remote working as a core operational capability.
Food & beverage, hospitality, retail, and lifestyle brands first — with a long tail spanning consumer products, architecture/interiors, and light digital. Their aesthetic is category-agnostic, but the portfolio skews heavily toward physical product and commercial space.
Their Clutch profile is unclaimed. This is unusual for an agency of their caliber but consistent with a studio whose reputation was built in the design press and on portfolio platforms before B2B review sites became standard practice. It’s not a red flag — it’s a generational artifact.
Sebastian Padilla (Creative Director), Gustavo Muñoz (Managing Partner), and Mike Herrera (Art Director), with Roberto Treviño later joining to lead architecture and interiors. They set up shop in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2009.
Ready to see if Anagrama fits your project?
Visit the agency’s site to view their full portfolio, or compare them against the rest of our top picks.