Design startup ecosystem
We track 23 organisations in this sector across 6+ countries.
Showing 1–20 of 23 Design
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Design results
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CGTrader
CGTrader is a Vilnius-founded online marketplace for 3D models, connecting a global community of 3D designers with buyers who need stock or custom models for gaming, architecture, product visualization, AR/VR, and e-commerce. The platform hosts millions of 3D assets and also operates an enterprise arm that provides managed 3D modeling services for large retailers and brands building digital product catalogs. Founded in 2011 by Marius Kalytis, CGTrader has raised venture funding and grown into one of the leading 3D content marketplaces globally, with strong traction in the US market.
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Creative Fabrica
Creative Fabrica is an Amsterdam-based marketplace for digital design assets founded in 2016, offering fonts, graphics, craft designs, and premium content for designers and crafters worldwide. The platform hosts over 20 million listed products from more than 20,000 active designers, and attracts over 40 million monthly page views. The company has expanded into AI-powered creative tools through its Studio AI suite. Peak Capital led the company's Series A in 2021.
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Dennis Lenard
Chief executive of Creative Navy, a UX design agency, and a confirmed speaker at SmashingConf Antwerp 2026. He focuses on evidence-based user experience design, usability and the design of complex interfaces for digital products.
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Emily Anderson
Design practitioner at Ampersand and a confirmed speaker at SmashingConf Antwerp 2026, where she shares hands-on techniques and workflows for designers and design engineers working on product design and user interfaces.
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Forward Creatives Network
Creative network and event company behind the Forward Festival series, a touring two-day conference for design, branding, motion design and creative leadership that has run since 2015 across cities including Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Zurich and Hamburg, drawing thousands of designers and agencies.
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Forward Festival Berlin 2026 (August 2026)
Forward Festival is a two-day creative conference bringing thought leaders across design, motion design, typography, branding and art onto multiple stages with talks, workshops and networking. It draws over a thousand creatives and industry professionals from across Europe. For founders it is a strong venue for brand and design inspiration, creative talent sourcing, and connecting with agencies and studios.
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Helsinki Design Week 2026
The Nordics' largest design festival, running for 10+ days across Helsinki with 200,000+ visitors, 250+ events, and a dedicated design-business program for creative startups, service designers, and UX studios. Features exhibitions, pop-ups, talks, and the Design Forum pitching event. Most events free. Useful for creative-tech, UX tooling, and design-software founders looking to connect with Nordic design buyers.
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Javier Cuello
Product designer and author working with Fuller, and a confirmed speaker at SmashingConf Antwerp 2026. He specialises in mobile app design, design systems and product design, sharing practical methods for designers and design engineers.
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Luovi Productions
Founded in Helsinki in 1995 by Kari Korkman, Luovi Productions is a cultural event production company specializing in curation, production, and communication for the design field. The company organizes Helsinki Design Week, the largest design and architecture festival in the Nordic region, held annually in late August and early September. Luovi Productions also produces the Fiskars Village Art and Design Biennale and PechaKucha events in Finland, and publishes Helsinki Design Weekly, a media outlet covering Finnish design culture.
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Marie van Driessche
Designer at UWV and a confirmed speaker at SmashingConf Antwerp 2026, presenting hands-on approaches to design systems, accessibility and user experience for large-scale digital services.
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Oskar Zięta
Architect and designer who developed FiDU technology at ETH Zurich — a process of inflating flat laser-cut steel into three-dimensional forms. He leads Zieta Studio in Wrocław across industrial design, art and architecture; his PLOPP stool is a widely recognised example of the technique.
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Photoroom
Photoroom is a Paris-based AI company founded in 2019 that builds photo-editing tools which automatically remove and replace image backgrounds and generate product visuals, aimed primarily at e-commerce sellers and marketers. Its app has been downloaded tens of millions of times and it trains its own generative image models. It raised a 43 million dollar Series B round in 2024 led by Balderton Capital and Aglae Ventures.
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Productized Conference 2026
A two-day product conference — a workshops day plus a talks day — at the Museum of the Orient on Lisbon's riverfront, for product managers, designers, founders, and leaders. Practical, craft-focused content on building better products, teams, and strategy, strong for early-stage founders refining product discovery and delivery.
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Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026
The world's premier furniture and design fair, Salone del Mobile draws 300,000+ visitors to Milan over six days. SaloneSatellite gives designers and startups under 35 a dedicated exhibition space. Tickets EUR 40-60. Ideal for founders in smart home hardware, sustainable materials, and design-led consumer products seeking global retail partners.
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Salone del Mobile.Milano 2027
Salone del Mobile.Milano returns to Fiera Milano Rho for its 65th edition, 13-18 April 2027. The 2026 edition closed with 316,342 attendees from 167 countries, confirming it as the global reference point for the design industry. The 2027 programme includes Salone Contract, Euroluce and a Masterplan by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten (OMA).
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Second Home Lisbon
Second Home Lisbon is a design-forward coworking and community space located in the Time Out Market building at the Mercado da Ribeira in Lisbon's waterfront Cais do Sodre neighborhood. Part of the London-founded Second Home network, the Lisbon location opened in 2016 and provides workspace and community programming for startups, creatives, and remote tech workers in a distinctive plant-filled, architecturally acclaimed environment. Beyond desks, Second Home Lisbon hosts cultural events, startup workshops, speaker series, and cross-disciplinary programs bringing together founders from technology, design, and the arts. The space has become a gathering point for Lisbon's international startup community, particularly attracting founders from the UK, US, and Northern Europe who have relocated to Lisbon for its quality of life, timezone advantages, and growing tech ecosystem.
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Smashing Media
The team behind Smashing Magazine and the SmashingConf conference series for designers and front-end engineers. SmashingConf events cover design systems, AI prototyping, product design and complex user interfaces through hands-on workshops and conference sessions across European cities including Antwerp.
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SmashingConf Antwerp 2026 (October 2026)
A long-running design and front-end engineering conference at the Bourla theatre in Antwerp for designers and UI engineers. It covers design systems, AI prototyping, product design and complex user interfaces across hands-on workshops plus conference sessions, drawing around 500 to 600 attendees and roughly a dozen speakers.
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Stefan Sagmeister
Austrian-born, New York-based graphic designer and typographer, co-founder of the studio Sagmeister & Walsh, known for album covers, identity work and data-driven art projects on happiness and beauty. A headline speaker at the 2026 Forward Festival Berlin.
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Vitaly Friedman
Co-founder and creative lead of Smashing Magazine, the long-running publication and conference brand for web designers and front-end developers. He curates and hosts the SmashingConf series, including the Antwerp edition, focusing on UX, design systems and complex interface design.
