Union Studio

What Union Studio does

Union Studio is a privately held design and innovation studio founded in 2001, operating from offices in Seattle, WA and Novi Sad, Serbia with a headcount in the 11–50 range. The firm is structured around three founding partners — Joe Gravante (Strategy), Justin Gravante (Creative), and Milan Bugarski (Technical) — supported by Group Directors in Technology and Program Management, with senior talent drawn from Microsoft, Comcast, R/GA, and Castlight Health. It bills itself as a multidisciplinary studio that integrates product strategy, experience design, technical development, and program management into a single team without functional silos.

The studio's offerings are organized around three core service pillars — Digital Innovation (designing and building new products from the ground up), Product Acceleration (iterating on existing products), and Future Vision (strategic foresight) — delivered through capabilities in foundational research, journey mapping, co-creation workshops, rapid prototyping, design systems, technical architecture and DevOps, web and mobile front-end development, and back-end server and API development. Underlying technology is built on modern JavaScript frameworks with an emphasis on accessibility-first front-end engineering. Named engagements include Kaiser Permanente in healthcare, a mobile-first financial services leader, and what the company describes as the largest network in the US in telecommunications.

Revenue is generated through professional services engagement with enterprise clients, priced on a quote basis by project scope rather than via disclosed rate cards or productized offerings. Customer acquisition is sales-led and relationship-driven, with case studies gated behind a request-access form and direct outreach via [email protected]. The studio serves vertical markets across healthcare, financial services, and technology/telecommunications, and operates a remote-first workplace model with benefits that include flexible PTO and fully covered health, dental, and wellness allowances. No external funding, parent company, or investor relationships are disclosed.

Name

Union Studio

Website

https://union.studio

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Union Studio is a privately held design and innovation studio with offices in Seattle and Novi Sad, Serbia, delivering product strategy, experience design, and technical development services to enterprise clients in healthcare, financial services, and telecommunications.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Design & Innovation Services

NAICS

Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services (5416)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Offshore Development Center (ODC) / Dedicated Team Services (BPAEAMAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

Content Studio & Creative Resourcing (In-house/Embedded Teams) (BPAFAIAJ)

Keywords

• Digital product design
• Experience design services
• Product innovation consulting
• Front-end development
• Design studio services

Headquarters

HQ city

Seattle

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Design and Innovation Services: Professional services revenue generated through human-centered design and technology consulting. Works with clients on digital innovation, product acceleration, and future vision projects.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Union Studio is a design and innovation studio that designs and builds digital products, services, and experiences for enterprise clients. Its core offerings consist of Digital Innovation (designing and building new products from the ground up), Product Acceleration (enhancing and iterating existing products), and Future Vision (strategic foresight on where customer needs are headed). These services are delivered through integrated capabilities in Product Strategy, Experience Design, Technical Development, and Program Management.

Product overview

Union Studio is a design and innovation studio offering a unified suite of services centered on human-centered design and technology. Their core offerings consist of Digital Innovation (building new products from the ground up), Product Acceleration (iterating existing products), and Future Vision (strategic foresight). These services are delivered through integrated capabilities in Product Strategy, Experience Design, Technical Development, and Program Management. Unlike a software product company with modular add-ons, Union Studio provides end-to-end design and development services as a single, multidisciplinary team working with clients across healthcare, financial services, and technology sectors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Digital Innovation End-to-end design and build of new digital products, services, and experiences from the ground up, for enterprise clients seeking to launch digital offerings.
• Product Acceleration Enhancement and iteration of existing digital products to meet evolving customer needs and market demands for enterprise clients.
• Future Vision Strategic foresight engagement that identifies where customer needs are headed and defines how to best meet them for enterprise clients.
• Product Strategy Strategy service covering foundational research, journey mapping, co-creation workshops, and vision prototyping to uncover insights, clarify goals, and align teams.
• Experience Design Human-centered design service covering user research, testing, rapid prototyping, and design and interaction systems for digital products.
• Technical Development Engineering service covering technical architecture, DevOps, web and mobile front-end development, and back-end server and API development.
• Program Management Program management service that leads interdisciplinary teams across design, strategy, and delivery to solve complex client problems.

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• IDEO: Global design and innovation consultancy offering strategy, design, and technology services to enterprise clients. Closest comparable to Union Studio in multidisciplinary model, though much larger and broader in scope.
• Work & Co: Boutique digital product studio building strategy, design, and engineering for major brands (Nike, Google, Apple). Highly comparable small-multidisciplinary-team model targeting enterprise product work, similar size profile to Union Studio.
• Frog (Capgemini Engineering): Design and engineering consultancy historically focused on digital product, brand, and experience design for enterprises. Direct competitor in the integrated strategy-design-tech studio category, now backed by Capgemini.
• Huge: Digital product and experience agency serving enterprise clients with integrated design and technology services. Competes for the same enterprise digital mandate category as Union Studio.
• Pentagram: Independent design consultancy combining brand, digital, and product design across multiple partners. Comparable in being a partner-led boutique but skewed toward brand rather than engineering delivery.
• R/GA: Global design and innovation agency combining brand, product, and technology. Direct competitor — Union Studio co-founder Justin Gravante worked at R/GA — and shares the integrated creativity-plus-technology value proposition.

Broad incumbents

• McKinsey Design (McKinsey & Company): Strategy-led design practice within McKinsey offering end-to-end digital product transformation for the C-suite. Competes for high-end enterprise mandates, especially in healthcare and financial services.
• Method (GlobalLogic): Digital experience and product innovation agency acquired by GlobalLogic. Comparable in integrated design and engineering for enterprise clients, now operating with significantly larger resources.
• AKQA (Accenture Song): Global design and innovation agency now part of Accenture Song, offering strategy, creative, and technology at enterprise scale. Competes for the same enterprise digital mandates but with broader geographic and capability footprint.

Emerging players

• Ueno: Independent digital product studio with a focus on design and front-end engineering for consumer and enterprise clients. Comparable in scale and integrated team model, though with stronger brand-side portfolio.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses1 record

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/unionstudioarch

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Union Studio