What Zeichen & Wunder does

Zeichen & Wunder GmbH is a Munich-based brand consulting agency founded in 1995 by Irmgard Hesse and Marcus von Hausen. The firm employs approximately 50 professionals organized around three core service pillars — Brand Strategy, Brand Design, and Brand Experience — and operates two additional specialist offerings: Brand AI® (AI-tool curation combined with strategic consulting for brand governance) and Brand Sustainability (sustainability communication advisory). Its underlying technology stack is standard creative tooling (e.g., Adobe Creative Cloud) augmented by curated third-party AI tools rather than proprietary models, with the firm's principal "product" being the human capital of strategists, creative directors, and designers.

The agency serves large enterprises and institutional clients, including SAP, BMW Group, BayWa, Stadtsparkasse München, München Klinik, Bayerische Hausbau, Deuter, Sport Schuster, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the European Patent Office, and the City of Munich, across verticals spanning technology, automotive, agriculture/energy, banking, healthcare, retail, real estate, publishing, education, and the public sector. The business model is professional services: project-based and retainer engagements priced on scope, duration, and team composition, acquired through direct enterprise sales, referrals, and industry reputation. Zeichen & Wunder is privately held by its founders, has no external institutional investment, and is consistently ranked in the Page Top 15–20 of German corporate design/corporate identity agencies, with a substantial award portfolio spanning Red Dot (including 2025 Best of the Best), iF, ADC, DDC, Corporate Design Preis, Clio, and the 2023 German Sustainability Award. The firm is headquartered in Munich, serves primarily the DACH market with selected cross-border deliveries, and is climate-neutral certified (Climate Partner, since April 2022).

Name

Zeichen & Wunder

Legal name

Zeichen & Wunder GmbH

Website

https://zeichenundwunder.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1995

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Zeichen & Wunder is a Munich-based, founder-owned brand consulting agency (founded 1995, ~50 staff) serving enterprise and institutional clients in the DACH region with brand strategy, design, experience, AI-curation, and sustainability communication services, ranked among Germany's top 15 CD/CI agencies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Brand Consulting Services

NAICS

Advertising Agencies (541810), Graphic Design Services (54143), Graphic Design Services (541430)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311), Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Sales Promotion Campaign Design & Management (BPAFAMAC)

Keywords

• Brand consulting services
• Corporate identity design
• Brand strategy consulting
• Brand experience design
• Sustainable brand communication

Headquarters

HQ city

München

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Brand consulting and design services: Zeichen & Wunder generates revenue through project-based professional service engagements. As a brand consultancy, the firm bills for strategy consulting, brand design, brand experience design, and related creative services on a project and retainer basis with enterprise clients.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Zeichen & Wunder is a brand consulting agency that delivers strategy, design, and experience services for enterprise brands. Its core offerings include brand strategy consulting, corporate identity and brand design, brand experience design (trade fairs, exhibitions, brand spaces), an AI-augmented brand management offering called Brand AI, and a brand sustainability communication practice. Engagements are sold as bespoke projects and retainers to enterprise, public-sector, and consumer-brand clients.

Product overview

Zeichen & Wunder is a leading German brand consulting agency offering a comprehensive portfolio of services organized around three core pillars: Brand Strategy, Brand Design, and Brand Experience. The agency provides end-to-end brand development services including Brand Architecture, Corporate Design, Logo Design, Brand Communication, Employer Branding, Digital Strategy, UX/UI Design, Motion Design, Packaging Design, Exhibition Design, Trade Fair Design, and Editorial Design. Specialized offerings include Brand AI® (AI consulting for brand management) and Brand Sustainability consulting. The agency operates across diverse industry sectors including energy, healthcare, retail, real estate, culture/tourism, food/beverage, technology, and education.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Brand Strategy Strategic consulting service that clarifies brand identity, positioning, values, and vision. Develops strategic foundations for business decisions, defines brand messaging, and creates compelling stories for employees and target audiences. Sold as bespoke consulting engagements for enterprise and public-sector clients.
• Brand Design Visual brand identity design service that gives brands a distinctive visual expression through corporate design, logo design, packaging, motion, UX/UI, and editorial systems. Sold as a standalone design engagement or as part of broader strategy programs.
• Brand Experience Experience design service that creates memorable brand experiences by connecting brand, space, and communication. Develops exhibition, trade fair, brand space, and event installations that dissolve boundaries between analog and digital worlds. Sold as dedicated experience design engagements.
• Brand AI AI consulting service that curates different AI technologies and tools for brand leadership, combining them with personal strategic consulting to optimize processes, efficiently utilize synergies, and implement binding brand standards. Sold as a standalone consulting offering.
• Brand Sustainability Sustainability consulting service that helps brands communicate their sustainability efforts across all dimensions, supporting companies in showing their stance and bringing communication to the level of impact. Includes sustainability report design and brand-level ESG narrative work. Sold as a dedicated sustainability communication engagement.

Quantifiable outcome

• SAP CEBIT 2018: Advertising equivalent of €12.5 million; ferris wheel attracted 400+ visitors per hour; 3 minutes of product communication per ride
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers25 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• moodleyminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 June 2024Zeichen & Wunder and moodley announced a joint partnership in June 2024, combining the two agencies' capabilities for broader client service. moodley is an independent design and brand agency.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Interbrand: Omnicom-owned global brand consultancy with strong presence in brand strategy, naming, and corporate identity. Competes with Zeichen & Wunder for enterprise brand work but operates at a much larger global scale.
• Landor & Fitch: Global brand consultancy network (WPP-owned) offering strategy, design, and brand experience at multinational scale. Overlaps with Zeichen & Wunder on corporate identity and brand strategy but serves larger global accounts with network delivery capability.
• Jung von Matt: Major independent German creative agency group with deep brand strategy and design capabilities. Competes for enterprise branding engagements and offers much broader integrated campaign capabilities than Zeichen & Wunder.
• Serviceplan Group: Germany's largest independent agency group, offering brand strategy, design, and integrated communications. Overlaps with Zeichen & Wunder's brand strategy and design practice but operates at significantly larger scale and with broader marketing capabilities.
• FutureBrand: IPG-owned global brand consultancy offering strategy and design services to multinational clients. Directly comparable service offering (strategy + corporate design) but with global network reach.

Direct peers

• KMS Team: Munich-based brand consultancy with a similarly sized senior team. Direct German-market peer competing for the same enterprise brand strategy and corporate design engagements as Zeichen & Wunder.
• Scholz & Volkmer: Independent German brand and design agency with comparable focus on corporate identity and brand strategy. Competes head-to-head for German enterprise CD/CI mandates.
• MetaDesign: Berlin- and globally-operating brand consultancy, originally founded in Germany. Directly competes with Zeichen & Wunder in the German enterprise brand strategy and corporate identity market, serving similar corporate clients with a comparable strategy+design+experience offering.

Emerging players

• denkwerk: Cologne-based digital agency with growing brand and UX design practice. Partial overlap with Zeichen & Wunder's digital brand work, particularly around digital brand portals and UX/UI, but lighter on corporate identity strategy.
• Strichpunkt Design: Stuttgart-based brand and corporate design agency with comparable focus on CD/CI work for German enterprises. Smaller in scale than Zeichen & Wunder but operates in the same niche and competes for similar clients.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookde-de.facebook.com/zeichenundwunder.de
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/zeichen-&-wunder-gmbh-agentur-f%C3%BCr-markenberatung-und-design
• Instagraminstagram.com/zeichenundwunder.de/?hl=de

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 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 Zeichen & Wunder