OCD

What OCD does

Champions Design (formerly OCD — Original Champions of Design) is a New York-based branding and visual identity agency founded in 2010 by Bobby C. Martin Jr. and Jennifer Kinon. Operating from a single headquarters at 203 Avenue A in the East Village, the firm provides brand strategy (naming, messaging, positioning, organizational strategy) and full-service visual identity (custom type and lettering, iconography, signage and wayfinding, motion graphics, merchandise, guidelines, and digital/interactive design). Its work is concentrated in four primary verticals: cultural institutions and nonprofits (SPLC, NDWA, For Freedoms, Prospect Park Alliance, Memphis River Parks Partnership, Maremoto), educational institutions (Dartmouth College and its sub-entities, Rice Architecture, Moody Center, Hopkins Center for the Arts), international organizations and summits (UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2024, History.org/Colonial Williamsburg), and corporate design departments (Amazon's Conflux 2020). The firm's core technical differentiators are custom typeface development (Dartmouth Ruzicka with Jesse Ragan of XYZ Type, Maremoto Black with TipoType, Chiswick Grotesque extensions with Commercial Type, Tatsuro with Tré Seals of Vocal Type Co.), culturally grounded identity systems (Sycamore & Oak's Go-Go-inspired typography, NDWA's icon-letter patchwork, SPLC's Southern Gothic tile geometry, UN's vexillography-based alphabet), and bespoke motion/coded animation (Sage Jenson for Maremoto, Steve Haslip for the UN summit).

The firm operates as a project-based professional services consultancy, acquired primarily through competitive bidding, referrals, and portfolio-driven inbound demand rather than paid marketing. It runs a lean core team of approximately 9 supported by a curated external bench of specialist collaborators in type design, motion, and implementation. Pricing is quote-driven and not publicly disclosed; revenue is generated per engagement, with multi-year institutional relationships (NYPL across 92 locations; the Dartmouth cluster including Hopkins Center, Athletics, and Rockefeller Center) functioning as anchor accounts. Co-founder Bobby C. Martin Jr. transitioned to a full-time role on Apple's Design team while retaining passive ownership; Jennifer Kinon continues as operating co-founder. The company is privately held with no institutional funding and no subsidiaries, and has been featured in Fast Company, Print Magazine, Eye Magazine, Communication Arts, and Design Observer, with co-founders having co-chaired the AIGA 2023 Design Conference.

Name

OCD

Legal name

Champions Design

Website

https://championsdesign.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Champions Design is a New York-based branding and visual identity agency, founded in 2010, serving cultural institutions, nonprofits, universities (notably Dartmouth and Rice), and international bodies like the UN Global Compact with custom type design, identity systems, and strategy.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Brand Design Services

NAICS

Graphic Design Services (54143)

SIC

Services-Mailing, Reproduction, Commercial Art & Photography (7330)

akta.pro primary industry

Visual Identity & Brand Design Systems (BPAFAEAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Environmental & Experiential Brand Design (Retail/Exhibit/Signage) (MPAAAEAG), Digital Creative & Experience Design Agencies (Web/App/UX) (MPAAAAAD)

Keywords

• Brand strategy services
• Visual identity design
• Custom typeface design
• Signage and wayfinding
• Brand consulting services

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Brand strategy and design consulting services: Champions Design is a professional services firm providing brand strategy, visual identity design, naming, messaging, organizational strategy, and related design services to clients. Revenue is generated through project-based consulting engagements, likely on a contract or retainer basis.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Champions Design (formerly OCD - Original Champions of Design) is a branding and design agency providing brand strategy and visual identity design services. The firm develops custom type and lettering, identity systems, signage and wayfinding, motion graphics, naming, messaging, organizational strategy, and implementation guidelines for institutional clients. They serve cultural institutions, educational organizations, nonprofits, public spaces, international bodies, and corporate clients through project-based consulting engagements.

Product overview

Champions Design (formerly OCD) is a branding and design agency offering comprehensive brand strategy and visual identity services. The company provides a unified set of design services organized into brand strategy offerings (naming, messaging, positioning, organizational strategy, digital, experience design, refresh, launch, and startup services) and visual identity services (custom type and lettering, iconography, signage and wayfinding, motion, merchandise, implementation, and interactive/web design). The agency works across diverse sectors including cultural institutions, education, sports and entertainment, non-profits, public spaces, publishing, hospitality, politics, and corporate clients.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Brand Strategy
• Visual Identity Design
• Digital Design
• Brand Refresh and Rebranding

Quantifiable outcome

• Extreme Weather Survivors grew its network to 500+ members in 23 states; helped pass federal disaster relief and bipartisan climate legislation; 51 survivor stories in national media (Fox News, CNN, Good Morning America, AP, PBS, Newsweek).
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers21 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

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• TipoType (Vincente Lamónaca and Martín Sommaruga)coreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2025TipoType, the first digital type foundry in Uruguay, developed the custom Maremoto Black typeface for headlines and wordmark, and created a custom cut for Pulso del Barrio, both supporting bilingual use with full Spanish diacritics. Champions collaborated with TipoType on multiple Latino-focused brand projects.
• Abraham Lule (Brooklyn-based letterer)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Champions collaborated with Brooklyn-based letterer Abraham Lule to build out Maremoto's visual world. Lule developed the initial logo exploration, creating a tidal wave-inspired mark shaped by hand and water.
• Sage Jenson (Animator and artist)coreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2025Sage Jenson, a specialist in biocomputation, developed and coded a suite of logo expressions for the Maremoto brand, each with its own personality embodying different qualities of a tidal wave. Jenson also built a custom-coded animator for the Maremoto website's kinetic typography.
• Snøhetta (Architecture firm)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Champions worked in coordination with Snøhetta, the architecture firm that designed the new Daryl & Steven Roth Wing at the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth. The brand system's shapes were inspired by both the original architecture and Snøhetta's new addition.
• Jesse Ragan / XYZ TypecoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2024Champions has a long-standing collaboration with Jesse Ragan and XYZ Type on custom type design projects. Ragan, a renowned type designer and Ruzicka scholar, has worked with Champions on multiple major projects including the Dartmouth Ruzicka typeface family revival, Dartmouth Athletics type selection, and the Dartmouth Rockefeller Center wordmark. Jesse Ragan also collaborated on lettering for the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth, picking lettering directly from the college wordmark.
• Red Deluxe (Local design agency)minorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 1 January 2024Red Deluxe mapped the signage plan for the Memphis River Parks Partnership, and Champions rebuilt the wayfinding system based on Red Deluxe's plan.
• Tré Seals / Vocal Type Co.coreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2023Tré Seals of Vocal Type Co. designed the Sycamore & Oak custom wordmark lettering, inspired by the Go-Go poster tradition of Washington D.C. Seals also designed the brand system's headline typeface, Tatsuro.
• Commercial Type / Kara GordoncoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2021Champions worked with Kara Gordon at Commercial Type to expand the glyph set within Chiswick Grotesque for the National Domestic Workers Alliance's icon-letter patchwork system. The Commercial Type team developed programming to make glyphs easy to manage day-to-day and accessible to screen readers.
• A Hundred Monkeys (Naming)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020A Hundred Monkeys provided naming services for Champions' own rebranding from OCD to Champions Design.
• afreeman (Design studio)minorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 1 January 2018afreeman design studio partnered on sign design and fabrication for the Memphis River Parks Partnership project, working in partnership with Champions on the signage system.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• COLLINS: Brand strategy and design firm known for cultural and civic clients, with comparable expertise in identity systems and custom type. COLLINS competes for many of the same institutional RFPs Champions targets, particularly in education and nonprofit.
• Red Antler: Brand and design firm known for launching and rebranding mission-driven and consumer brands with strong identity systems. Red Antler overlaps with Champions on identity craft and cultural/institutional client work.
• Hyperakt: Boutique brand and identity agency of similar scale that serves nonprofit, education, and mission-driven clients. Hyperakt's purpose-led positioning and small team make it a strong functional peer to Champions.
• Pentagram: The largest independent brand and design firm, structured as a partnership of design principals. Pentagram is the closest direct peer to Champions: both deliver high-craft identity systems, custom type, and strategy for cultural and institutional clients across similar vertical mixes.
• Mucca: Boutique brand and identity studio with strong custom-type and lettering capability, serving cultural, publishing, and consumer clients. Mucca is comparable to Champions in scale, craft emphasis, and mix of institutional and cultural engagements.
• Manual: Brand and design studio focused on identity strategy for ambitious clients across nonprofit, civic, and consumer categories. Comparable to Champions in identity-first methodology and boutique scale.
• Sagmeister (Sagmeister Inc.): Owner-led design practice with signature custom type and identity work for cultural, nonprofit, and corporate clients. Sagmeister's emphasis on typographic craft and cultural-sector clients directly parallels Champions' positioning.

Broad incumbents

• Interbrand: Global brand consultancy covering strategy, naming, identity, and research. Interbrand is a broader incumbent that competes for major institutional identity engagements and provides a benchmark for Champions' growth ceiling.
• MetaDesign: International brand and design network with deep identity-system credentials in cultural and institutional sectors. Comparable as a broader incumbent with established identity craft, operating well beyond Champions' boutique scale.
• Landor & Fitch: Global brand consultancy and one of the largest players in brand strategy and identity. Competes with Champions for large institutional and corporate identity briefs but operates at much greater scale and with broader service offerings.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ocdagency
• Facebookfacebook.com/originalchampionsofdesign
• Instagraminstagram.com/championsdesign
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ocd-the-original-champions-of-design

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 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 OCD