Design will kill marketing, says Ikea’s former design chief
Marcus Engman is leaving Ikea to run a consultancy that convinces companies to spend their marketing budget on what matters: design.


Logo by Nicholas Slater
Fast Company’s Innovation By Design Awards celebrate trailblazing design in business. This year, our expert judges selected standouts from more than 2,800 submissions across 16 categories. That includes our first-ever Design Company of the Year Award, recognizing high-quality, ambitious design work throughout an organization. All the honorees share one thing: a commitment to solving problems, no matter how big or small, as simply and as beautifully as possible. See the 17 winners below, which represent the best of the best, and click the categories to see all 397 honorees. We hope you find them as inspiring as we do.
See CreditsRan Zhao (Designer); Samantha Neufeld (User Researcher); Jeanne Parson (Audio designer); Rob Frye (Interaction Designer); Anirudh Koul (Founder and Researcher); Saqib Shaikh (Tech Lead); Eugene Seleznev (Software Engineer); Meher Kasam (Software Engineer); Harrison Wray (Software Engineer)
See CreditsGihan Amarasiriwardena, Co-founder and President, Ministry of Supply; Aman Advani, Co-founder and CEO, Ministry of Supply; Luke Mooney and Jean-Francois Duval, Co-founders Dephy (Boston-based human robotics company)
See CreditsCharle Broskoski - Co-founder and CEO; Chris Barley - Co-founder and Marketing Lead; Daniel Pianetti - Co-founder and Product; Lead Chris Sherron - Co-founder and Design Lead; Damon Zucconi - Co-founder and CTO; Meg Miller - Editor; Leo Shaw - Communications
See CreditsSidney Lim, Senior Designer Chris Moody, Chief Design Officer Brian Boylan, Mentor Neil Cummings, Creative Director Calle Enstrom, Senior Designer Pierre Antoine Arlot, Programme Director Colophon Foundry, Typography Richard Coldicott, Animator Agence Zélé, Signage Design Agence Dream On, Implementation Agency Cassie Simpson, Account Manager
See CreditsBethany Edwards, Co-Founder and CEO; Anna Couturier Simpson, Co-Founder and CPO; Sarah Rottenberg, Co-Founder
See CreditsTHE TEAM: Dan Gallagher AIA and Nader Tehrani, NADAAA Susan Gottesfeld, Executive Vice President, The Osborne Association Karen Kubey, Urbanist Susan Opotow, Professor in the Sociology Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and in the PhD program in Critical Social/ Personality Psychology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York Jayne Mooney, Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and in the PhD programs in Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Women’s Studies at The Graduate Center, City University of New York The team was greatly assisted through the work of: Ergys Hoxha. Alex Diaz and Nicole Sakr, NADAAA Friedericke Windel, The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Waheeda Sohan and Darrin Brown, Osborne Association Lisa Tsang, Maryaca Lopez, Jeff Hyman, and Brett Firfer, Ricci Greene Associates IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: Van Alen Institute The Independent Commission for New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform
See CreditsVictoria and Albert Museum, client; AL_A, architect; ARUP, engineers; Giles Quarme & Associates, Historic building advisor; Wates, Main contractor.
See CreditsNour Malaeb, Chancey Fleet (thesis advisor)
See CreditsDavin Stowell - Design Director, Tucker Viemeister - Designer, Michael Callahan - Designer
See CreditsDavid Oakey - Designer exclusive to Interface; Janine Benyus - Biomimicry Institute
See CreditsJohn Buckley, Frank Long, Henry Poskitt, Michelle Murphy, Aiden Kenny, Manasi Shetye, Frank Gaine, Andrew Newman, Mark McNally, Michelle Mulvey, Eoghan Dalton, Cormac Reidy, Andrea Beaumont, Jorge Caballero, Mariana Spangnvolo, David Galligan, Caroline Anderson
See CreditsJon Jackson - Partner, Design; Tiago Luchini - Partner, Technology; Dever Thomas - Design Director; Laura Pence Ambrose - Group Design Director; Michael Evans - Director of Product Management; Fernando Andrade - Technology Director; Virginie Delannoy - Associate Design Director; Andrew McBride, JP Lages - Design Lead; Juliana Gaiba, Brian Nguyen, Sang Kim - Senior Designer; Elizabeth Gaynor, Julie Basque - Senior Product Manager; Wesley de Souza, Marko Niciforovic, Josh Rounsville, Matt Sacks, Jay Moretti - Senior Developers; Glauber Sampaio, Marco Vincit - Designer; Owen Herterich, Elizabeth Morrison, Gaston Figueroa - Developer; Aniket Sharma, Denise Miceli - Senior QA; Mila Rudnouskaya, Olesia Velychko - QA analyst








