Top 20 graphic designers of 2026, as voted for by creatives

Every year, Creative Boom's State of Creativity survey asks thousands of working creatives about the people who inspire them most. With more than 1,000 responses already in (and the survey still running), we thought we'd share the names that are resonating most with the community right now.

What follows is not a list of Creative Boom's personal favourites: we want to be clear about that. These are simply the designers who've come up again and again, unprompted, when respondents were asked which creatives they most admire.

It's worth noting that the perennial giants of the discipline received nominations too: Aaron Draplin, Brian Collins, Neville Brody and Erik Spiekermann all featured strongly. But the 20 below came out on top this time around.

1. Paula Scher

The undisputed titan. A Pentagram partner since 1991, Scher's identity work for the likes of The Public Theater, Tiffany, Citibank and The Metropolitan Opera has become design canon. Most recently, she made the case for 3D thinking and physical brand experience at the Pentawards Festival in Paris. Read our account here.

2. Jessica Walsh

Founder of New York agency &Walsh and type foundry Type of Feeling, Jessica's known for bold, emotionally driven work for clients like Google, Netflix, Apple and Adobe. She also runs Ladies, Wine & Design, a global nonprofit active in more than 40 countries. She recently joined Creative Boom as a columnist, arguing that human-crafted typography may be the last thing AI can't convincingly replicate. Read her column here.

3. Simon Dixon

Co-founder of DixonBaxi, which this year celebrates its 25th year in business, Simon has built long-term relationships with Formula 1, Premier League, AC Milan, WWE and Netflix through patient, values-led work. His philosophy—that belief costs, and is worth paying for—makes him one of the most compelling voices on what it means to run a design studio with integrity. Read our profile of DixonBaxi here.

4. Verónica Fuerte

Founder of Barcelona's Hey Studio, Verónica has spent nearly two decades building a visual language that's instantly recognisable: vibrant, bold and rooted in historical craft. She's a committed advocate for the handmade process in an AI era and the founder of the Women at Work podcast. Read our profile of Hey Studio here.

5. Marina Willer

Pentagram partner, filmmaker, Royal Designer for Industry—Marina's identity work spans Tate, Amnesty International, Serpentine Galleries, Oxfam and Rolls-Royce. Her debut film, Red Trees, premiered at Cannes and was released by Netflix. Most recently, she led the identity for the Gender Equality Index UK, the nation's first tool for mapping gender inequalities at the local authority level: read our feature here.

6. Eddie Opara

London-born, New York-based Pentagram partner Eddie's multi-disciplinary practice spans brand identity, interactive installations, user interfaces and software. His recent rebrand of cybersecurity platform MIND—built around swelling, brainwave-like motion rather than the predictable blues of the category—is a masterclass in breaking with convention. Read the full story here.

7. Elizabeth Goodspeed

Independent designer, art director and US Editor-at-Large for It's Nice That, Elizabeth works between Providence and New York on idea-driven, historically inspired identity and print projects. She also teaches at RISD and Parsons. This dual role—rigorous practitioner and incisive design critic—makes her one of the most thoughtful voices in the field.

8. Bráulio Amado

Bráulio is a Portuguese-born, New York-based designer and illustrator whose punk-influenced visual language (think: bold colour, wobbly type, improvised energy) has made him instantly recognisable across music, editorial and cultural work. Clients include Frank Ocean, Robyn, Harry Styles, A24 and The New York Times. We particularly loved his recent collaboration with Studio Marcus Kraft on the Zürcher Theater Spektakel campaign: read our feature here.

9. Matt Willey

A Pentagram partner and former art director of The New York Times Magazine, Matt was named Designer of the Year by Creative Review in 2014. He received the National Design Award for Communication Design in 2025. His practice is defined by bespoke typography—custom typefaces drawn for each specific context—and a commitment to the printed page that's rare in an increasingly digital industry.

10. Gail Anderson

Partner at Anderson Newton Design, Gail Anderson spent 15 years at Rolling Stone before shaping Broadway's visual culture as SpotCo's creative director. Today, her work is held at the Cooper Hewitt, the Library of Congress and the Milton Glaser Design Archives. A recipient of the AIGA Lifetime Achievement Medal, her reputation shows no sign of dimming and her interview with our editor Katy Cowan has been one of the highlights of The Creative Boom Podcast to date.

11. James Martin

Operating as Made By James, Martin has spent two decades helping creative people build recognisable reputations. His Reputation OS™ framework and bestselling books have made him one of the most influential voices on the business side of creative practice; not through hype, but through a consistent focus on trust, proof and showing up.

12. Lotta Nieminen

Lotta is a Finnish-born, New York-based designer and illustrator whose studio brings concept-driven visual identities to life for clients including Google, Hermès, Marimekko and The New York Times. Named Graphic Designer of the Year 2019 by the Finnish design association Grafia, she's also the creative director of fragrance company Maison d'Etto and the author of several children's books.

13. Alex Center

The Brooklyn-based founder of Center was previously design director at The Coca-Cola Company, where he helped build vitaminwater, Powerade and smartwater. His studio now works at the intersection of design and culture for clients including Apple, New Balance, Liquid Death and United Sodas of America. Alex co-hosts the podcast Front & Center and teaches at SVA's Master's in Branding programme.

14. Andrea Trabucco-Campos

Pentagram partner Andrea is an Italian-Colombian graphic and type designer who builds transformative visual identities using typography and behaviour. His work spans brand systems, custom typefaces, motion, editorial and environmental design. He's also the co-founder of Vernacular, an independent publisher of small print editions, and an active voice on AI's role in design culture.

15. Rodrigo Corral

Rodrigo is a New York-based designer and conceptual artist who's spent more than two decades creating iconic visuals in publishing. Serving as creative director at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, his studio has collaborated with Jay-Z, Chuck Palahniuk, Edward Snowden, The Criterion Collection and The Met. His own book, Sneakers, became a New York Times bestseller in 2018.

16. Tereza Bettinardi

Tereza is a São Paulo-based designer, editor and publisher whose practice spans editorial design, visual identity, packaging and environmental design. In 2020, she founded Clube do Livro do Design, a publishing house dedicated to expanding design writing in Portuguese. Her work has been recognised by TDC, AIGA's 50 Books/50 Covers and the Latin American Design Awards.

17. Mirko Borsche

The Munich-based founder of Bureau Borsche, established in 2007, Mirko's content-driven approach has built a devoted following across culture, fashion and business. Producing commissioned identities and editorial design alongside original works exhibited internationally, the studio's work is underpinned by a belief that design should be a source of learning, understanding and joy.

18. Kerry Roper

The founder of London creative collective The Order, launched in 2025, Kerry brings more than two decades of advertising design experience to his own studio, including senior roles at Saatchi & Saatchi and Anomaly. His clients have included Nike, Adidas, Disney, and Greenpeace, and the V&A holds three of his works in its permanent collection.

19. Craig Oldham

Founder of the Office of Craig in Manchester and director of Rough Trade Books, Craig is one of England's most influential designers and a writer whose books span education, visual culture and politics. His voice in industry debates is as distinctive as his design work: candid, principled and never short of an opinion.

20. David Sedgwick

David is the founder of Manchester's StudioDBD and creator of BCNMCR, a passion project connecting the creative communities of Barcelona and Manchester that recently landed him a commission from Marketing Manchester and a full rebrand for investment agency MIDAS. His story is a masterclass in the power of self-initiated work, and he told it brilliantly in a recent Studio session: read the full account here.