EightShapes

EightShapes, founded in 2006, specialized in user experience and information architecture consulting, primarily serving the Washington, DC area. Over its 18-year history, the agency grew from a small team to employing 27 people and partnering with 57 subcontractors, delivering services across various industries including finance, high tech, and non-profit sectors.

The agency offered a range of services such as user experience, product design and discovery, front-end development, and user research. EightShapes was particularly known for its work with design systems, having led or advised over 100 design system teams. The agency also contributed to the community through workshops, talks, articles, and tools like EightShapes Unify for Adobe InDesign.

Despite closing in 2024, EightShapes left a lasting impact on the design community. Its founders, Nathan Curtis and Dan Brown, continue to offer services through their new ventures, Curious Squid and Directed Edges, focusing on user experience and design systems respectively.