Code and Theory Wins Four Consecutive Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards

Code and Theory, a digital transformation agency, has been honored by Fast Company's Innovation by Design Awards for four consecutive years. The agency received the prestigious Design Company of the Year award and the Enduring Impact award, recognizing its 15-plus years of success.

The accolades highlight Code and Theory's ability to bridge the gap between creativity and technology, delivering tangible business outcomes for its clients. The agency's unique model, which balances 50% creatives and 50% engineers, has enabled it to transform various industries over the past year.

One notable client, TIME, saw a 159% increase in digital revenue after Code and Theory transformed the legacy publisher into a modern, AI-powered platform. For Stanley Black & Decker, the agency created a unified design system for over 30 brands across 55 markets, boosting e-commerce conversion by 40%. JBL benefited from the industry's first AI-native discovery system, which grew AI-driven referrals by 2,434% year over year. T. Rowe Price unified 47 fragmented sites on a single system, saving 100,000 team hours and $15 million in avoided costs. The NFL also saw a significant improvement, with NFL+ discovery increasing by 104% and acquisition tripling after Code and Theory reinvented NFL.com.

In addition to these achievements, Code and Theory's work with the Code and Theory Network was also recognized. Instrument and ŌURA received an award in the UX Design category for reimagining the ŌURA app experience. Instrument's Playspace, an open, living archive of experiments, tools, and interactive sketches, was honored in the Experimental and Conceptual Design category.

This recognition builds on a broader history of Fast Company honors for the Code and Theory Network. In 2025, Code and Theory was named to Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies list in the Design and Teamwork categories, while Instrument was named to Fast Company's list of Best Workplaces for Innovators.

Dan Gardner, founder of Code and Theory, expressed his excitement about the recognition, stating, "It's a crazy moment to be able to be creative and use technology to design what's never come before. Our teams are more excited about the future than ever because moments like this don't come around very often."

Code and Theory, with its 25-year history, continues to push the boundaries of digital transformation, combining human creativity, forward-deployed expertise, and agentic solutions to drive meaningful business outcomes.