Advertising, Marketing & PR  April 5, 2019

Human Design to acquire Denver agency Universal Mind

BOULDER — Human Design LLC, a Boulder advertising agency, is completing its third acquisition in 16 months.

The company is acquiring Denver digital design agency Universal Mind Inc., which has created user experiences for Sony, Herman Miller, Adobe, Apple and other brands.

Universal Mind founder and chairman Brett Cortese will serve as an adviser after the sale.

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Human Design co-founder and chief creative officer John Weiss said the merging shops share a philosophy centered on improving life and seeking ways that brands can engage with people to do so.

“There’s a lot of simpatico in what Universal Mind does by creating things people enjoy from a user-experience and design standpoint and how Human Design is an agency that wants to move the human race,” Weiss said in a prepared statement. “It’s a natural pairing, and it makes sense for us to purchase an agency that builds things people love.”

Acquisition of Universal Mind moves Human Design further along on its goal to become a full-service agency, The agency bought Clymb Marketing, a performance-marketing agency, in December 2017, and in January 2018, bought Solidus, a full-service video-production agency.

Human Design also is opening an office in Los Angeles and soon will move to a larger building, all while experiencing its best quarter ever in terms of financial performance, the company said in a press release.

Clients include Nike, Netflix, the United Nations, Twitter, Discovery and Vulcan. The shop recently launched a marketing campaign for Ladder, a wellness company founded by LeBron James, Lindsey Vonn, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Cindy Crawford.

Universal Mind develops mobile apps, Web-based applications, mobile strategy consulting, iOS, Android, enterprise solutions, responsive web, IoT, user experience design and innovation.

The company’s Live OS app, for example, allows people to pair up with and set desk-height preferences for Herman Miller’s connected desk. Once they set sitting and standing positions, they can transition seamlessly between the two throughout the day. Universal Mind also designed The Complete Experience — Sony Music’s Jimi Hendrix app — and a new framework that introduced a way to publish content that supports interactive photos, videos, location detection, media-library integration, social media, device synchronization, in-app purchasing and a second-screen experience.

“I am immensely proud of what Universal Mind has achieved over its trailblazing history,” Cortese said in a prepared statement. “It has provided a great place for employees and clients to grow, create and innovate. I am very excited that the brilliant folks at Human Design will be taking things to the next level.”

BOULDER — Human Design LLC, a Boulder advertising agency, is completing its third acquisition in 16 months.

The company is acquiring Denver digital design agency Universal Mind Inc., which has created user experiences for Sony, Herman Miller, Adobe, Apple and other brands.

Universal Mind founder and chairman Brett Cortese will serve as an adviser after the sale.

Human Design co-founder and chief creative officer John Weiss said the merging shops share a philosophy centered on improving life and seeking ways that brands can engage with people to do so.

“There’s a lot of simpatico in what Universal Mind does by creating things people enjoy…

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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