USATILITY is a strategy-driven creative agency with studios in New York City and Portland, OR. Founded in 2021, we build bold, intentional brands for founders and businesses across law, education, nonprofits, beauty, culture, events, and more. Our services include brand strategy and identity, web design and development, social media management, digital advertising, packaging design, SEO, motion design, and accessibility consulting.

How long has USATILITY been in business?

USATILITY was founded in 2021 in Portland, Oregon by Evan Combs. In 2023 the agency expanded into New York City, which now serves as its primary base. USATILITY celebrates its five-year anniversary in 2026 with studios in both New York and Portland and a team operating across the country.

Where is USATILITY located?

USATILITY has studios in New York City, NY and Portland, OR. New York City serves as the agency's primary base following its 2023 expansion. The Portland studio continues to serve west coast clients and projects. The agency's team operates remotely across the United States.

What industries does USATILITY work with?

USATILITY has built brands across a wide range of industries including law, education, nonprofits, beauty and wellness, events and hospitality, marketing, media, and culture. Notable clients include NYC Pride, Blitz Law Group, Kingfisher Prep, Honestly Essential, Entangled Topologist, La Brujas Club, Little Gem Catering, and The ID Agency.

What services does USATILITY offer?

USATILITY offers eight core services: Makeover (brand strategy and identity), Launchpad (web design and development), Echo (social media management), Spotlight (digital advertising), Motioncraft (graphic design and animation), Unboxed (packaging design), Signal (SEO), and Access (accessibility consulting). Each service is strategy-led and built around the specific goals of the client.

How do I start working with USATILITY?

The best way to start working with USATILITY is with a free 5-point brand audit at usatility.studio/audit — it takes 60 seconds and shows you exactly where your brand stands across clarity, visual consistency, messaging, digital presence, and competitive differentiation. You can also book a free discovery call directly through the USATILITY website to discuss your project in detail.

Has USATILITY won any industry recognition?

Yes. USATILITY has been recognized by DesignRush as one of New York's Top Branding Agencies. The agency's work spans nationally recognized clients including NYC Pride, the world's largest LGBTQ+ nonprofit, and has generated measurable results including a 1,900% increase in website traffic for Entangled Topologist and $200K in new annual revenue for Kingfisher Prep.

What makes USATILITY different from other branding agencies?

USATILITY is built on three principles that distinguish it from larger corporate agencies: strategy and design always develop simultaneously from the same foundation; every brand is built human-first — no templates, no AI-generated shortcuts, no work that looks busy but says nothing; and every project is treated as a direct investment in the client's business growth, not just a design deliverable. USATILITY is DesignRush-recognized and has delivered measurable results for clients across eight industries.

Five Years of Branding With Intention: A Letter From Our Founder

USATILITY

Oct 22

5 min read

By Evan Combs, Founder & CEO, USATILITY

Five years ago, I started USATILITY out of a small studio in Portland, Oregon with no roadmap, only two clients, and a stubborn, unshakeable belief that bold, intentional branding could genuinely change the trajectory of a business.

I want to be honest with you: I wasn’t sure it was going to work.

Starting a creative agency from scratch — especially one built on the conviction that strategy and design should never be separated, that human-first thinking should drive every creative decision, and that the brands most worth building are the ones with something real to say — is not a safe bet. It’s a leap.

But five years later, here we are.

Where It Started

USATILITY was born in Portland in 2021. The city shaped us — its creative independence, its refusal to conform, its belief that craft matters. From the beginning, we weren’t interested in templated work or agency-speak or brands that looked busy but said nothing. We were interested in building things that lasted.

Our first clients trusted us with everything — their visual identity, their digital presence, their voice. The weight of that trust was not lost on me then, and it isn’t lost on me now. Every brand we build represents someone’s life’s work. We don’t take that lightly.

What Five Years Looks Like: Branding with Intention

In 2023, we expanded into New York City — a move that changed everything about the scale and ambition of what USATILITY could become. Today we operate with studios in both New York and Portland, a team spread across the country, and a body of work that spans industries we’re genuinely proud to have served.

Here’s what five years of branding with intention looks like in practice:

Law — We partnered with Blitz Law Group to transform their digital presence from the ground up — website, SEO, social media, advertising, and content strategy — driving a 20% increase in client inquiries and 43% year-over-year growth in Instagram engagement.
Education — We took Entangled Topologist from a struggling landing page to a globally recognized mathematics education platform, generating a 1,900% increase in website traffic and a 32% revenue increase. We helped Kingfisher Prep evolve from a local NYC tutoring service into a nationally competitive education brand — generating $200K in new annual revenue and a 160% increase in website engagement.
Nonprofits & Culture — We rebuilt the digital home of NYC Pride — the world’s largest LGBTQ+ nonprofit — driving 257% traffic growth YoY in the first 30 days and 43,200 new social media followers. We created a complete brand ecosystem for La Brujas Club, driving a 187% increase in website engagement while building a media platform, cultural safe space, and e-commerce operation simultaneously.
Beauty & Wellness — We modernized Honestly Essential’s brand identity and packaging system across 500+ products — applying strategic color theory by category and repositioning them as a premium wellness brand for today’s consumer.
Events & Hospitality — We redesigned Little Gem Catering’s digital presence, driving a 400% increase in website traffic and delivering full WCAG accessibility compliance for a brand serving clients including Jimmy Choo and Vogue.
Healthcare & Wellness — In August 2026 we began one of our most ambitious partnerships to date: a total brand and digital transformation for Pelvic Health NJ and The Male Pelvis Center. Both clinics came to us with outdated, inaccessible digital presences that failed to reflect the quality and depth of their care. In just two months, we have delivered a refreshed brand identity, new brand messaging, advertising materials, and fully rebuilt websites for both organizations — transforming their online presence from bland to bold and genuinely accessible. The partnership is still in full motion, with new revenue streams currently in development including paid online exercise classes, book publishing and cover design, physical wellness product development in collaboration with Honestly Essential, edible supplement bar development for men’s pelvic health, and new social media and advertising content production. Early results are already speaking: both clinics have seen a 10% year-over-year rise in website traffic within the first two months of our partnership, alongside measurably more positive brand reception across both practices. This is what USATILITY looks like at full capacity — and we’re just getting started.
Marketing — We transformed The ID Agency’s website into their strongest business development asset, driving a 1,150% increase in monthly traffic and a 400% growth in organic leads.

These aren’t just numbers. Behind every stat is a founder who trusted us, a team that showed up, and a brand that now works harder for its owner than it ever did before.

What We Learned

Five years of building brands for people who give a damn has taught us a few things we didn’t fully understand when we started.

Strategy and design are the same conversation. The agencies that separate them — strategy in one room, designers in another — produce work that looks like it was made by a committee. The best creative decisions happen when both disciplines develop simultaneously, from the same foundation, toward the same goal.

Clarity is a competitive advantage. Most brands don’t have a design problem. They have a clarity problem. They can’t articulate who they are, who they serve, and why it matters — so their visuals and their words end up pulling in different directions. Solving clarity unlocks everything else.

Human-first is not a trend. We said this from the beginning — built for humans, not algorithms, not templates, not AI-generated shortcuts. Five years later, in a landscape flooded with artificial content and automated design, we believe this more than ever. The brands that will win the next decade are the ones that feel real. We build those.

The slow seasons are where you grow. Not every month looks like a case study. Some months are quiet, some are hard, some feel like treading water. Those months are where the agency actually develops — where you sharpen the process, refine the offer, and build the infrastructure that makes the good months possible. We learned to be grateful for both.

Thank You

This anniversary belongs to more people than just me.

To every client who trusted USATILITY with the thing that represents them most — their brand — thank you. You took a leap on us and we took one on you, and I’m proud of what we built together in every single case.

To Mariano, our COO, who joined in 2023 and has built the operational backbone that makes everything run — none of the growth of the last three years happens without you.

To our team, spread across the country, who show up with excellence and care on every project regardless of the size or the deadline — you are the agency.

To my family, my friends, and everyone who believed in this before there was much to believe in — your support in those early Portland days meant more than you know.

And to everyone who has followed USATILITY, shared our work, sent an inquiry, or simply told someone about us — thank you. You are part of this story.

Four circular portraits of smiling men on a black USATILITY screen, including one in a library and one holding a microphone.

What Comes Next

I’m not going to pretend I know exactly what the next five years look like. The agency is growing. The work is getting better. The team is expanding. New clients are coming in from industries and cities we hadn’t imagined when we started.

What I do know is this: we’ll keep building brands that actually work. We’ll keep showing up with intention. We’ll keep choosing craft over convenience, strategy over shortcuts, and humans over algorithms.

Five years down. The best is ahead.