Starfish has earned six nominations at the Transform Awards North America 2026, placing its work across categories spanning place branding, digital transformation, and visual identity.
The shortlist was announced by Transform Magazine in August, with winners set to be revealed at the Transform Awards North America ceremony in October 2026.
The Transform Awards are an annual awards program that recognizes outstanding work in branding and brand development, covering disciplines such as brand strategy, visual identity, and more.
The recognition covers six client projects and represents a wide mix of industries and branding challenges.
The shortlisted entries for Starfish include:
- Visit Greater Palm Springs (VGPS) for Best Place Brand
- Primary Wave Music for Best Brand Digital Transformation
- Covista for Best Visual Identity in the Education Sector
- ApolloCare for Best Visual Identity in the Lifestyle and Wellbeing Sector
- 225 Park Avenue South for Best Visual Identity in the Property, Construction and Facilities Management Sector
- Gotham Foundry for Best Visual Identity in the Public Sector
The six entries also show how different kinds of organizations can require very different approaches to brand development.
For Zack Kessler, Director of AI Strategy and Director of Operations at Starfish, the six nominations reflect both the agency’s range of Starfish’s work and continued focus on building brands that create meaningful connections with their audiences.
“Being shortlisted six times across such a diverse range of categories is a meaningful recognition of the work our teams have built together,” Kessler says.
“Likewise, these projects reflect the range of challenges brands face today and the importance of creating identities and experiences that are both strategically grounded and built for connection.”
“We are proud of what our teams have accomplished, and we see these nominations as another step forward as we continue taking on ambitious brand challenges and creating work that delivers lasting value.”
Receiving Recognition Across Four New Sectors
The significance of the six nominations extends beyond the number of entries.
Four of the sectors represented this year are areas where Starfish had not previously placed at the 2025 Transform Awards North America:
- Education, represented by Covista
- Lifestyle and Wellbeing, represented by ApolloCare
- Property and Construction, represented by 225 Park Avenue South
- Public Sector, represented by Gotham Foundry
The other two nominations continue areas in which Starfish has already received recognition.
That distinction matters because award recognition can reveal something about the scope of problems agencies are being asked to solve today.
View this post on Instagram
The work does not all belong to one familiar branding category.
Instead, the 2026 shortlist covers organizations operating in education, healthcare and wellbeing, real estate, government, music, and destination marketing.
"Recognitions like these matter because it gives our teams and clients an opportunity to see their work measured against a high standard outside of the day-to-day process of building a brand,” Kessler says.
“It also reinforces the value of investing in thoughtful, strategic work that can have an impact well beyond the initial launch.”
The spread also follows a year in which Starfish received 12 Transform Awards North America honors in 2025.
Those awards included two Gold, five Silver, and five Bronze recognitions for Starfish.
In particular, the two Gold awards were for visual identity work in the Travel and Tourism Sector for Visit Greater Palm Springs and the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Sector for Viiota.
Meanwhile, the Silver and Bronze recognitions were for Starfish’s work in visual property, professional services, brand consolidation, brand architecture, internal communications, creative strategy, and the development of a new brand.
And while this doesn’t make one year's recognition more significant than another, it does how a different dimension of the agency's award footprint.
Look Ahead to The 2026 Transform Awards
The six shortlisted projects now move into the final stage of the 2026 Transform Awards North America process, with winners set to be announced in October.
Until then, the six projects provide a useful snapshot of the range of branding work represented by Starfish this year.
