The Seattle-based user-experience research and design company Blink has acquired a little help in the design department by purchasing Tectonic, an experience design studio with offices in Seattle and Boston.
Blink announced the news in a press release as well as a blog post from CEO and co-founder Karen Clark Cole. The 17-year-old Blink and 15-year-old Tectonic have partnered with some of the same big-name clients over the years, including Amazon and Microsoft.
“Tectonic brings new design capabilities and seasoned talent to Blink,” Clark Cole said. “Its envisioning process and highly refined visual craftsmanship deliver creative leaps and drive impactful design. Joining forces with Tectonic’s creative and strategic minds will push us in new ways that will be such an amazing benefit for our clients.”
Tectonic founder Bill Flora said that the two companies together are a “powerful combination.”
“Blink’s evidence-driven approach and Tectonic’s strategic, brand-focused process will really stand out in the marketplace,” Flora said. “We’ll be able to provide more holistic solutions and ultimately have more impact solving today’s design problems.”
It’s an exciting time for Blink, which is growing in more ways than one. Last fall, the company opened a design studio in San Diego, and just this month Blink moved into a renovated 28,000-square-foot studio office space on the sixth floor of Seattle’s Waterfront Place Building.
Clark Cole previously wrote about the HQ’s “breathtaking waterfront views” and said the space will accommodate roughly 150 people, which Blink expects to reach in 2019. The company currently employs about 100 people, with 10 of those coming over from Tectonic.
Blink also just hired a new COO, Bob MacSweeney, who is based in San Francisco but will spend time in Seattle as well as rotate through the other offices with Clark Cole. MacSweeney has a digital agency background at a company called Eveo, specializing in healthcare.
Clark Cole said that Blink is currently raising equity capital to fund further acquisitions over the next two years in San Francisco and on the East Coast.
“Over the last two decades, Blink has been focused on careful growth to address our industry’s steady rise, and a more rapid rise in the last two years,” Clark Cole said. “In order to remain a leader in the user experience design space, and to serve our clients’ pressing and larger-scale digital needs, Blink needs to scale with our clients and the industry.”
