Industrial design for the urban environment

Industrial design
consultancy

Playground
equipment

Cycling solutions

Urban
furnishings

Custom projects, from concept to manufacture. Specialists in urban products.

Unique play experiences to spark the imagination.

Innovative and user-friendly solutions to promote sustainable urban mobility for all.

Design-led street furniture and signage, created to enhance urban projects.

Welcome

Neko is an industrial design studio creating beautiful and functional products for the urban environment since 2005. We are passionate about public space and its ability to shape and improve communities, and our vision is to make the world around us better through design.

Our speciality is helping our clients to fast-forward the lengthy design process by designing innovative and highly relevant urban products, including playgrounds, street furniture and cycling solutions.

At Neko we believe in integral development throughout the whole product lifecycle, from concept to manufacture and beyond. For custom projects, we work closely with our clients to design unique solutions with our design consultancy service.

In addition, a selection of our most innovative and best-selling urban products are available through our growing network of distributors.

Discover how Neko’s design solutions can enhance your urban projects.

A shared passion

Neko started life in 2005 with four friends, a couple of computers and a big vision to make the world better through our designs. Since then, we have worked with corporations, architects, urban designers and public authorities all over the world, designing new solutions for urban spaces. The team has grown with collaborators and partners who share our vision. Neko’s work has been featured in press from Forbes to Architectural Digest, exhibited worldwide, and has won several international design awards along the way.

Hiroshi, Alice, Daniel and Karime, Co-founders of Neko Design

Inspired by your urban projects

Almost two decades ago, we started out working on industrial design consultancy projects such as custom urban furniture and signage design for architects and urban designers. After working with several high-profile clients, something interesting happened. People were contacting us to ask how they could buy the street furniture from these bespoke projects. They liked it much more than the other commercially available options.

Our clients look for designs which help their urban projects stand out. Well-designed, user-friendly pieces, that are built to last. We knew that we needed to design a range of urban products which would appeal to them. Our aim? For each piece to add something extra – the finishing touch for urban spaces. With our objective clear, we created our own line of urban furniture, cycling solutions and playgrounds.

It didn’t stop there. People kept looking to us to design the things they couldn’t find – a user-friendly two-tier bike rack; a smart cycle hub; imaginative playgrounds…the list went on.

Award-winning design

The result was three product lines – including cycle parking, playgrounds and street furniture. Many have won design awards; all are inspired by the vision of our clients. With our Neko Design consultancy service we have designed the perfect urban elements for private companies, landscape architects, local authorities, architects and more.

Neko’s designs can be found in many great projects of all sizes, where they add innovation, eco-design and a splash of colour.

Clients in both public and private sectors trust Neko to find unique solutions to their design projects. In fact, many of them come to us having been told by others that what they are looking for is ‘impossible’. This is not in our vocabulary! Often, a new perspective and the right attitude is all that’s needed to come up with a totally new solution.

Collaboration is key

With offices in Spain and Mexico, we work together on projects across borders as one international team. The people at Neko are curious and creative professionals with different areas of expertise – and we’re passionate about improving our public spaces through design. We believe in the power of collaboration and our aim is to work with partners and distributors worldwide who share our vision and ambition.

6th Iberoamerican design Biennial Madrid Spain 2020 Flow playground collection

Red Dot Product design 2020 Essen Germany 2020 Wave play sculpture

Word Wide Things Collection 2018-2019 Ola Bench, North table, Tokani planter

5th Iberoamerican Design Biennial Madrid Spain 2016 Design and city Double decker bike rack and Special mention Company and design

10 Studios for Smart Cities Mexico 2018 Smart cycle parking hub

9th Design Biennal Mexico 2017 Design for development and technological innovation Double decker bike rack

European Product Design Award Brussels Belgium 2017 Design for social Impact Double decker bike rack

5th Iberoamerican design Biennial Madrid Spain 2016 Acapulco Street furniture line

VII Design Biennnial Mexico 2015 Honourable mention Acapulco bike rack and bollard

A Design Award Milan Italy 2014 Silver Award Ola bench

Street Seat Design Challenge Boston USA 2013 Finalist Ola Bench

Nationwide Project Competition "Agriculture Museum" Mexico 2012 First Place Master Plan concept

Society for Environmental Graphic Design Award USA 2009 Design Signage Urban Furniture

Iberoamerican Design Biennial Madrid Spain 2008 Nest paperclip holder

Ministry for social development Mexico 2008 Emblematic Ludic Object

XVII Quorum Awards Mexico2007 Bronze Orbit bracelet

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What our clients say

“In Neko we found the dedication, performance and professionalism that we needed.”

“We needed urban furniture for several projects. We looked to Neko because they create specific comprehensive design solutions, and their on-time delivery and quality lead to happy customers.”

“Neko is known for avant-garde design and sustainable manufacturing processes. We worked with Neko because of their alignment with our rehabilitation strategies. Their products are extremely durable - important in the heavy-duty environments of the large public spaces that we run.”

Your [double-decker bike rack] design deserves praise: space-saving, increased capacity and really comfortable because you don’t have to lift the bike!

“We needed to design a self-assembly pallet box, able to carry up to 1000kg as well as being disposable, recyclable and light. After several attempts to find a solution to this design problem, Neko took the challenge. They approached the issue with creativity, and more importantly from the viewpoint of the customer. The box is now in production and I can’t recommend them highly enough.”

“We chose Neko for their creativity, innovation and successful solutions. For the playground design … they provided a specific solution for a project where we needed to go a step further than commonly-found concepts.”

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Blog

Behind the scenes at Neko, inspiration,news and more.

Behind the design – Leaf cycle lane divider

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All products start off as an idea in someone’s mind. An idea that takes shape as a solution to a problem, or as a flash

‘Splash’ by Neko wins an iF DESIGN AWARD 2022!

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Award-winning design: ‘Splash’ by Neko wins the prestigious German iF design award We are very proud to announce that our ‘Splash’ play sculpture is

6 things to think about when choosing a cycle lane separator

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There’s been a lot in the news the past year about bike lanes – cities worldwide have installed pop-up ones during the pandemic and are now looking at how to make them a permanent fixture. There are so many ways to achieve this and many different types of cycle lane divider.

The ‘Why’ behind Neko Playwaves

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Open-ended play, inspired by our own children Since launching Playwaves, we get asked a lot where the inspiration came from for these unique playground designs.