MetaDesign is an international design consultancy known for branding and brand strategy, founded by Erik Spiekermann, Uli Mayer-Johanssen and Hans Ch. Krüger. The business has offices in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and 250 employees.

Berlin, 1979 and 1990

Spiekermann founded the company in 1979, in

. Today the company's Berlin offices are in a 1920s landmark industrial building in Berlin-Charlottenburg. MetaDesign's principal reputation was gleaned through engagements for the Berlin Transit System (BVG), followed by further work for clients including

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

, Düsseldorf Airport Authority and

Springer Verlag Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

San Francisco, 1992; London, 1995; Zurich, 2000; Abu Dhabi, 2007; & Geneva 2013

In 1992, MetaDesign established the

office, around Bill Hill ( IDEO) and Terry Irwin ( Landor Associates), and then in 1995 the London office around Tim Fendley (now Founder of Applied Information Group), and Robin Richmond (now founder Immersive Projects), formerly Union Design. Meta's San Francisco office developed teaching media including ViZability, IDEO's first web site, publishing systems for Ernst & Young and

McGraw Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

and specialist event publicity for Fuse 98. The MetaDesign London office specialized in branding for the digital arena working for clients including The Economist Group,

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...

, and European identities for Lexus and

Škoda Auto Škoda Auto Akciová společnost, a.s. (), often shortened to Škoda, is a Czech automobile manufacturer established in 1925 as the successor to Laurin & Klement and headquartered in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. Škoda Works became State ow ...

. The company was also involved in developing the Bristol Legible City initiative for The City of Bristol. In 1998 the San Francisco office brought in Stan Leopard as principal and chairman. In 1999, the London office left the group and joined Icon Medialab, who then merged with Michiel Mol's Lost Boys in 2002. In 2001, Lost Boys had also purchased the majority of the shares of MetaDesign in Berlin. By 2001 founder Spiekermann had left to run his own projects forming the United Designers Network in 2002–2003 which formerly became rebranded as Spiekermann Associates in 2007. MetaDesign Abu Dhabi opened in 2007 with Dirk Evenson as Managing Director. MetaDesign Suisse was founded in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2000, with partners Alexander Haldemann and Bruno Schmidt. Dr. Haldemann launched MetaDesign Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2013.

Beijing, Düsseldorf and Hamburg, 2008

The MetaDesign AG with co-founder Uli Mayer-Johanssen as managing director and CDO has opened offices in Beijing, Düsseldorf and Hamburg in 2008. In 2022, MetaDesign launched MDX, their unit for the development of digital products and services. The Chief Consultant for MDX is Iva Jankovic, who was the COO of betahausX, a division of Betahaus, the insolvent Berlin-based innovation consulting agency.

References

External links

MetaDesign website

MetaDesigns Studio website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metadesign Design companies of Germany Companies based in Berlin Design companies established in 1979 Consulting firms established in 1979 1979 establishments in West Germany