Meta Design

MetaDesign has been one of Europe's most respected design agencies for over ten years. Its portfolio of services ranges from strategic brand management to the design and implementation of complex corporate identities and images.

Initially set up in Berlin 1992 by Uli Mayer-Johanssen and Erik Speikermann, Metadesign now has offices in Berlin, San Francisco and Zurich, employs over 100, and handles global branding for Volkswagen, Audi and Lufthansa. Speikermann is very well known as a Typographer also runs Font Shop International, designed the typeface families FF Meta and FF info and wrote co-wrote "Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out How Type Works" which is a great introduction to typographer for the beginner. Speikermann left in 2000 but meta design has continued it's growth since then, winning corporate design awards and running huge campaigns for the Moma in Berlin. This was found on Meta's site:

The company name embodies its philosophy. Design has become an increasingly important steering instrument for company success. Visual design is a criterion for defining strategy and corporate vision, and strategy, for its part, must be reflected in the visuals in order to generate emotion and minimize interpretative confusion. The growing significance of identity processes in a dynamically changing corporate landscape has made it necessary for corporate identity to be steered and managed on a meta-level. This is what MetaDesign stands for.

With this self-conception, MetaDesign has assumed a unique position in the marketplace. In its 2003 ranking, the magazine Horizont chose MetaDesign for the seventh time in a row as Germany's leading agency for all services revolving around brand, corporate and institutional identity.

My view:
Meta Design are a huge corporate brand associated company, which in some ways doesn't appear as interesting as some of the other companies researched here on this blog, however I expect they make far more money, and so I think it might not be a bad idea to keep an open mind about this kind of company as a possible career choice.

Hi Res

Multimedia design studio Hi-Res! was founded in 1999 by dynamic duo Florian Schmitt and Alexandra Jugovic (now a married couple) who met at art college in 1993. Alexandra's background is in fine art and graphic design, whilst Florian's is film and music. They worked for various clients in the design, music and post-production industry where they refined their skills and artistic approach. And due to their fascination with different fields such as film, music and traditional art, they thought they could combine these interests into creative commercial and personal projects. As a result, that is what they did: The year is 1999, Florian and Alexandra make the crucial decision to move from Germany to London to launch their company Hi-ReS!, and they begin working on a personal site called Soulbath.com, although they state that at the time they didn't know that much about the web at that time, but realized Flash would be a great platform for them to pool their varied interests and skills.

The project is associated with an exhibition of art-banners entitled “clickhere!”, a sardonic twist, delivering adverts but no products. Beyond their expectations, the site received immediate widespread among the media, culminating in a prominent feature in The New York Times. From this point on, they were approached for work with Mitsubishi, Lexus and NTT Data. They were invited by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky to create a site for his film “Requiem for a Dream” (2000), and they went on to completing other movie sites like “Donnie Darko” (2001), The Lexux’s “Minority Report” Experience (2002), and “The Punisher” (2004). In addition, Hi-Res! created TheThirdPlace.com for Sony’s PlayStation 2, and the amazing site for Massive Attack’s album “100th Window.”

The sites of hi-res! are truly multisensory explorations, immersing you somewhere between experimental web art and a fantastic dream. The rich worlds they create encourage both personal interaction and unique interpretation. In a an interview for Shift they can be quoted "The common denominator in our process is that we try to aproach a project from a conceptual and not necessarily an aesthetic angle to begin with; we need to be sure of what we wnat to say before we think of how we want to say it". This has resulted in stunning and original sites over the last seven years that have more than stood the test of time.

Hi Res! employ another thirteen staff and have a number of freelancers they work with. Hi Res have temporary site here and their own blog here

My view: Hi Res! are a great inspirational model for me as student, who prior to starting my college course didn't particulary hold Flash sites in high regard. I now realise this was a simple case of only seeing the bad, "flashy graphics but pointless" ones, to which Hi Res! are the antidote.

Michel Gondry

I can't actually believe that I hadn't heard of Michel Gondry before now, but having researched I realize i have seen loads of his music videos. Michel Gondry is a like a god, and definitely my new hero!

There is a great deal written about Gondry on the net here and here which i won't just simply rewrite, however this Paragraph from the Partizan site pretty much sums things up well: "Simply known as the director whose work makes other directors cry, Michel Gondry sets the standard in everything he does. His groundbreaking videos for artists including the White Stripes, Bjork, The Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk, have won him every music video award available, and he is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the director of the commercial that has won the most prizes in the world, including the Grand Prix at Cannes, three silvers at D&AD and the best campaign at BTAA (Levi’s Drugstore). He has also completed three feature films, Human Nature, the Oscar-winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and the recently completed The Science of Sleep, which was premiered at the Sundance Festival in February 2006."

There are so many aspects of what Gondry does that really interest me I'm not sure where to start. His Music Videos for Kanye West Beck and Daft Punk and The White Stripes are all familiar as are his adverts for Smirnoff and Levis.

My View:

Gondry has a particular visual style which is immediately noticeable even from the first frames of any of his films, manipulating the mise en scene and setting the mood so well. His technical work and editing to music is so naturally handled. I would really love to be involved in work like this some way one day.

E boy

eBoy ("Godfathers of Pixel") is a pixel art group founded in 1998 by Steffen Sauerteig, Svend Smital, Kai Vermehr. Based in Berlin, Eboy's founders collaborate with Peter Stemmler in New York to produce graphic design work for companies.
Their work makes intense use of popular culture and commercial icons, and their style is presented in three-dimensional isometric illustrations filled with robots, cars, guns and girls. Their unique style has gained them a cult following among graphic designers worldwide, as well as a long list of commercial clients.
eBoy has worked with named brands and companies such as; Coca - Cola, MTV, VH1 and adidas plus many more.

Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper, like Saul bass before him, is most famous for his motion graphics and title sequences, and generally revered as successor to Bass. Cooper studied at Yale under graphic design guru Paul Rand where Rand discouraged him to do his dissertation on movie titles, instead suggesting he look at Soviet cinema masters such as Sergei Eisenstein.
Upon receiving his MFA Cooper went on to work for R Greenberg Associates, designing credits for "True Lies" and "twister" before getting his big break designing the credits for David Fincher's "Se7en" in 1995. This set him up as the new master of the genre; abrasive and highly stylized, featuring hand scratched lettering, shaky tense imagery set to Nine Inch nails "Closer", and really set the tone for the film.and left in 1996 with two RGA colleagues Chip Haughton and Peter Frankfurt to set up Imaginary Forces where he designed titles sequences for loads of huge movies including Mission Impossible, Spider-Man, Arlington Road, The Island of Dr Moreau, Spawn and Zoolander, utilizing a wide range of techniques from Maya to super 8 film, Montage to typeface design and all manner of digital technology, Photoshop and After Effects and is known to look into each project in a manner similar to how a method actor might research a film role, a total obsessive perfectionist.

Cooper's role at IF was so successful he ended up doing more management and less hands on work, and being something of a perfectionist he went on to go on his own, setting up a new smaller company Prologue, continuing his film title work for movies such as Superman Returns and venturing into the world of videogames, designing the credits for Metal Gear Solid 3.
Kyle Cooper has brought new attention to the art form of movie titles, spawing copycats and imitators.

My View :

Kyle Cooper is for me very inspirational. It is good to see be able to aspire to this level of success, whether that be commercial or artistic, in Kyle Cooper's case both. I would very much like to work in this area myself, even though at this point in time i think i will need to put loads more time, work and effort to do it! The showreel at Prologue excites me and I eagerly want to learn this.

Pentagram

Pentagram have a huge history in the design world, and are still a huge design company today covering most disciplines. Founded by Alan Fletcher and born out of Fletcher, Forbes and Gill, who were the first big British design firm in the 1960's.
Pentagram went onto design famous identities for Shell, Reuters, United Airlines, Star Alliance and Citibank. Pentagram's architectural design's are seen at the Harley Davies Museum and Chester Racecourse, books designs which are too numerous to sum up here, editorial design for the Guardian (1988), The New York Times Magazine, Interactive work for United Airlines, The new York Jets and the M.I.T., Interior designs for Virgin Atlantic's Upper Class cabins and the Natural History Musem. Pentagrams trade marks can be seen on Penguin Books, Phaidon Press, Getty Images and Wagamama, and their packaging is seen at Tesco (finest range), Swatch, Boots Shapers Range, and Tiffany's store in NYC. Pentragam have product designed Dell Computers, Nike Watches and Poloroid Cameras and thie signage systems can be seem in Lower Manhatten, Toronto International Airport, San Francisco Zoo, The National Maritime Museum and the New York Botanical Garden.

This is what was written about them on Wikipedia :
Pentagram is an organisation of designers in London, New York, San Francisco, Austin (Texas) and Berlin. It is built around individual partners who are leading exponents of graphic design, product design, architecture and interior design,.
Unbeguiled by business fashions, sceptical of hype and style, Pentagram pursues its own visions of integrity and excellence in a system simply developed for the purpose of design. Here creativity is not decoration; it is the clear expression of ideas. Humour, humanity and passion for the craft of design play as important role as profit.
Pentagram offices are places where designers work. The partners head up their own groups of designers, collaborating with other partners as the need arises, both within and across design disciplines, locally and internationally. Each group is autonomous, dedicated to the partners’ work. The approach keeps the partner clearly in front of each job, accessible to clients, accessible to the design team. There are no traditional management hierarchies, no closed doors or executive suites. This organisation is unique amongst design consultancies.
The partners subscribe to this organisation and its ideals by working for their clients in the name of Pentagram. This commitment is carried beyond their commercial work to publishing articles and books, advising institutions and governments, sponsoring lectures and educational projects, judging and lecturing.
The system has proved to be durable. Since it was formed, in 1972 Pentagram has grown steadily by appointing new partners with their own design teams and occasionally opening new offices. The optimum size of partners’ groups remains the same. As an entity Pentagram represents a formidable resource; each partner contributes to it and is able to draw upon it to the lasting benefit of designers and clients alike.

My view:

Pentagram are basically huge, have been creatively successful almost as long as I have lived (34 years), and have been seen by everyone, making their mark on everyday things such as newspapers and supermarket packaging as well as more specialist work. Pentagram have grown so can't be compared against many other design companies, and although they seem the slightly more conservative and corporate end of design, I do feel better knowing that there is money to be made in this business, as it is my personal mission to balance the creative with the financially successful when I finish college and start work.

Peter Saville

Peter Saville will always be heavily linked with Factory Records (who he co-founded in 1978), it's graphic identity and sleeve designs for Joy Division, and New Order which are some of the most iconic in the history of the medium.
Peter studied graphic design at Manchester Polytechnic from 1975 to 1978 obtaining a first class degree, and went on to co found and design for Factory Records, Din Disc (subsiduary of Virgin records), and set up his own company Peter Saville Associates with collaborators Trevor Key and Brett Wickens, exploring and experimenting modernist design and typography.

PSA ran into financial trouble in 1990, and along with Brett Wickens went on to become a partner in Pentagram, although this didn't last as he failed to meet earning targets, before moving to Los Angeles to Join Farnkfurt Balland. Saville also went on to work for Miere and Meire and Tomato for a brief period, but these too didn't last. Saville is now doing work for fashion designer Stella McCartney and Manchester.

my view:
It seems the Peter Saville has had many ups and down in his career. He has had much Critical success and very successful work, yet seems to be not so successful in business, terrible with deadlines and regarded as unprofessional by many. He is supposedly obsessive and very much interested in getting the job right rather than working on time, so this may explain why he has an impressive body of work, but a patchy record with regards to financial "sucess". His designs have been highly influencial and so I would imagine many students and designers look up to him in this way, but i feel having read about him that his career holds some cautionary clues about how to balance the creative and financial aspects of a career in design.

Saul Bass

Saul Bass was a graphic designer who pioneered the art of movie titles / credits, and who until this day has the biggest influence in this field.

Titles Designed by Saul Bass: Introduction
One is pressed to cite an example of an active, self-contained, and characteristic credits sequence in film prior to the work of Saul Bass. Undoubtedly, there are examples that presage Bass’ pioneering work; namely, the famous final credits of Citizen Kane reprise excerpts from the film, underscoring the footage with actors’ names. Likewise, overtures frequently preceded films of the ‘30s and ‘40s. Many of these are visually complimented by static credits, and in some cases a montage. And despite these examples, in regard to innovation, renown, and influence, Bass’ impact in credits design remains virtually unparalleled, even to this day.

Bass’ expertise in design exhibits a range (his corporate identities and posters are also durable graphic statements), yet his distinguishing aesthetic is one of economy and simplicity. It is in this regard that his work in credits design is of particular significance—his opening for West Side Story, for example, is a solid block of color that morphs according to the overture. Elsewhere (and numerously), he employs hand-drawn type and cutout, construction paper shapes.

In 1964, after sixteen years as a collaborator, Bass began directing his own films including The Searching Eye (1964), From Here to There (1964), and Why Man Creates (1968). His latter effort resulted in an Academy Award—an appropriate gesture of recognition, as Bass may be credited for enhancing the visual strategy of cinema, assigning it another dimension.

Bass’ techniques are various and decidedly inconsistent: cutout animation, montage, live action, and type design to name only his more prominent exercises. Secondly, Bass exhibits an exemplary use of color and movement. Often sequences begin with a solid, empty frame of color (as with Exodus’ blue or North by Northwest’s green). His design tactic in this context, although characteristic, possesses subtly and variety.

Bass died in 1996 at the age of 75.

my views:
Having read up on Saul his graphic design background was very much established and the catalyst for his famous Film Title work. His film titles utilised various media, montage, typography but on top of this he was always able to represent a movie by one powerful symbol, such as the arm in Otto Preminger's "The Man With The Golden Arm", Martin Scorsese once described his approach as creating: "an emblematic image, instantly recognisable and immediately tied to the film". There are many great places to find out information about Saul Bass such as the Design Museum site