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.