A Day of Art and Design
Yesterday morning our group visited Meta Design on the West side of Berlin. Meta is best known for their design of the Adobe Creative Suite identity campaign, all of the Volkswagen design for the past decade, work for Audi, and so many other major brands. They are located in a great building that used to serve as the electrical control station for the entire city many years ago. The space is industrial with modern design, featuring some of the original electrical exchange systems. The presentation was fascinating. There was much talk of how branding works, their design process (quite organized, logical, and brilliant), and case studies. Evidently sound branding is now one of the biggest areas of focus for Meta, and they say smell branding is on the horizon. The idea of branding to more than sight makes a great deal of sense, as we have all experienced the power of smell or sound to bring us back to our past.
After Meta Design I ended up at the Gemaldegalerie (Painting Gallery), which houses an amazing collection. I was going specifically to see Caravaggio’s Love Conquers All, one of my personal favorites, but was surprised by two amazing Vermeers, and an amazing Albrecht Durer show featuring his drawings, printed books, etchings, and paintings.
As I travel from place to place throughout the city, I encounter buildings with shrapnel and bullet holes in facades of buildings. The frightening past of Berlin is still very present.