Meta Berlin loses founder in job cuts

MetaDesign has lost a founder and a board member in a round of 13 redundancies last week.

Founder and chief executive officer Hannes Krueger has left along with chief innovation officer Charly Frech, both of whom sat on the executive board.

A further four have left of their own accord, says a MetaDesign spokeswoman. Of the 13, four were designers. A total of 150 staff now remain.

MetaDesign is pushing ahead with its move into larger offices in the New Year, designed to help the consultancy ‘grow again’ despite having to make the redundancies.

The move to larger premises in the New Year has been planned for about three years and MetaDesign decided to go ahead ‘as we want to grow again and take on new projects’, the spokeswoman says.

A downturn in work in the past year has prompted the decision, she says. ‘[MetaDesign] has been spoiled in the past ten years with lots of work and virtually no pitching,’ she says.

MetaDesign decided to ‘act now’ and make staff redundant in order to avoid any further redundancies. The consultancy is now more ‘slimline’ and no further redundancies are planned, she adds.

Krueger founded MetaDesign with chief design officer Uli Mayer and Erik Spiekermann.

The MetaDesign board now comprises Mayer and chief finance officer Stefan Kirschke.

Krueger and Frech have not yet got jobs to go to, but Frech may look to go into teaching, she adds.

Krueger says he has ‘no immediate plans’ and intends to take time off until spring. Frech was unavailable as Design Week went to press.