Minds of the week - The development lab

A division of labor? No, they don't know that. "A project is divided according to experience," says Lukas, who can bring the most agency experience to the trio. Annina is the editorial design specialist. Niklaus is most likely to be fixed as an illustrator. "At the start of a project, when it comes to the concept, that's when everyone talks together," he explains. And Annina adds, "With three people, the organization is very simple. This makes us agile and allows us to follow projects individually from start to finish."

It has long been a dream that the three of them would like to work together one day. This dream was already awakened in their parents' home in Emmental. Their father Reto Mettler worked as a curator of various art exhibitions and festivals and still works in Langnau as an independent graphic designer. The young entrepreneurs have been able to learn a lot from him. Their father's studio, countless trips along art-historically interesting buildings and visits to art exhibitions were part of family life and have shaped the trio. On birthdays, the children always made elaborate "works of art" for their mother, who, as head of complementary medicine at Langnau Hospital, was more responsible for the character education of the siblings. Today, these shared experiences form the cornerstone of their agency. All the more, their father "takes a great deal of interest in our ideas and is of course delighted with the success". The development to this has been pretty straightforward.

"At 15, it's still early to make a decision," says Annina, explaining why she first attended a teacher training seminar. But she soon knew "that I wanted to go to a school for design. Without the detour of a first job as a teacher, she went to Lausanne to the ECAL one year after graduation. At this art school, she studied visual communication. The trigger for Lausanne was brother Lukas, who wanted to study at ECAL at the same time.

After graduating, Annina found her first job as a graphic designer and later as art director at Das Magazin, the Saturday supplement of the Tages-Anzeiger. "That was an incredible stroke of luck, because I had the opportunity to do a complete redesign together with editor-in-chief Finn Canonica and graphic designer Jonas Vögeli in 2009." Her four-plus years at Das Magazin have had a significant impact on Annina's career as a designer. "We were a very small team and produced a new issue every week. That's where you can always mature on new tasks. In addition, working with many leading photographers was also very formative and interesting for me. It was a dream position, I'm happy to say."

Annina was able to contribute to the editorial team at Werdstrasse until she took maternity leave in 2011.

Niklaus, the youngest of the trio, took his path into graphic design most directly. He studied at the School of Design in Biel and stood out there with his talent in illustration. After graduating in 2009, he decided to do an internship in Cape Town. The agency The President works "less conceptually, but very decoratively," which was an interesting and inspiring experience for Niklaus. "Not Form follows Function, but Functions follows Form," is their credo.

After six months, Niklaus returned to Switzerland. "So of course you automatically end up in Zurich, where I found shelter with my sister for the first while." Professionally, he continued with various internships, mainly in corporate and editorial design. His last stop was at the cultural magazine Du, before a smooth transition led to the founding of Mettler Mettler + Mettler.

The eldest, Lukas Mettler, first learned to be a structural draftsman. But not in an architectural office. Atelier Oï in La Neuveville is an interior design firm, known for its design and now the largest studio of its kind in Switzerland. "I knew I had to have a profession, so I decided to do this apprenticeship. But all that really mattered to me was that I could spend four years in this studio looking over the shoulders of the three bosses." In addition to its furniture-design office, Atelier Oï became known for its Arte Plage in Neuchâtel for Expo.02, as well as serving many luxury brands in the Swiss watch market. "I was able to learn a lot there."

After graduation, he wanted to continue his education at the ECAL. Already at this art school in Lausanne, Annina and Lukas became known as "Duo Les Mettlers". While his sister stayed in Lausanne, Lukas moved on to Geneva after the preliminary course. Here, after four years at HEAD, he graduated with a degree in visual arts. "That was an important phase to try things out." To finance his studies, Lukas was able to take on commissions for various galleries and also sought his way with his own projects.

After Geneva, it was clear "that Zurich was where I was drawn to". Lukas worked in various agencies as an employee or freelancer. Brand design attracted him because here "you could work visually with a strategic background." During this freelance phase, Lukas was asked to develop the corporate design for a newly merged company of two construction companies. Microtunnel AG is a specialist in trenchless pipeline construction and needed a completely new look: from logo to brochures to advertising and website. For such a job, Lukas needed the support of his siblings. Here's how it worked out. "The idea of starting their own business together was obvious."

The successful reference with Microtunnel quickly attracted other orders for Mettler Mettler + Mettler. Soon there was so much work that the siblings could live off it. "We also have family commitments." Lukas is the father of a baby girl. Annina has since given birth to a son.

The Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Langnau Jazz Nights, Unilever or even the Green Party are now among Mettler Mettler + Mettler's clients. With the campaign for the Langnau Jazz Nights, the Mettlers were voted among the "100 best posters" in Germany, Austria and Switzerland this year. For the Green Party, they managed to work with the party to find a new image, also graphically, away from the "skull and crossbones aesthetic " surrounding the nuclear issue. "We wanted a visual language that didn't just highlight issues, but added value."

Still under development is a contract for Russia. A Russian investor wants to build a housing estate on an industrial wasteland on the outskirts of Moscow. This is to combine work, education and leisure "in a new form". The Mettlers have graphically translated the study "Creative Settlement " by the architectural office Camenzind Evolutions into two brochures. The task was to develop a visual language based on the architects' hand sketches.

Just received the Red Dot Award is the campaign for their own collection for Hurter Designers wallpaper. This idea around a wallpaper can perhaps best demonstrate how Mettler Mettler + Mettler approach their work. "We invest a lot of time in developing projects that don't even have an addressee yet. You experiment and all of a sudden something emerges for which there is a real demand. Then you get in touch with the possible partner and bring a project that already exists on a preliminary work. This is important for our office. We therefore also see ourselves as a development lab."

Detached from a mandate and "totally free", the design for a wallpaper has emerged in this way. Mettler Mettler + Mettler find the inspiration for their patterns in the wax print fabrics of West and Central Africa. They have reinterpreted these for Hurter Designers wallpaper as a four-part collection. MM+M contrast the traditional style with vibrant computer-generated designs. "Such continuing projects are important for us. Being able to develop such fantasies is the freedom we always want to take. That's the difference with most larger agencies. This part of our work has an intangible value and often we don't know at the beginning where it will eventually go. But we're convinced it's going somewhere. It's the only way to come up with new ways and ideas and create your own identity." Andreas Panzeri