Humans
#trivagotales in depth: Meet Matthias
“Change is life and life is full of it. I was born in East Germany in 1975 and grew up “behind the wall.” I did not care about the fact that there was so much that people missed ─ I did not know it any differently. I improvised to create something useful out of the little we had. And as a former Iron Maiden fan for example we had no heavy metal shirts… I had to paint it myself, and so, out of necessity, I developed my passion ─ art and design.
And of course I painted logos and record covers on badges and T-shirts just to sell them secretly in the schoolyard, so I was able to buy new records on the black market. The fall of the Wall brought the first big change in my life. My parents left and I lost all my friends for a short time. We plunged into a new world with new challenges and new problems to solve. Heavy metal records, however, were now abundant. So it was then that the painting suffered a bit and I was more interested in motorcycles and cars. I enjoyed training as a merchant and automotive mechanic. However, 6 years later, the army called for basic military service.
Finally, I stayed longer than the basic service years and got to know a lot of new things. I learned to take responsibility and had up to 120 soldiers to train, to motivate and to keep their backs free. The biggest achievement from this time is: There is no such thing as an impossible way, there are just difficult ones! After 12 years life reminded me to change again. That’s how it happened that I decided to study art. While studying art I quickly realized that it would be difficult to live from it and since I was in the learning mode, I was involved in another degree program ─ Communication Design. I learned 24/7 and wished the day had 48 hours. There were so many interesting things to learn.
During this time, I came across trivago ─ a young, dynamic start-up at the time with even more opportunities to grow. First as a screen designer, I quickly came into contact with usability and A/B (C) tests, which is a perfect way to get feedback. In addition to these tasks, as a designer, I got to work on everything that somehow needed to be designed. During my studies I had started learning about graphic animations at the same time. Bringing the graphics to life was the next level of graphic design and that was what I could then offer trivago as well. So we started to do product animations and TV spot adaptations for different markets on our own.
For over 8 years now, I have been involved in developing new TV and social media campaigns for more than 50 countries. And even with many opportunities to test and measure messaging, engagement and other assessment criteria for the success of a campaign, there is still an immense field to uncover, learn, and adapt to the diversity of our markets.
Finally, all I have to say is: Never stop learning!”
– Matthias, Designer & Creative Producer
