Today, one widely accepted brand strategy is to ensure that you recognize a company not just by its logo but by its overall corporate identity. One trailblazer of corporate design was Hermann Bahlsen: As early as 1900 he had baked goods packed in elaborately designed metal tins. In keeping with the ideal of marrying life and art, he commissioned artists to decorate these everyday objects. He then had the brand name embossed on the bottom of the tin so as to avoid marring the décor. The tins looked good on the coffee table and are popular collector’s items today as they are prime testimony to German design history.

The period known as the Economic Miracle following World War II saw a new heyday in Bahlsen tin-design. Between 1947 and 1989, Bauhaus graduate Eva Grossberg designed over 250 luxury tins. The present example as well as two others on Shelf 54 are part of the sun collection, so called because of the ray-like pattern.