FREIRÄUME

The bachelorʼs thesis shows how vacancies in medium-sized cities can be used through the development of start-up hubs. In the process we included a strategic concept and created a transmedial Corporate Identity to support the visibility and presence of founders and the project Startplatz.

The project was structured in different phases within the Design-Thinking-Process. During the first steps we gathered and evaluated information. Through interviews with the innovationmanager of Esslingen, Start-ups and the UnternehmerTUM in Munich we gained a deeper insight into the topic. Therefore we built a Design concept specifically for their needs. The co-working space has to be able to create their media to advertise quickly different events. So we created an generator for them to design and print their posters themselves. The design is based on a simple rectangle grid which enables a structrued but flexible design.

As the main font we chose the Open-Source Font Inter. To create the Startplatz-Logo we designed the Inter Work. The stretched Typography allows enough flexibility and uniquness so the logo and headlines can be easily recognized. The logo consists of a wordpictorial mark, wordmark and a pictoral mark. The aesthetics reminds of a retail space from above and works also very well with the grid-based design. One of many methods we applied was the user journey. We started our journey with the development of a profitable business model to acquire further resources, planning phase of the company and the legal regulations.

We thought through different media like the founder card that is part of the package that start-ups get when moving in the co-working space. Other print materials were the newspaper, business card and letter, event poster and campaign poster. For the digital part we designed a website as well as an intranet.

The intranet is an important online space for the founders. It includes all their knowledge, the poster generator, contact information, structuring and booking a meeting room can be found there. Furthermore we created a concept for the window display and interior design which is going to be based on "open-source" furniture that can be build in the workshop. Please note that the companies featured in this design are used solely for illustrative purposes and have no affiliation with or endorsement of this project.