CUBE17
What Smart Health Innovation and Pippi Longstocking have in common
It’s only been 6 weeks since I started my own business. One of my resolutions was to be even more often where new things are created and where innovation is actually lived. This drive brings me together with interesting people again and again. This was also the case with CUBE17, one of my first big projects with a really exciting task: the creation of a new umbrella brand for an entire office building.
I know from experience that innovations can arise anywhere and at any time.
But they become even more sustainable if there is a physical place where these ideas can grow and flourish. CUBE17 is set to become such a place. A new office complex that is currently being built on the Health Campus South in Bochum. At first glance, it’s a 4-story office building like many others on campus, but the idea behind it is new and different.
My client, the real estate management company Gesundheitscampus Bochum GmbH, has set itself the goal of uniting the concentrated knowledge and experience around the topic of smart health under a new umbrella brand in the CUBE17 house. The future tenants have been carefully selected and are well-known companies in the industry such as MedEcon Ruhr, CGM – CompuGroup Medical, Kairos and Meerkat Holding. The real estate company does not see itself purely as a landlord of office space, but wants to use CUBE17 to make the building a focal point for the health of the future. A place where smart health continues to develop, where new talents in the industry meet and network, where more is created together.
A new brand
My task was to make this initial idea of CUBE17 tangible, to identify common potentials and to develop a brand image that represents all tenant companies equally. In the process, CUBE17 is not intended to sell anything in the future. Rather, the brand serves as a flagship and framework for the topic of smart health innovation at the Health Campus South in Bochum.
What is new here is that both landlords and tenants sit together at the same table right from the start. This is an exciting challenge, which we discussed with all future tenants in a virtual brand strategy workshop at the beginning. In the process, we dared to tackle the really big questions right away…
- What values drive us?
- What are our higher goals?
- What are our common strengths and how can we bundle them even better?
- And, how can we manifest all of this in a consistent brand image that everyone feels comfortable with?
The results of the initial workshop are impressive. The team identified viable, strong values such as responsibility, community, authenticity, sustainability and innovation for themselves and defined higher goals, such as sharing knowledge in smart health or better access to modern healthcare for all. Our mission: to improve and develop health together.
Together, we also worked on a brand personality and thus tried to make the future brand more tangible. Well-known personalities from public life were available for selection. The new community wants to act unconventionally and lightheartedly. To stand up for others and act far from the mainstream. To go new ways without pretending and to implement all this, it needs of course a lot of courage and strength. Who better than Pippi Longstocking, who combines all these virtues in one person?
The newly formed team of CUBE17 wants to bundle content in the future and thus jointly bring the topic of smart health forward in the region, but also beyond. Such an alliance also has advantages in terms of sustainability. Close and regular coordination of all tenants can save costs and protect the environment, e.g. in the bundling of everyday purchases or a more sustainable use of resources. Topic-specific events can also be organized under the new umbrella brand CUBE17, for example to address new talent in the field of smart health in a more targeted manner and thus make the building a regular focal point for the health of the future. Together we can achieve more. There are already many good ideas.
Bringing the brand to life
On this basis, a new brand image was developed in a second step, which does justice to the ambitious goals of all those involved.
The central idea is as simple as it is versatile, as easy to decipher as it is to code. The new CUBE17 brand image is a simple square, inspired by the name and shape of the building. The letters C-U-B-E are framed by a stylized 17.
The logo comes in four color variations. Each color world embodies the values of the brand and thus allows a playful use that can be used again and again in a new and different way without losing recognition. The CUBE17 brand is also to be experienced in the building. The public areas in particular will be used for this purpose. The simple design language is to run through the building like a red thread.
For this purpose, we use the versatility of QR codes. At the latest since the introduction of a digital vaccination certificate, we use them every day without giving them much thought. QR codes are versatile and a wonderful way to digitally charge the brand with relevant content.
The foundation stone has been laid. Now it’s time to implement and experience the CUBE17 brand in and around the new building on the South Health Campus in Bochum.
www.jenswiemann.com
www.cube17.de
March 2022 – Jens Wiemann
Jens Wiemann is a freelance innovation consultant and designer and likes to be where new things are created. He accompanies the development and design of the brand CUBE17 for the real estate management company Gesundheitscampus Bochum GmbH.
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