Animation of the FRK Journal logo with a green background image of a FREI RAUM KUNST workshop, 2025

“How can a communication concept be developed to attract more immigrant youth
to FREI RAUM KUNST workshops of the Brücke Museum?”

Description:

As the final test of the Communication & Multimedia Design studies, students have to do a real life design case for a client in a span of 3 months. For this graduation project, I worked on a design case for the Brücke Museum in Berlin.

Brücke-Museum is a collection-based research institution for the works by the artists’ group Brücke. It holds one of the largest collections of Brücke art and it is the only museum in the world with this focus. The harmonious interplay between nature, the collection and the museum’s architecture creates a very special place for the public to experience art.

FREI RAUM KUNST is an initiative of the Brücke Museum with the intent to give marginalised youth in Steglitz-Zehlendorf the access to creatively express, connect and enjoy making art through decentralised workshops in the district. Because of limited time, resources, cultural, social and language barriers there is a lack of youth attendance. This became the base of my research question which is quoted above

Through the use of design thinking methods which I learned during the studies, I separated the time period in 5 phases: internally researching the target audience, defining important findings through guiding principles and extra research, brainstorming ideas, making prototypes, testing these prototypes and ideas and finally implementing the feedback.

This resulted in the final concept that is called the ‘FREI RAUM KUNST (FRK) Journal’, a publication for and by youth. It uses a person-centered-model inspired by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

In a series of co-creations, a group of motivated youth gather interesting stories, articles, recipes, puzzles and other things they are interested about. They work towards filling in a layout that is turned into a distributable booklet. Together with information about and an invitiation for the workshops, it is an easy to produce publication that is distributed within the youth’s communities in order to attract both existing and new workshop participants.

The concept has 3 separate parts: 1. gathering content and creating a first layout; 2. producing the FRK Journal; 3. celebrating the publication through an open (and moving) exhibition and distributing the publication in the communities.

Part one: a first layout

On the right side: a mockup of the toolbox that guides the youth in gathering content and creating a FRK Journal. It holds ideas, options but also rules that need to be followed to make sure the design system stays constant over all the created publications.

On the left side: a mockup of the final layout that needs to be filled in with all the content and design choices. This will allow someone to create the final version and put it to print.

Part 2: the FRK Journal

Click on the image to see a preview of the publication

After the layout is digitalised, it is printed double sided on an A2 heavy weight paper. After having printed a batch, A single paper could be folded in four into an A5 booklet. By printing it on one single paper, the costs get reduced a lot, making it cheap and easy to produce a lot.

The cover holds an artwork that was created during one of the FREI RAUM KUNST workshops and the back cover holds the data for upcoming workshops and an invitation to apply. When you open up the booklet, you’ll get the introduction and the first article written by the youth. If you fold it open again, it folds into A3 with the main content of the publication–puzzles, articles, recipes, interviews. If you fold it one last time, it turns into an A2 poster with more of the artwork that was made during the workshops. This way, the publication is multifunctional and could be used as a poster to be hanged up on a wall.

Part 3: celebrating, exhibiting and distributing

Through different media–invites, social media and posters–the neighborhood gets invited to celebrate the release of the publication. This festive activity could be held anywhere; at the youth community center, at the Brücke Museum or somewhere in a public space. This is done through the help of the Museum on Wheels (the M.o.W.)

The Museum on Wheels is an adaptation on the W.o.W. (the Workshop on Wheels). This is a modular car hangar that can be opened up into a table with a canvas roof. By adding screens on the side of the roof, it could function as an exhibition where all the works of the youth, that were created during the workshops, could be displayed.

A render of the Museum on Wheels with the exhibition panels as attachments. Created by Milan de Moor

Moments during FREI RAUM KUNST workshops

Youth creating an FRK Journal

Final exhibition of bachelors project to Brücke Museum