In many small German towns, the retail trade is suffering at the hands of the industry giants, who can produce more products much more cheaply and much more quickly. „Since the train connection to Stuttgart was built, we retailers no longer stand a chance,“ says Ralf, who had to close his three - generation stationery shop last year. Online retail finally did the rest for many - in Herrenberg, small cafés and unpackaged shops are now bordered by shop windows of yawning emptiness. In cooperation with the city of Herrenberg and Cinema, we travelled to Herrenberg, spoke to the people and developed a communication measure to promote the value of the retail trade within the given framework - a story for Herrenberg. We developed a comic in which two characters live through a day in Herrenberg. At the end, the viewer stands in front of a mirror, sees himself in context and faces the question: What is my story of Herrenberg? Together, we encourage the viewer to pause and realise that a vibrant Herrenberg is in their hands. We placed a metal box with a notebook and pens on a bench in front of the shop window. There is not only space for your own story, but also the opportunity to read others. After just one week, our little notebook was filled with a wide variety of different handwritings.
Herrenberg is a beautiful little town south of Stuttgart, with a cute old town. Unfortunately a lot of stores had to close lately making the city center not only less lively but also less comfortable to be around.
First of all we wanted to create our own impression of Herrenberg. On a sunny day trip, we walked around and interviewed two shop owners and two inhabitants of Herrenberg. What are they thinking?
After analysing our interviews it became clear, that the inhabitants value their city and do want it to become more lively again. What is missing, is the understanding that they are the ones in power of change. This is why we created a little story to create a feeling of community and motivate to start shopping locally again.
1 Research
- Interviews with retailers and with residents of Herrenberg (two each, methods used: semi-structured interviews, experiential interviews)
- Inspection of the town and the vacant properties
2 Analysis & concept
How can we counteract the collapse of the retail sector?
Solution: „More recognition for the retail trade“
3 Design & Implementation
- Conception of a story using the storytelling method
- creation of templates
- realisation on two working days on site
This project was part of my studies in Information Design B.A.
Team members: 4
Time span: 4 months
Partner:
City of Herrenberg
Interreg Cinema Project
Supervised by:
- concept for interviews
- moderation & analysis of interviews
- ideation of our story based on the principles of storytelling
- planning of final installation and creation of a true-to-scale plan
