»New challenges often need impulses from outside to develop and implement innovative solutions. That’s what we stand for at EMBASSY.«
Prof. Katrin Androschin is co-founder and Managing Partner of EMBASSY. She is an expert in brand strategy, brand design and brand management. She advises on marketing strategy issues, develops new brands and designs and facilitates workshops for innovation and change processes in companies and institutions. Her passion is to develop new solutions for current issues by linking strategy and design.
Expertise
Austrian-born Katrin Androschin’s professional background is in communication design, in which she graduated at the University of Applied Sciences Munich in 1992. In the first ten years of her career, she was responsible for brand identity projects, including for international telecommunications companies and financial service providers – at the branding agencies Landor, Wolff Olins, Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux, Metadesign and Futurebrand in San Francisco, Zurich, London and Berlin.
Today, one of her main focuses is the development of brand strategies for companies and places, such as the city of Berlin (»Be Berlin«), the Latvian capital Riga, the German-speaking Community of Belgium (place brand »Ostbelgien«) or the Daimler and Benz Foundation. She designs and moderates participatory strategy and communication processes for companies and regions, such as for the state of Upper Austria or rural regions in Hesse, Germany.
In addition to her work at EMBASSY, Katrin Androschin is head of the M.A. Strategic Design programme at the SRH Berlin University and Member of the Advisory Board of Johannesstift Diakonie gAG.
Teaching
Prof. Katrin Androschin has been teaching since 2002, since 2016 as professor and programme director of the International M.A. Strategic Design programme at the SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences (former design akademie Berlin). Before that, she was a professor at the University of Applied Sciences Dresden, at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences (btk) Berlin and at the Free University of Bolzano in Italy. Other teaching positions have taken her to the German University in Cairo (Berlin Campus), the Estonian Academy of Arts Tallinn, the ITB Institute of Technology Bandung on Java/Indonesia and the Istituto Superiore di Design in Naples.
Katrin Androschin’s University projects often deal with design thinking, design innovation and digital strategies. Examples are:
Smart Clothing and Sustainability, in cooperation with Volkswagen AG Group Innovation, Wolfsburg and Comlogo, Dassel
Re-defining the UNESCO world heritage Albula Tunnel, in cooperation with Rhätische Bahn, Graubünden, Switzerland
Design Thinking for a community space for a Syrian refugees camp in Lebanon, in cooperation with Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA) Beirut, Lebanon
Counterspeech-Campaign Peer to Peer: Facebook Global Digital Challenge, Winner of the international competition with Don’t be silent Berlin
Future scenarios for autonomous driving, in cooperation with the Daimler and Benz Foundation, Ladenburg/Berlin
Jury and Expert Activities
Expert Juror and Head of Jury, Innovation Funding Programmes »impulse« and »Creative Impact« of Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws), the Promotional Bank of the Austrian Federal Government, 2005 and 2012 until today, Bundesministerium für Digitalisierung und Wirtschaftsstandort Österreich, Creative Impact
Expert Juror for the Innovation Programme 2020 for Future Business Models and Pioneering Solutions (IGP) of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) for Innovation in Culture and Creative Industries, 2020
Assessor for the Wissenschaftsrat (German Council for Science) for institutional accreditation of universities, since 2019
Expert Juror of the »Arthur Zelger-Prize for Good Design« and the »Arthur Zelger-Förderstipendiums«, Austria, since 2020
Expert for the Wertestudie des Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) im Rahmen der Strategischen Vorausschau (Strategic Foresight) oft he German Federal Government, 2019
Consultant for the state design education in Latvia, dizaina informācijas centrs, Riga, Latvia, 2008
Engagement and Memberships
Member of the Evangelisches Johannesstiftes Berlin
Member of the Commission for the funding of innovative spaces »Dritte Orte« of the Protestant Church Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz (EKBO)
Speaker at the Women Speaker Foundation
Member of design austria and Tirol International
Talks and Workshops
Lecture series Design and Nature: Strategic Design and Sustainability, Diploma Hochschule, Bad Sooden-Allendorf, 2020
Conference NEUSTART Positionen, Dialog statt Hass, Handlungsstrategien gegen Hass im Netz, lecture and panel discussion, Innsbruck, 2019
Conference ZGO19 – Civil society online under pressure, workshop »Before the hate even begins: visual storytelling as prevention«, Berlin, 2019
Moderation panel discussion »No ethics, no aesthetics – How social and fair is furniture design?«, Austrian Embassy Berlin, 2016
Panel discussion »Country of Origin in Marketing: Opportunities of Swissness and Germany as a Brand« – Swiss Embassy Berlin, 2015
125 years of advertising for the Tyrol, anniversary ceremony, participation in the panel discussion, 2015
Lecture »How to involve target groups emotionally«, ERHT European Route of Historic Theatres Conference, Warsaw, 2015
Panel discussion »From A to B – What do cities look like?« Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Berlin, with the Mart Stam Foundation, 2015.
Lecture »Branding, Everywhere? Do regions need brands?« Weissraum Designforum Tirol, Innsbruck, 2014
Speaker at the symposium of the TheoLab Berlin »Theology of the City«, 2014
Hamburg Marketing Day 2013, lecture and workshops »Brand Ambassadors – The Role of People in Brand Communication«
Keynote »Arguments of an Austrian Design Policy« at the European Design Business Dialogue 2012, Vienna, 2012
Lecture »Employer Branding and Corporate History«, Berliner Expertengespräch 2011: Querdenken als Unternehmensstrategie, Villa der Weberbank Berlin, hosted by E&E Consultants.
Workshop and Seminar: »Branding for Bandung as Creative City«, Bandung, Indonesia, 2009, organised by ITB Institut Teknologi Bandung and the Goethe-Institut Bandung
Workshop »Branding in the 21st century«, Euprio Conference, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal, 2009
Conference »Vai dizainam būt Latvijā?« (Should Design be in Latvia?), Riga, 2008
Publications (selection)
Katrin Androschin reflects with Julia Leihener in »Strategic Design in the Context of Syrian-Lebanese Forced Migration« on Design Thinking as a Method for Social Innovation. In: Beronneau, Gilbert, Berlin School of Design and Communication, A School of the SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences (ed.), Design Thinking as a Method of Social Innovation, Field Study in a Refugee Camp in Lebanon. Heidelberger Hochschulverlag, 2020
In the book »Ikonen und Eintagsfliegen, Arthur Zelger und das Grafikdesign in Tirol«, edited by Anita Kern and Kurt Höretzeder, Katrin Androschin traces in her contribution »Von der Tourismusreklame zur Standortmarke. Die Marke Tirol« the developmental steps of the Austrian destination Tyrol from the posters of the early days to the complex marketing strategies that tourist brands follow today. Innsbruck, 2014
In »Communicating Tradition. The Handbook of Heritage Communication«, edited by Heike Buehler and Uta-Micaela Dürig, Katrin Androschin, Klaus Asemann and Andreas Mack examine in »Raus aus der Garage. What benefit does a company’s historically grown identity have for its employees?«, how the successful relaunch of Software AG works with components of historical communication and uses image communication in this context. Frankfurt, 2008
Interview on branding Typeradio podcast