The Hub at the Dayton Arcade is the new brand for the joint venture between the University of Dayton and The Entrepreneurs Center.
And there’s a good reason the logo looks like a computer power button.
“What you see from the logo kind of is a homage — a call out to the shape of the space, the history of the space — but really the start,” said Scott Koorndyk, president of The Entrepreneurs Center. “We want to start things here, so it looks like a start button.”
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UD and the center have teamed up to occupy 100,000 square feet of space in the arcade for offices, classes, co-working activities, collaborations, entrepreneurship and plenty else.
The Hub’s logo, designed by UD senior Megan Lewis, looks like a start button that has some of the arcade’s notable colors and features incorporated into the design.
The design took inspiration from some of the arcade’s archways and the colorful cornucopias that adorn the rotunda, Lewis said. But she chose to amplify some of the older, Art Deco colors and add other modern touches.
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The Hub will be a place of innovation, and the logo and brand need to to be fresh and exciting to reflect that, she said.
“It is this place where we give entrepreneurs a place to start, a place to begin,” said Lewis, 21, who is majoring in graphic design. “That kind of falls in line with having classes here, too, at the University of Dayton, because we wanted this place for students to learn, to grow and have a start.”
A good brand is supposed to make a memorable impression, and Koorndyk says the Hub’s logo hints at good things to come.
The logo and branding is supposed to give the space a sense of itself and serve as a visual representation of the space and what goes on inside, he said.
The Hub will be home to start-up companies and will be the place that starts a change in people’s lives, he said.
The logo, which will be used on wayfinding signage, marketing materials and websites, is a visual representation of what the partners want to accomplish in the arcade, Koorndyk said.
“It makes me feel like the promise of the space is really represented visually, and in a short period from now, we’ll see what it’s like when it’s real,” he said.
UD and the Entrepreneurs Center could have hired a professional agency to create the brand and logo, but the Hub seeks to provide students and others with experiential learning opportunities, he said.
Lewis’ design is expected to be one of the first of many student contributions to the rebirth of the arcade.
“I think the design is outstanding,” Koorndyk said. “There is no question it was everybody’s top pick.”
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