Discotic liquid crystals represent a promising class of new materials, for example, with respect to their photoconductivity properties. To tailor the processability and mesophase behaviour of such materials, specifically functionalized cores are required as precursor molecules for discotic oligomers, polymers and networks. The paper presents a simple synthetic strategy leading to unsymmetrically functionalized triphenylene and dibenzopyrene derivatives. Furthermore new symmetrical discotic octa-alkoxy-substituted dibenzopyrenes have been synthesized applying this route.