3 nails in bronze – that is the result of the students from the Bachelor of Communication Design (KD) at Hof University of Applied Sciences at the Art Directors Club (ADC) Talent Award 2025, the most important competition for young designers and design students in Germany. In addition, the final and semester projects were honored with various awards (shortlist).
The awards also mean that Hof University of Applied Sciences is included in the ADC University Creative Index, a ranking of the most creative universities, for the first time. The index gives students, teachers and employers a clear picture of the creative fields of application and shows which disciplines universities are particularly good at training in. This enables students to better orient themselves, plan their professional orientation and universities to further develop their study programs in a targeted manner. Teachers and employers gain valuable insights into the quality of education at universities.
The ADC Talent Award is presented by the Art Directors Club (ADC) and honors young creative talent in the fields of communication design, advertising and visual communication.
The top-class jury awarded the prizes to the students on May 21 and 22 as part of the ADC Festival in Hamburg in front of several hundred guests. Afterwards, the successes were duly celebrated at the After Awards Show Party.
The award-winning works at a glance
Nail and award in GraphicDesign / Typography – All Kinds of Media and Interface Design for the semester project “24 Fonts, Sites, Students”
Fonts are essential for design and communication, but many Google Fonts go unnoticed – even though they play a central role far beyond the web. As an integral part of the visual identity of large companies, universities and other institutions, they are often underestimated. The aim was to make selected Google Fonts visible, present their special features and show their design potential.
The 2nd semester (now 4th semester) Communication Design was awarded for the joint work “24 Fonts, Sites, Students”, supervised by Prof. Norbert Diedrich. The students developed 24 independent micro-websites, each focusing on a Google font. Each page highlights the font styles, glyphs, design features as well as the history and designer of the font.
Project info: https://www.adc.de/wettbewerb/adc-gallery/detail/year/2025/entry/91857/
Nail and award in Creative Use of Technology – Code and Hardware/Software Systems for the project “The Interactive First Aid Kit” by Giuliana Fuchs
Emergency situations can be stressful and overwhelming for those affected. Help wants to be given, but the knowledge of how to use first aid equipment is not available. How can this be prevented or supported in the situation and how can the stress and fear be relieved? The result is an interactive presentation of the functions of a first aid kit. Visually appealing animations show how each object can be used in an emergency. In this way, knowledge of the elements can be deepened and the practical application in emergency situations is illustrated. The semester project, supervised by Prof. Michael Zöllner, offers an informative and interactive experience that enables people to react appropriately in an emergency and use first aid equipment effectively.
Project info: https://www.adc.de/wettbewerb/adc-gallery/detail/year/2025/entry/91731/
Nail in the category Concept & Design of Spatial Experiences – Virtual Reality, Augmented/Mixed Reality for the project “Stepping into History” by Celina Jahn
Gunter Demnig’s Stumbling Stones commemorate the victims of National Socialism and mark their last places of residence. But who were the people behind the names? The aim of the project “Stepping into History: Uncovering Hidden Narratives”, supervised by Prof. Michael Zöllner, is to make their stories tangible – respectfully, without changing the stones themselves or interfering with existing forms of commemoration.
The result is a web-based application that uses augmented reality and artificial intelligence to make biographical content emotionally tangible.
Historical photos are turned into animated portraits and 3D models that can be accessed on site via a GPS-supported map. This gives users new access to life stories – directly at the place of remembrance.
The bachelor project was implemented in Nuremberg and shows how digital technologies can expand the culture of remembrance – interactively, personally and respectfully.
Project info: https://www.adc.de/wettbewerb/adc-gallery/detail/year/2025/entry/90957/
The work of Giuliana Fuchs and Celina Jahn has already won the Annual Multimedia Digital Talents Award 2025. To the article.
As this is the most important prize for young designers, it represents a great success for our degree program. The standard of submissions is very high and word of our success has spread quickly among the students.”
Prof. Norbert Diedrich, Prof. Claudia Muth and Prof. Michael Zöllner
Impressions from the ADC Festival in Hamburg
The Art Directors Club for Germany, founded in Düsseldorf in 1964, is a non-profit association with the aim of finding and promoting excellent creative communication. Its members work in the communication professions of design, digital, editorial, film & sound, spatial experience and advertising, as well as in research and teaching.
Further information: https://www.adc.de/
