A day as the ADC jury: Brand design students award nails for design works
The summer semester 2020 calls for creativity – and therefore offers unique opportunities.
Normally, Prof. Michael Jonas would visit the exhibition of the prize-winning works of the ADC competition with his students in the summer semester. For our designers, missing this highlight was out of the question. Instead, they themselves became members of the jury and were the first students in Germany to be granted exclusive access to the ADC jury system.
On May 29th the course Transmedia Storytelling of the 4th semester Brand Design spent one day via video chat in the voting system of the ADC. Together the students awarded the highly desired nails to their favourites.
The category to be judged was: “Exhibition Experience”. On the ADC Presenter website they could go through the different exhibition projects.
” We voted with green and red cards together and live in a Zoom Chat. Sometimes even coloured cushions or highlighters were held up. In times of corona and home office you just have to be creative! After we had made a shortlist, there began a lively discussion,” says Lara Hein.
Lecturer Joachim Kortlepel was positively surprised by how critically his students dealt with the works, as they radically sorted out and enthusiastically fought for favourites.
“I was fascinated by the fact that you can get totally excited about some projects that appeal to you. You really want to convince others of what you associate with the project,” says Celina Rausch.
But what was particularly important to them? Which works had what it took to become favourites?
“For me personally, the idea was most important,” remembers Nicklas Heublein. “Whenever I had the thought ‘This idea is so simple and brilliant, I could have had it’ during an interesting project, it was usually particularly good.
“The selected works all had one thing in common: they were original, comprehensible, led to a change in consciousness, were convincing in terms of craftsmanship and gave us pleasure when we looked at them. So they met the ADC evaluation criteria,” says Lara, summarising the approach of her course.
Despite tough discussions, everyone was able to agree in the end and learn a lot in the process.
“Art is subjective, but in the end, through discussion and exchange, it becomes very clear who deserves a nail and who doesn’t,” says Lara. “For me it is no longer a mystery how a creative jury decides. Instead, I have understood what makes a really good artistic work. It brings people together, broadens our horizons and touches us deep inside. And that’s exactly what should be the driving force of every creative person: To touch people at their core, with their work.”