The Faculty of Design, as the representative art academy for the state of Thuringia, was able to prevail over many other states, receiving two awards as the Student/Talent of the Year as well as a Silver and Bronze Nail. Hamburg landed on first place.

In 2012, Sandra Krebs from the Faculty of Media and Alexander Döpel from the Faculty of Art and Design were awarded the title of »European Student of the Year« by the ADC. They impressed the jury with their work »Die 'ZEIT ZU HANDELN!' – Installation« (Time for Action). The artists created a display that consists of a total of 112 clockworks, four of which create the form of the swastika every 26 minutes. The concept of the project was a portrayal of statistical values: a right-wing extremist motivated crime is committed in Germany every 26 minutes and this trend is continually increasing.
In the following year, Giacomo Blume, Moritz Glück and Daniel Plath were awarded a Silver Nail for their thesis project »ugly fruits – ‘cause taste is not a matter of appearance« in the category of »Ganzheitliche Kommunikation« (Holistic Communication). The three graduates impressed the jury with their unique concept: a shop for bended fruit.

The ranking was based on the calculation of creative excellence. All of the German universities, who were represented in the years between 2012 and 2014 through the submission of student projects, were taken into consideration.

All of the awarded projects were part of the scoring: the main prizes ADC Junior of the Year, ADC Student of the Year and ADC Talent of the Year were all worth 10 points each, Gold Nails were all worth 6 points, Silver Nails 4 points, Bronze Nails 2 points and awards were worth 1 point each. The score was then weighted according to the number of relevant universities in the respective states.

More information about the creative ranking of universities can be found here: http://www.adc.de/wettbewerbe/service/kreativranking-fach-und-hochschulen.html