Bauhaus-Universität Weimar Students Win Four Coveted Nails at Prestigious 2024 ADC Talent Awards

Book about hair from a Black and biracial perspective wins Golden Nail

Elfi Handina Murandu received the prestigious ADC Nail in GOLD for her Bachelor's thesis »A Book About Hair«. Hair has always played a pivotal role in Black communities. The racialisation of Black bodies during colonialism and slavery made Black hair a focus of social struggles. »A Book about Hair« is about out hair, Black hair, and being Black. The publication includes 30 perspectives from Black and biracial individuals. The collection also includes nine dialogues, a group discussion, a glossary, and 17 submissions ranging from poetry, prose, essays, and three artistic contributions. »The thoughtful examination of everyday racism with a focus on hair, both in terms of content and graphics, impressed us. The book develops from a personal perspective, picking up on historical and scientific facts; it refers to political achievements, such as the Crown Act, and then unfolds into a loud, important voice that is unfortunately still necessary today«, explained the jury on their decision.

Silver Nail awarded for complex examination of the phoenetic alphabet

Hanna Hofmann’s Bachelor's thesis »Audiovisual Exploration of the International Phonetic Alphabet« was awarded with an ADC Silver Nail. For her Bachelor's thesis, the designer analysed the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA contains all of the sounds that exist in human language and offers the unique opportunity to document pronunciation in writing. By exploring audiovisual concepts, Hanna Hofmann was able to clarify the complex connections between language, phonetics and visual representation. The result is the educational website www.IPAudiovisual.com, which uses simple 2D animations to explain the alphabet. The website also provides explanations of terms and anatomy. Her work is expanded upon with an exhibition that brings the IPA and its associated scientifically-proven visual associations. Visitors to the exhibit can say words and sentences in their own language, these are then translated live into IPA and simultaneously into colour and shape associations. Hofmann used Touchdesigner software, a specially developed Python script, the Whisper AI speech recognition system and ChatGPT for her project. You can watch an explanatory video here: www.vimeo.com/958200836   

Another Silver Nail for »PORT« student magazine about emotions

Henry Böbst and Vivien Sorrentino were also awarded a SILVER ADC nail for their semester project »PORT 2023 – It’s a mood«. »PORT« magazine is an annual publication and is conceptualised and designed by a new team and with a new theme every year. For the 2023 issue, the student team investigated the emotions a student experiences before, during and after an intensive project phase. This issue of »PORT« takes readers on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, highlighting the emotional elements of individual projects. Together with those who submitted, the designers and the editorial team developed an individualised spectrum of emotional worlds that the students experienced during the project. This resulted in an individualised visualisation of each submitted project based on the eight basic emotions according to Plutchik's emotion model: joy, confidence, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger and anticipation.

Bronze Nail for job fair focussing on a successfully starting a professional life as a freelance artist

Freie Kunst students were recognised for their »Get rich. Maybe not famous.« project with a BRONZE Nail. In light of the fact that it is generally difficult for art students to find a decent career after graduation, the idea was born to organise a job fair specifically for artists. Experienced artists and gallery owners were invited to the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar to pass on their knowledge about starting a career to the students in a concentrated format. It was important to present as many different career paths as possible in order to offer students a wide range of perspectives for their future. As part of summaery2023, the university's annual exhibition, design and art studios presented themselves at their own exhibition stands. The event was supported by a series of lectures with artists and gallery owners. Guests included: Rafael Horzon, gallery owner Laetitia Gorsy, and artist Paule Hammer. You can see impressions of the job fair in this video: www.vimeo.com/958199199  

About the ADC Talent Award: 

The ADC Talent Awards is one of the most prestigious competitions for young creatives and honours outstanding achievements in design, advertising and visual communication.
An overview of all award-winning works from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar presented at the ADC Talent Awards 2024 can be found here: https://www.adc.de/wettbewerb/adc-gallery/talents/list/client/year/2024/11 

All awards and prizes at a glance:

»A Book about Hair« by Elfi Handina Murandu
Golden Nail in »Concept > Editorial Products / Corporate Publishing Products« category
Bachelor's thesis in Visuelle Kommunikation (Visual Communication), supervised by Prof. Markus Weisbeck, Katrin Steiger and Adrian Palko

»Audiovisual Exploration of the International Phonetic Alphabet« by Hanna Hofmann
Silver Nail in »Experiment > Creative Technology > Kreativer Einsatz Von Technik > Code« category
Bachelor's thesis in Visuelle Kommunikation (Visual Communication), supervised by Prof. Burkhart von Scheven and Masihne Rasuli

»PORT 2023 – It’s a mood« by Henry Böbst and Vivien Sorrentino
Silver Nail in »Concept > Editorial Products / Corporate Publishing Products« category
Semester project in Visuelle Kommunikation (Visual Communication), supervised by Marcel Saidov, Adrian Palko and Deputy Professor Charlotte Rohde

»Get rich. Maybe not famous.« by Helena Boldt, Lilly Braatz, Moritz Eggert, Sarah Feyerabend, Justus Haug, Lilly Fruth, Laura Usai, Hansol Lee, Mathias Lorenz, You Eun Nam, Sina Robering, Hauke Scholz, Jasper Venter
Bronze Nail in the »Concept > Spatial Experience / Extended Reality > Konzeption & Design Von Raumerlebnissen > Event« category
Semester project in the Freie Kunst degree programme, supervised by Florian Hesselbarth and Prof. Christine Hill

In case of questions, please contact Romy Weinhold, Press and Public Relations Officer for the Faculty of Art and Design (+49 3643/58-1186; romy.weinhold[at]uni-weimar.de).