Golden confetti – Silver nail
353 things and a silver nail – that’s probably the best way to describe Leonie Braitsch’s trip to Hamburg. At the renowned ADC Festival 2025, her bachelor’s thesis “353 – Die (zu)Vielzahl meiner Dinge”, created at the DHBW Ravensburg, was honoured with the Silver Nail in the experimental design category as part of the ADC Talent Awards and also received two other awards.
The Art Directors Club for Germany (ADC) is one of the most influential creative organisations in the German-speaking world. Its aim is to make exceptional ideas visible and to promote creative quality in design, communication and media. Once a year, it organises a festival in Hamburg – an industry get-together with exhibitions, lectures, discussions and a major awards ceremony. The coveted gold, silver and bronze nails are awarded there. The big agencies and well-known names in the industry are also there – which makes it particularly exciting for young designers to be able to present their own work as part of the ADC Talent Awards.
The winning work “353” is a video installation about consumer behaviour. The starting point was the observation that everyday consumption leads to a constantly growing amount of personal items, the extent and significance of which often go unnoticed. In order to make this visible, Leonie documented and staged her own everyday objects – in masses, bizarre and sometimes banal. Instead of pointing the finger at others, she points at herself and thus opens up accessible food for thought. The result is a visual count of things that does not come across as instructive, but instead creates a humorous and at the same time serious approach. This is exactly what the ADC jury confirmed: the work “caught them in their own everyday lives and totally triggered them”, clear in its message, refreshing in its presentation and compelling in its simplicity.
The project was created as part of the dual study programme Media Design at the DHBW Ravensburg, which was completed at VISUELL. The special thing about this degree programme is the close combination of academic training and practical experience in the company. In Ravensburg, great emphasis is placed on projects that regularly open up new perspectives and sharpen the focus on design. It is precisely these projects and the close collaboration with different people that decisively characterise the students: away from a purely aesthetic understanding towards design as attitude, communication and effect.
In addition, “353” was shown together with other final projects during the art night at the Kunstmuseum Ravensburg as part of the media design students' exhibition weekend. This allowed the work to reach an even wider audience. Visitors stopped in front of the videos, smiled, discussed and grappled with their own “things getting out of hand” – precisely the moment of reflection that the project aims to trigger.
The award of the silver nail at the ADC and the presentation at the Kunstmuseum Ravensburg illustrate the extent to which design can trigger discussions and provide food for thought. A conclusion that feels like golden confetti.
Picture credits Award ceremony: Kevin Mohr/ADC
