ADC Digital Conference 2025

Closing this year’s design conference season, the Art Directors Club brought the creative industry together for the ADC Digital Conference at the Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, for a compelling look at the current state of the industry under the theme of digital evolution. Alongside critical discussions on where the industry is heading, leading artists and studios shared project insights, highlighting lessons learned, boundaries pushed, and methods reshaped. 

Entering the main hall, visitors were immediately drawn upward: a special projection spanning the 13-meter dome by Vasjen Katro (Baugasm) turned the space into a shifting field of light, color, and motion under the topic of surveillance and algorithms.

DixonBaxi, the London-based design studio known for global brand systems across entertainment, tech, and sports, set the tone with a clear statement: “If the tools are all the same, thinking differently is a superpower.” Their cases showed how conceptual clarity and attitude matter more than software capabilities. From Barcelona, Domestic Data Streamers expanded the perspective toward social impact. After outlining “infoxication”: the overload that erodes empathy, they presented current research projects on accessibility. Their approach centers on designing communication systems that stay emotionally legible and inclusive from the ground up.

Chris Kore, a digital artist working between Berlin and London, calls herself a “digital dreamer” and unpacked her process for creating live, code-driven visual experiences. Her work for Boiler Room and Dekmantel connects generative systems with intuitive input, a recurring theme throughout the conference.

A highlight of the day was Vincent Schwenk, the Hamburg-based 3D artist known for his playful, tactile visual worlds. His talk condensed years of practice into a compact guide on staying experimental, curious, and fast in an industry that constantly shifts.

On the church stage, a panel brought together Burkhard Müller (Mutabor), Chris Kore, and Vasjen Katro. The discussion circled around personal branding, visibility, and the pressure of algorithm-driven platforms. When asked how they navigate the overwhelming stream of visual content, both Chris and Vasjen emphasized seeking out human-curated references instead of relying on algorithmic feeds, a conscious strategy to maintain originality.

In the context of our upcoming issue Slanted Magazine #47—Digital Tools, this event reinforced just how urgent and relevant the discourse and exploration of digital creative practice has become, and how strong the interest is in expanding the possibilities of the digital toolbox. Thanks for the invitation ADC!

© Photos by Jacob Tessmann