ADC Night of Honour 2008 : from the Roncalli circus to the fashion circus - Ellen von Unwerth is announced as an Honorary ADC Member

Photographer Ellen von Unwerth was made an ADC honorary member of the creative club at the fourth “ADC Night of Honour 2008”. Rolf Fehlbaum of Vitra AG was distinguished as „ADC Client of the Year“ and club member Professor Thomas Rempen was awarded for his lifetime achievement. Approximately 200 famous faces from the creative industries and their project providers attended the ceremony and spent a festive evening at the historic museum venue.

Ellen von Unwerth spent her childhood in an orphanage in Allgäu, South West Bavaria. At the age of 16 she went to Munich and joined the Roncalli Circus as a “number girl”, until she was booked for a shoot for Bravo teeny mag, only to be discovered by the head of Elite Models. She then worked her way up as a model and eventually, almost by coincidence as a photographer. Her breakthrough was an assignment for French ELLE, for whom she was asked to photograph a commercial campaign for GUESS. She chose Claudia Schiffer who was only 17 at the time.

Ellen von Unwerth’s work is published in international fashion publications including Vogue and Vanity Fair. Today she works and lives in Paris with her daughter. The laudation was held by ADC member Tom Jacobi. The ADC has been announcing “ADC Honorary Members” since 1979, these have included Vicco von Bülow, Tomi Ungerer, Rudolf Augstein, Helmut Newton and Michael Conrad amongst others.

Manager Magazine announced Jung von Matt as the “Agency of the Year” for the second year running. Editor in chief Dr. Arno Balzer presented Antonia Nawroth, acting on behalf of the agency, with the award. Berlin-based agencies DDB and Scholz & Friends were awarded the second and the third places. The magazine publishes the results of German advertising agencies in the most important national and international advertising competitions, in an annual creative index,.

This year Professor Thomas Rempen was honoured for his creative lifetime achievement. He was the creative leading man, alongside Helmut Schmitz, behind the Hildmann, Simon, Rempen&Schmitz agency. Having established a second agency Rempen&Partner, he managed to re-establish Düsseldorf as an interesting base for advertisers and contemporary architecture at the “Media Harbour”. In his lifetime Thomas Rempen managed to work with almost every big client in advertising. In 1995 he founded WYSIWYG, one of Germany’s first online agencies. In addition to this, Thomas Rempen also established his own agency, which was the first to serve online and offline clients.