Stadt Karlsruhe

The City of Karlsruhe aimed to reposition itself as a modern, diverse, and attractive employer in order to strengthen its visibility and appeal for future talent. The challenge was to shift perceptions of public administration away from traditional, bureaucratic associations and to create a contemporary, human-centered employer brand that resonates with a wide range of professional groups.
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The campaign “Ist doch KA.” was developed as a bold and flexible communication framework that combines clarity, emotionality, and local identity. The claim plays on the German expression “Ist doch klar” (“obviously”) and the abbreviation “KA” for Karlsruhe, creating a distinctive and memorable wordplay.

The system was designed as a modular headline structure, enabling tailored messaging for different target groups, professions, and benefits. This allowed the campaign to move fluidly between recruitment communication and broader employer branding narratives while maintaining a consistent visual and verbal identity.
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As Art Director, I contributed to the development of the overall communication and design concept for the employer branding campaign. My responsibilities included designing and adapting digital and print campaign assets, supporting the visual development across multiple media channels, and overseeing the final artwork of communication materials.

I also provided creative direction during photo and film productions in close collaboration with employees of the City of Karlsruhe, the HR marketing team, project managers, stylists, makeup artists, photographers, and videographers. In addition, I developed the visual style guide for the campaign, ensuring consistency across all touchpoints.
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The campaign was executed through an intensive two-day production, during which approximately 16 employees were photographed and filmed across 20 locations, each aligned with specific professional fields and thematic clusters.

Despite the high organizational complexity and tight timeframe, the production resulted in a cohesive and dynamic employer branding campaign that successfully humanized the City of Karlsruhe as an employer. The final outcome strengthened the city’s positioning as a modern, approachable, and diverse workplace, while creating a flexible communication system that can be used across various recruiting and image-building contexts.


Links to the project:

https://www.mdct.ag/de/projects/stadt-karlsruhe/

https://www.instagram.com/stadtkarlsruhe_karriere/