CLEVER°FRANKE has been awarded the title of European Design Agency of the Year 2025, recognizing their innovative approach to design and their leadership in the field of data visualization and AI. The award was presented during the award ceremony at European Design Festival in Ljubljana on June 7th, cementing CLEVER°FRANKE’s status as a pioneer in blending technology, creativity, and data to create meaningful design solutions.
The European Design Awards grants this distinction annually to an agency that has demonstrated consistent excellence across their projects, elevating the standards of European design and contributing significantly to the industry. CLEVER°FRANKE is the first agency worldwide to earn an Agency of the Year title from both Red Dot Design Awards and European Design Awards.
Design Rooted in Clarity and Impact
The recognition follows a series of recent milestones for CLEVER°FRANKE, including projects like the identity design for the Design & AI Symposium 2024, and the Type 1 Diabetes Index, both of which received their own individual European Design Awards: the Design & AI Symposium identity won Gold in Integrated Identity Applications, while the Type 1 Diabetes Index won Bronze in the Information Site category. Both of these projects highlight the trademark strengths of CLEVER°FRANKE — designing compelling and informative experiences using data and AI.
For CLEVER°FRANKE, the Agency of the Year award marks a high point in their mission to make the complexity of the world more understandable. Cofounder Thomas Clever reflects: “This award celebrates the power of design to guide us through a rapidly changing world. As AI and complex systems influence more of our lives, we see visualization as a critical tool, not just to explain what’s happening, but to shape a future where technology remains understandable, responsible, and human-centered.”
Pushing the Boundaries of Design
As CLEVER°FRANKE looks ahead, the team remains committed to pushing boundaries — exploring new technologies, deepening their interdisciplinary collaborations, and designing with a clear sense of responsibility. “Design has the power to shape how we see the world,” says Clever. “And that means we have a responsibility to use that power wisely.”
Designing the AI Frontier
As CLEVER°FRANKE looks ahead, we see design will play a pivotal role in shaping how we interact with these intelligent systems integrated into our society, work and daily lives. The interfaces, experiences, and even the “personalities” of AI should be meticulously crafted by designers, together shaping this new reality. Against the backdrop of AI-generated design becoming a commodity, designers must relentlessly push the boundaries of their craft, focusing on deep human understanding, ethical considerations, and innovative aesthetic and functional solutions that transcend mere efficiency. It is through this commitment to excellence that design will not just adapt to the future of AI, but actively define it.
About CLEVER°FRANKE
CLEVER°FRANKE was founded in 2008 by two friends from the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU), Thomas Clever and Gert Franke. Combining their love for graphic design and their entrepreneurial spirit, they saw that the increasingly data-heavy design field was ripe for innovation, aiming to bring data visualization into the mainstream. From the launch of their Weather Chart series in 2010, which has since been included in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, to the Google Consumer Barometer research project in 2011 and visualizing Chicago’s mobility, CLEVER°FRANKE got off to a very strong start.
Today, with offices in Utrecht and Chicago and a team of fifty talented people, they focus on creating data-driven solutions that make complex things easier to understand. Using technology and creative design, they explore new ways to represent information in a visual medium. With clients from all around the world, they have recently worked on significant initiatives such as the Corona Dashboard for the Dutch government, identity and brand design for Eurovision 2021, and the Changing Childhood project for UNICEF, which directly demonstrate the benefits that the general public can derive from comprehensible data visualization. In accordance with this, CLEVER°FRANKE’s ultimate goal is to create useful and beautifully designed work that helps people understand things better, and inspires them for a better world.
Now part of ADC Consulting
In 2024, C°F was acquired by ADC Consulting, a world-renowned data & AI consultancy headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with offices in Copenhagen and Stockholm. Together with ADC, they form one of the world’s leading data and AI companies. C°F and ADC share a commitment to helping organizations harness data and AI to gain meaningful insights and unravel the world’s complexity. While ADC excels in building robust infrastructures and advanced algorithms, C°F enhances this with strategic data design, compelling data visualizations and user experiences, resulting in a seamless experience that maximizes the value of data for clients. ADC’s vision and strategy align with our core values and approach to business, and their expertise, experienced teams, and international reach will enable us to serve our clients even better.
About European Design Awards
The European Design Awards is an annual event celebrating the best in communication design across Europe. Founded in 2007, the awards bring together leading editors, critics, and academics from prominent design publications to form its jury. The competition honors outstanding work in fields such as branding, digital experiences, editorial, and packaging. With a focus on both creative excellence and strategic impact, the European Design Awards has become a benchmark for design innovation and quality on the continent.
