# Renée Gebhardt

> Freelance Art Director • Filmmaker • Co-Founder Karada House. Based in Berlin, working worldwide.

Renée Gebhardt (she/her) • Berlin

Cannes Gold for Fridge Ads. A documentary on BDSM. Turned a Church into Queer Space. Figure that out.

20 years as an Art Director. IKEA. VW. Die PARTEI. 200+ awards. You get it.

I don't separate commercial from cultural work. From ads to films to cultural spaces. I make work that people talk about the next day – sometimes through storytelling, sometimes through experience, often both.

In 2019, I co-founded Karada House, a queer art space. Over six years, it became a vibrant community. I stopped asking, "Will this succeed?" and started asking, "Who does it affect?" Good work survives the people it touches, not the paper it's written on.

## Selected Work

- The Artist & The Pervert — A documentary about intimacy, power, and consent. Two people let us into their lives. No script. No shortcuts.
- IKEA Cinema Catalogue — Turning a catalogue into a movie. Literally. Usually, catalogue advertising is ignored. This one made people watch.
- Karada House — Started in a horse stable. Moved into a church. Six years of art, workshops, and conferences for people who need space.
- BUND Time is Running Out — Environmental campaign, Cannes Gold
- Projektil — International Bauhaus lecture series, 2007–ongoing. Stefan Sagmeister, Kurt Weidemann, Ruedi Baur, Amir Kassaei spoke there.
- Museum of Bureaucracy — Exhibition design, 2x ADC Silver
- Fresh'N'Friends — Package design, Red Dot Grand Prix
- Die PARTEI iDemo — Political campaign, 4x ADC Gold
- IKEA Delivery — Service campaign, 7x LIA
- BOSCH Fresh Stone Age Meat — Promotion campaign, 5x Cannes Lions
- Porsche Dreamjob — Recruitment campaign
- Siemens Laundry Gallery — Pop-up exhibition
- Bombs from Berlin — PR campaign against arms exports
- Kino-Zeit — Cinema magazine rebrand

## Awards

10 Cannes Lions. Red Dot Grand Prix. ADC Gold. One Show Gold. Film festival wins from Berlin to New York. Also: "Flop of the Week" in W&V.

What stays: Someone at Karada House saying "I've never felt this safe in a space before." An email after The Artist & The Pervert: "I watched it with my partner. Then we talked about it all night."

## The Story

I started in advertising. Big agencies. Big brands. Big expectations. I learned how ideas survive clients, budgets, and pressure. That education still pays my bills. It also showed me exactly where creativity dies.

In 2016, Beatrice Behn and I read about Georg Friedrich Haas and Mollena Williams-Haas in the New York Times. A famous composer who married a BDSM educator. We asked if we could film them. They said yes. So we stalked them with a camera for a year. We called it The Artist & The Pervert. A documentary about living without compromise.

I wanted that too. So I stopped holding myself back. I co-created Karada House, because I was tired of avoiding uncomfortable questions. Especially my own.

I still do commercial campaigns. The approach hasn't changed: understand what people actually feel, show them something they didn't expect, and don't make it boring. I don't make work that's easy to ignore.

## Career

**Freelance Art-Director (2014–present)**
Working with major agencies and clients in Germany and internationally. Clients include antoni, BBDO, Edelman, Erdmannpeisker, Fischer Appelt, HEIMAT, Jung von Matt, Ogilvy Germany, Ressourcenmangel, Scholz & Friends, THE GOODWINS, Serviceplan, THJNK Berlin, Zum Goldenen Hirschen.

**Karada House Co-Founder & Director (2019–present)**
Queer collaborative art space in Berlin that explores the intersection of body, art, and politics. Hosting conferences, workshops, exhibitions, and performances for people on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and other marginalized communities.

**Senior Art-Director, Scholz & Friends (2010–2014)**
Led creative campaigns for clients including Aktion Aufschrei, Bayer, Caparol, Die PARTEI, Das Handwerk, Fisherman's Friend, Penny, Saturn, and Stihl.

**Junior Art-Director, DDB Berlin (2007–2010)**
Worked on large-scale campaigns for Volkswagen, IKEA Österreich, Bild.de, Bosch Hausgeräte, Freistaat Thüringen.

**Book-Author, Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz (2005)**
"Don't Panic! Der Praktikantenguide", 320-page guide for interns in the creative industry. Co-authored with Björn Kernspeckt, Sebastian Locke, Antje Gerwien. Presented at Frankfurter Buchmesse.

**Intern, Jung von Matt (2005)**
BMW, MINI, Nintendo, TV Spielfilm and BILD.

## Things That Lasted

**Karada House (2019)**
Turned a church into a queer art space in Berlin. 1,600+ events in the first 6 years. Deutschlandfunk Nova, Siegessäule, TAZ, Tagesspiegel wrote about it. Still running.

**The Artist & The Pervert (2017)**
Documentary about composer Georg Friedrich Haas and performance artist Mollena Williams-Haas. 40+ film festivals: HotDocs Canada, Thessaloniki Doc Fest, Raindance. Best Documentary (Pornfilmfestival Berlin, CineKink NYC). FAZ Feuilleton, Deutschlandfunk, Siegessäule. Cited in academic research papers, Wikipedia.

**PROJEKTIL (2006)**
Establishing international lecture series at Bauhaus Universität Weimar. Stefan Sagmeister, Kurt Weidemann, Ruedi Baur, Amir Kassaei spoke there. Co-founded with Björn Kernspeckt, Sebastian Locke. 20 years later, still running.

**Don't Panic! Der Praktikantenguide (2005)**
320-page guide for creative interns. Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz. Co-authored with Björn Kernspeckt, Sebastian Locke, Antje Gerwien. Presented at Frankfurter Buchmesse.

## Education & Awards

Bauhaus Universität Weimar (2002–2007), Visual Communication. Founded the international Bauhaus lecture series PROJEKTIL (still running today).

Cannes Young Lions Competition (2004): Together with Björn Kernspeckt, represented Germany at the international Young Lions Competition in Cannes.

200+ awards including: 10× Cannes Lions, Red Dot Grand Prix, ADC Gold, One Show Gold, LEAD Award Campaign of the Year.

Film festival wins: Best Documentary (Pornfilmfestival Berlin), Audience Choice (CineKink NYC), 40+ screenings worldwide.

Also: "Flop of the Week" in W&V.

## Contact

- Website: https://rene-gebhardt.com
- Email: mail@rene-gebhardt.com
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/renegebhardt

## Case Studies

**The Artist & The Pervert**
Feature documentary about composer Georg Friedrich Haas and performance artist and BDSM educator Mollena Williams-Haas. Co-directed with Beatrice Behn. One year of filming in their home, no script. 40+ festival screenings including HotDocs Canada, Thessaloniki Doc Fest, Raindance. Best Documentary at Pornfilmfestival Berlin and CineKink NYC. Covered by FAZ Feuilleton, Deutschlandfunk, Siegessäule. Cited in academic research, Wikipedia entry.

**IKEA Cinema Catalogue**
Guerilla campaign that turned the IKEA catalogue into a cinematic experience. Screened as a short film in cinemas. 2× Cannes Silver, 1× Cannes Bronze.

**Karada House**
Co-founded in 2019 with Caritia Abell and Beatrice Behn. Started in an abandoned stable in Prenzlauer Berg, moved to a former church in Berlin-Moabit after eleven months of self-directed renovation. Queer kink and art space hosting Shibari workshops, exhibitions, conferences, and performances. 1,600+ events in six years. Full visual identity, photography, web design, and all communications by Renée Gebhardt. Launched Queerope, the first international queer rope conference.

**BUND Time is Running Out**
Environmental campaign for Germany's largest nature conservation organization. Cannes Gold. Addressed climate inaction through urgent visual storytelling.

**Projektil — The International Bauhaus Lecture Series**
Co-founded in 2007 with Björn Kernspeckt and Sebastian Locke at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Weekly lecture series with multi-day workshops, bringing speakers including Amir Kassaei, Ruedi Baur, Dietmar Henneka, Eike König, and Via Grafik to Weimar. Full concept, art direction, corporate design, poster campaign, and web design. ADC Junior Award, 3× 100 Beste Plakate. In the second year after handover: Stefan Sagmeister and Kurt Weidemann spoke. Now an annual festival. Still running after 20 years.

**Museum of Bureaucracy**
Exhibition and catalog design for a satirical museum about German bureaucracy, commissioned by INSM and THJNK Berlin. Typography walls, wayfinding, and a publication so thorough it could probably file itself. 2× ADC Silver.

**Fresh'N'Friends**
Package design for a fresh food brand. Red Dot Grand Prix.

**Die PARTEI iDemo**
Campaign for the satirical German political party Die PARTEI. Digital protest action. 4× ADC Gold.

**IKEA Delivery**
Service campaign for IKEA Austria. 7× London International Awards.

**BOSCH Fresh Stone Age Meat**
Promotional campaign for Bosch home appliances. 5× Cannes Lions.

**Porsche Dreamjob**
Recruitment campaign for Porsche. Targeted design and engineering talent through an unexpected creative approach.

**Siemens Laundry Gallery**
Pop-up exhibition turning washing machines into an art gallery. Brought art into a retail context.

**Bombs from Berlin**
PR campaign against German arms exports. Urban storytelling combining installation and media outreach.

**Kino-Zeit**
Complete rebrand of the German cinema magazine Kino-Zeit. Editorial identity system covering typography, layout, and visual language.