diff --git a/public/assets/placeholder.png b/public/assets/placeholder.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7b758e
Binary files /dev/null and b/public/assets/placeholder.png differ
diff --git a/src/components/filters/filterGroup.tsx b/src/components/filters/filterGroup.tsx
index 94af56b..743e942 100644
--- a/src/components/filters/filterGroup.tsx
+++ b/src/components/filters/filterGroup.tsx
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import FilterTag from '@/components/filterTag';
 import { useAppStore } from '@/lib/useAppContext';
 import { Filter } from '@/types/types';
 import { useTranslations } from 'next-intl';
+import { useSearchParams } from 'next/navigation';
 
 export type FilterGroupProps = {
   title: 'faculties' | 'formats' | 'languages';
@@ -11,7 +12,8 @@ export type FilterGroupProps = {
 
 export default function FilterGroup({ title, list }: FilterGroupProps) {
   const t = useTranslations('Filtering');
-  const selectedId = useAppStore((state) => state[list[0]?.searchParam ?? '']);
+  const searchParams = useSearchParams();
+  const selectedId = searchParams.get(list[0]?.searchParam ?? '');
   return (
     <div className="w-full">
       <div className="px-1 pt-1 text-grey">{t(title)}:</div>
diff --git a/src/components/header/navigation/mobile/menu.tsx b/src/components/header/navigation/mobile/menu.tsx
index 9d873ea..d1ec71b 100644
--- a/src/components/header/navigation/mobile/menu.tsx
+++ b/src/components/header/navigation/mobile/menu.tsx
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import { useAppStore } from '@/lib/useAppContext';
 import cx from 'classnames';
 import { Link } from '@/navigation';
-import { ColorSchemeSwitcher } from '../colorSchemeSwitcher';
+import ColorSchemeSwitcher from '../colorSchemeSwitcher';
 import SmoothButton from '@/components/smoothbutton';
 
 export type MenuMobileProps = {};
diff --git a/src/components/image.tsx b/src/components/image.tsx
index 7fd5401..cf2ce70 100644
--- a/src/components/image.tsx
+++ b/src/components/image.tsx
@@ -6,19 +6,6 @@ export type ImageWrapperProps = {
   src: string;
   alt?: string;
 };
-const keyStr =
-  'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=';
-
-const triplet = (e1: number, e2: number, e3: number) =>
-  keyStr.charAt(e1 >> 2) +
-  keyStr.charAt(((e1 & 3) << 4) | (e2 >> 4)) +
-  keyStr.charAt(((e2 & 15) << 2) | (e3 >> 6)) +
-  keyStr.charAt(e3 & 63);
-
-const rgbDataURL = (r: number, g: number, b: number) =>
-  `data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPAA${
-    triplet(0, r, g) + triplet(b, 255, 255)
-  }/yH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==`;
 
 export default function ImageWrapper({
   className,
@@ -28,15 +15,14 @@ export default function ImageWrapper({
   return (
     <Image
       src={src}
-      height={500}
+      height={100}
       width={500}
       alt={alt ?? 'thumbnail of student project'}
-      placeholder="blur"
       className={cx(
-        'w-full max-w-[400px]  object-contain text-highlight md:max-w-[800px]',
+        'w-full max-w-[400px] object-contain md:max-w-[800px]',
         className,
       )}
-      blurDataURL={rgbDataURL(0, 255, 161)}
+      placeholder="empty"
     />
   );
 }
diff --git a/src/components/project/authors.server.tsx b/src/components/project/authors.server.tsx
index 8719208..8cb6c59 100644
--- a/src/components/project/authors.server.tsx
+++ b/src/components/project/authors.server.tsx
@@ -7,24 +7,9 @@ export default function ProjectCardAuthors({ item }: ProjectCardProps) {
     return <></>;
   }
 
-  return (
-    <Link
-      href={{
-        pathname: `/project/[id]`,
-        params: { id: item.id },
-      }}
-    >
-      <ProjectCardAuthorsContainer>
-        {item.authors.join(' ')}
-      </ProjectCardAuthorsContainer>
-    </Link>
-  );
-}
-
-function ProjectCardAuthorsContainer({ children }: ReactNodeProps) {
   return (
     <div className="px-gutter-md pb-gutter-md text-right text-xs">
-      {children}
+      {item.authors.join(' ')}
     </div>
   );
 }
diff --git a/src/components/project/image.server.tsx b/src/components/project/image.server.tsx
index e2e2875..6a55d6c 100644
--- a/src/components/project/image.server.tsx
+++ b/src/components/project/image.server.tsx
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ export default function ProjectCardImage({ item }: ProjectCardProps) {
   return (
     <div className="relative w-full overflow-hidden">
       <ImageWrapper
-        className="rounded-md bg-highlight"
-        src={item.thumbnail ?? ''}
+        className="rounded-md bg-primary text-primary hover:text-primary"
+        src={item.thumbnail != '' ? item.thumbnail : '/assets/placeholder.png'}
       />
       <SaveButton itemId={item.id} />
     </div>
diff --git a/src/components/smoothbutton.tsx b/src/components/smoothbutton.tsx
index c2792c4..06e1ce5 100644
--- a/src/components/smoothbutton.tsx
+++ b/src/components/smoothbutton.tsx
@@ -15,9 +15,7 @@ export default function SmoothButton({
       className={cx(
         'group absolute h-10 w-10 hover:bg-primary hover:text-highlight',
         `bg-${color}`,
-        bottom
-          ? 'bottom-gutter-xs right-gutter-xs rounded-br-md rounded-tl-md'
-          : '',
+        bottom ? 'bottom-0 right-0 rounded-br-md rounded-tl-md' : '',
         top ? 'right-0 top-0 rounded-bl-md ' : '',
       )}
       title={title}
diff --git a/src/types/item.ts b/src/types/item.ts
index 5cbab63..4de60b0 100644
--- a/src/types/item.ts
+++ b/src/types/item.ts
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ export type ItemContent = {
 export type Item = {
   id: string;
   name: string;
-  thumbnail?: string;
+  thumbnail: string;
   thumbnail_full_size?: string;
   descriptions?: ItemDescription;
   languages?: string[];