About us
A steady flow of new stories about brands and their creators, generated by renowned journalists and high-end photography - that is "The Brander". The independent publication of Zurich’s branding agency Branders portrays big, small and exclusive brands from all over the world. Feedback? Yes, please.
Editor in Chief & Branders CEO
René Allemann
Born in Zurich, René Allemann founded the consulting firm Branders in 2005. With 20 employees, the branding agency creates, maintains and manages brands. The Brander journal is published by the Branders Group.
The Brander is a publication of the Branders Group
Branders Group AG
Rämistrasse 6
8001 Zürich
Switzerland
Phone +41 43 336 80 40
www.branders.ch
[email protected]
Branders is a specialized consulting agency for branding. We provide a full range of integrated brand consulting and creative services to help our clients create, build and revitalize their brands.
Editorial Manager
Olivia El Sayed
Olivia El Sayed studied German and French at the University of London. Initially employed by a music label in Germany, she also worked as an editor for various online media. Starting with Branders in 2008, she assumed responsibility as Editorial Manager of The Brander publication effective January, 2011.
Contributors
Barbara Markert
Working in France for celebrated magazines like VOGUE, Grazia and Myself, Barbara Markert also writes articles for the technical publication Sportswear International, and The Brander. With a degree in business administration she is co-founder of the fashion blog “Modepilot” as well as the German journalists network “Weltreporter”.
Claudius Wirz
After completing his training as a bookseller, Claudius Wirz worked for a number of book and newspaper publishers. Over the past five years he has been writing travel articles for various media as a freelancer. Claudius has lived in Bali, Indonesia since 2008, and will be contributing articles for The Brander from there.
Franziska Klün
After her studies in economics at the Inholland University in the Netherlands Franziska Klün volunteered at the Berlin magazine zitty, where she was responsible for the style department and managed annual reviews such as Das Modenbuch and Das Berlinbuch. As a freelance writer, she writes for various newspapers, magazines and online portals such as Tagesspiegel, Zeit online, Interview or The Mini International
Jürg Zbinden
Following a commercial apprenticeship and training as a retail bookseller, Jürg Zbinden worked for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung for over 10 years as a proofreader, while also writing articles for the film department and the associated weekly magazine “Z”. Nowadays, Jürg works as a freelance journalist, proofreader and editor.
Pedrazzini – Boat design that reflects glamorous sophistication
Karen Naundorf
A graduate of the Henri Nannen School of Journalism in Hamburg and the University of Arts in Berlin, Karen Naundorf reports for The Brander and other German-language media from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her articles appear in publications such as Der Spiegel, Zeit, Geo Special, SZ-Magazin, Dummy, Neon and Merian; her radio and television broadcasts are transmitted by the BR, WDR, Deutschlandfunk, Arte and ZDF.
Mutterland: Part German-Style Delicatessen, Part Corner Shop
Lisa von Ortenberg
After graduating from the JSM School of Journalism, Lisa von Ortenberg first worked as a reporter for Die Welt, then as an editor for Glamour and finally as a head reporter for Jolie. In 2005, she became a freelance journalist and, in 2009, began reporting from Asia as a correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the NZZ am Sonntag. Since then, she has been writing articles and portraits for a number of clients - including The Brander.
Roman Elsener
Born in Switzerland, Roman Elsener has been based in New York since 1996 where he writes articles for, inter alia, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and The Brander. Roman is also employed by the Swiss news agency SDA as a USA correspondent.
Simone Ott
A freelance author Simone Ott divides her time between Los Angeles and Switzerland. She writes for such publications as Architectural Digest, NZZ am Sonntag, Annabelle and Tages Anzeiger. As a columnist she writes for the American online music platform The Comet. She will be contributing to The Brander from Los Angeles.
Thomas Escher
Thomas Escher is an information architect and freelance journalist who currently lives in New York. He reports, inter alia, for Spiegel Online. The 32-year-old German studied media and communications management at the university of cooperative education in Ravensburg, before he started with the Burda publishing house in 2004.
Thomas Garms
Dr. Thomas Garms (53), a publicist and media manager, has, amongst other things, been responsible for a number of major magazines such as Die WELT am Sonntag, Men's Health, and Fit for fun. In 2010, he founded his own publishing company to distribute the German edition of the Brazilian lifestyle magazine TRIP. In September 2011, he started as Head of Corporate Media with Axel Springer Switzerland AG.
Urs Steiner
Urs Steiner, born in Zurich, holds a degree in German literature and linguistics, and has been employed by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung since 2001. Previously he worked in editorial management for the weekly business journal Cash and as an editor for Werbewoche in Zurich.
Photographers
Alicia Hansen
Alicia Hansen has worked professionally as a photojournalist and commercial photographer for the past 17 years. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism and a Masters in Visual Communication. Before coming to NYC she worked for several papers all over the US and assisted for Joe McNally for two years before starting her own freelance business in Manhattan. In addition, she is the founder of the nonprofit photography program called «NYC SALT».
Autumn Sonnichsen
Autumn's work has been published in Men's Vogue Brazil, Playboy Germany, Playboy Brazil, FHM, Maxim, Nico, Stern, Vice Magazine, Trip Magazine, TPM, ArtForum, and Men's Health. She also exhibits in galleries and museums worldwide. Originally from Los Angeles, she now lives and works out of São Paulo and Berlin.
Claudia Fessler
Claudia Fessler was born in Germany. After her studies in art history, she went on to attend the Bavarian State School of Photography. With her extensive photographic scope she has not only won several awards, but also received assignments from major companies and international magazines. She has been living in Paris since 2005, from where she also maintains her daily street style blog "Modemajeure".
Cyrill Matter
Cyrill Matter was born in Zurich in 1990. He completed his media training at the Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ. After several stays abroad and jobs as a production assistant for renowned advertising agencies, he started his own business. Cyrill Matter now works for established national and international photographers as an assistant and, alongside, works as a freelance photographer.
Gian Marco Castelberg
Gian Marco Castelberg, born in Chur, formed part of the movement Gruppe autodidaktische Fotographen GAF and worked for a number of renowned photographers. A freelancer since 2002, he works for national and international media. Gian Marco is the contributing photographer to The Brander for Europe.
Gustu Suparna
Gustu Suparna studied photography at Udayana University in Bali and runs a big photostudio, specialized in product photographs, in Denpasar. Besides photography, Gustu loves to travel and experimenting with his camera. Gustu’s photography is published in various magazines such as Neue Zürcher Zeitung or annabelle. Gustu is the contributing photographer from Bali for The Brander.
Henning Bock
The photographer was born in Hattingen, Germany, in 1965, and currently lives in Berlin. His works appear in publications such as Monocle, Wallpaper and New York Times. As an advertising photographer he works, amongst others, for Audi, SAP and Adidas. He is also represented by the gallery Lumas.
Kai Jünemann
Based in Paris, photographer Kai Jünemann works for renowned international print media e.g. magazines such as Exit, Figaro, Stern, Spiegel and the French Elle. He is also the contributing photographer for The Brander in Paris. Besides photography Kai also lectures at the University of Applied Arts and Sciences in Dortmund, Germany.
Marc Gerritsen
Born in The Hague and with a background in design Marc Gerritsen initially specialized in interior design and architectural photography. Over time, industrial, lifestyle and corporate photography have been added to complete his portfolio. Marc is the contributing photographer from Asia and Australia for The Brander.
Marco Vernaschi
Marco Vernaschi is an Italian photographer who currently lives in Argentina. His provoking and sometimes controversial work received several prestigious recognitions, including two grants by The Pulitzer Center. His photographs are published internationally by major outlets such as Newsweek, TIME, National Geographic, The New York Times, Sunday Times Magazine and GEO.
Philipp Engelhorn
Born in the Black Forest of southern Germany, photographer Philipp Engelhorn worked as a photographer’s assistant in New York City for 6 years before relocating to Hong Kong in 2002. Philipp’s photography is published in international magazines such as GeoSaison, Fortune, WallStreet Journal, Spiegel, Die Welt and Outside Magazine. Philipp is the contributing photographer from Hong Kong.
Reto Caduff
Born in Zurich and based in Los Angeles, Reto Caduff is a visual storyteller, working mostly with photography and film. His documentaries on subjects like hard rock bands, peak oil, jazz musicians or graphic designers have won numerous international awards. Reto's photography is published in Europe and the US in magazines such as brand eins, annabelle, swiss inflight magazine, gear, discover and travel & leisure.
Sari Goodfriend
Sari Goodfriend graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in Art History and French Studies and also studied at The International Center of Photography in NY and the Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Montana. Sari shoots for a variety of editorial, corporate and non-profit clients and is based in New York City.
Stefan Falke
Stefan Falke startet as a photographer's assistant and silk-screen printer in Munich and Hamburg. He moved to New York in 1985 where he photographed for European magazines. Starting in the mid 90s major German movie studios hired him as a set photographer in the US, Europe and Africa. He became a member of the German photo agency laif in 1999. Still based in New York he now works for international magazines and film production companies.
Stephanie Füssenich
Born 1979, Stephanie Füssenich lives in Munich where she graduated from the State Academy of Photographic Design. As a freelance photographer, she works for such publications as Neon, Nido, SZ Magazine, ZEIT, the ZEIT Magazine, BMW Magazine and Brigitte.
Illustrators
Daniel Müller
Daniel was born in Baden in 1964 and studied at the Lucerne School of Arts and Crafts and the Zurich School of Design. His work can be found in various magazines e.g., Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), Beobachter and Spiegel-Wissen. He also illustrates for the publishing houses Kain und Aber and the Nord-Süd-Verlag. He has been living and working in Zurich as a freelance illustrator since 1993.
Martina-Vanja Gubler
Martina-Vanja Gubler studied industrial design at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. Currently, she is earning her MA in Art Education at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste as well as working as a teacher. Martina-Vanja does the illustrations of the columns in The Brander.
Translators
Tessa Pfenninger
Born in London, Tessa Pfenninger studied linguistics and translation at the SAL in Zurich. She grew up bilingually and, as a professional language services specialist, is in charge of all translations and text adaptations for The Brander journal.
Interactive Designers
Thomas Hausheer
Thomas Hausheer develops interactive communications solutions. He specializes in developing sophisticated applications based on PHP/MySQL. At The Brander, he is in charge of programming and maintaining the website.
Columnists
Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1969 and now lives in London. He is a writer of essayistic books that have been described as a 'philosophy of everyday life.' He’s written on love, travel, architecture and literature. His books have been bestsellers in 30 countries. Alain's latest book is titled 'Religion for Atheists'.
Güzin Kar
Güzin Kar was born in Turkey in 1971. She has been living in Switzerland since the age of five and studied at the renowned Ludwigsburg film academy in Baden-Württemberg. She works both in Germany and Switzerland as an author (amongst others she wrote the screenplay for “Die Wilden Hühner”) and as a director. Currently, she is writing a screenplay for the sequel of the military comedy “Achtung, Fertig, Charlie!”, and working on a new novel.
Joey Goebel
Joey Goebel is an American author whose work centers around the peculiarities of culture in Middle America. Goebel's books „Torture the Artist“, „The Anomalies“, and „Commonwealth“ have been published in over ten languages. Goebel lives in Kentucky, with wife Micah, and is currently writing his fourth novel which will appear later this year and will likely be called «I Against Osbourne».
Juli Zeh
Is a German novelist and jurist. Her first book was “Eagles and Angels“, and was translated into 29 languages. She traveled through Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2001, which became the basis for the book “Even Silence is a Sound. Travels through Bosnia“. Amongst other novels and short stories, she also wrote “Gaming Instinct“ and “Corpus Deliciti. A Trial“. Juli Zeh was born in Bonn in 1974 and has lived in Leipzig since 1995.
Markus Kavka
“The face of German music journalism” is a TV host, journalist, author and DJ. For MTV Germany, Markus Kavka produced several programs (e.g. MTV news, MTV spin, 20 years on MTV). Additionally, he regularly reports live at the MTV EMAs and VMAs. Since 2009, he has also appeared in programs on ZDF, Kabel 1 and MySpace. Presently he is on a reading tour with his first novel “Rottenegg”.
Sibylle Berg
Sibylle Berg, born in Weimar, Germany, currently lives in Zurich. She has published twelve books to date. Sibylle Berg’s latest novel “Man, Asleep” was published by the German publishing company Hanser in the fall of 2009. Plays by Sibylle Berg («Helges Leben», «Hund, Mann, Frau», «Hauptsache Arbeit!», «Nur Nachts», etc.) are being performed in a number of theaters at home and abroad. (Photo: © Katja Hoffmann)
From our HQ in Zurich The Brander coordinates its writers and photographers from Bali, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York and Paris to find valuable stories about creators of brands from all over the world.
The Brander is a publication of the Branders Group
