Head of the week: The multi-miss
"Person of the Week" Sandra Luzia Schafroth aims to promote the creative economy as the new managing director at cR Kommunikation in Basel.
Sandra Luzia Schafroth
wants to promote the creative economy as the new Managing Director of cR Kommunikation in Basel. She can look to the future. "LifeClipper2" is the name of the project that Sandra Luzia Schafroth is overseeing as a lecturer and communications consultant. With research funding of 1.2 million Swiss francs, a program in the field of "augmented reality" is being developed on the Novartis campus. With a pair of glasses in front of your eyes and a computer in your rucksack, you can "superimpose future buildings onto today's world", as Schafroth explains.
The visualization of such future worlds is arousing great interest among architects, among others. The program is also set to be used in tourism. Shanghai has registered interest for Expo 2010 in order to be able to show virtually how building plans can change an entire district.
For Sandra Luzia Schafroth, this development at the Institute of Design and Art Research at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design is an ideal example of how Basel can be an interface between business, politics, culture and the media. She calls the sector in which Basel still has some catching up to do compared to Zurich the "creative economy". In recent years, she herself has been involved in baking this cake from the somewhat more modern "Basler Daigg" on a freelance basis with various mandates. In 2006, for example, she helped organize Design Miami, which emerged from Basler Art, and ultimately came into contact with cR Kommunikation because this agency was responsible for PR.
cR Kommunikation emerged from the advertising agency cr basel in 2000 through a management buyout. Both agencies are still based in the same office in Basel and work together when necessary. cR Kommunikation now has a new office in Bern, which is managed by Stefan Batzli and specializes in political communication. The Zurich branch is managed by Thomas Löhrer. In total, the closely knit cR Kommunikation network employs around 30 people. In Basel, Sandra Luzia Schafroth is the new managing director of what is now the smallest branch with three employees. This is to be expanded in the future. Looking through the tool of her "augmented reality", Schafroth can see a medium-sized agency in the next few years. And which "broadest possible portfolio" does she want to manage with such a crew?
To best explain the future offering of Basler cR Kommunikation, it is worthwhile for the new Managing Director to take a look at her past.
Sandra Luzia Schafroth studied media and communication science in Basel, with a minor in law - "you can always use that". However, art already played an important role during her studies. Her father was a photographer, as was her boyfriend at the time. As a result, Sandra Luzia Schafroth was able to earn her living not only by teaching, but also increasingly as a stylist. She got to know the world of advertising agencies. In the course of her career, she was "supported and motivated by great, experienced women" on various occasions.
Sandra Luzia Schafroth was allowed to design sets. She was sent to New York as a location scout for a commercial. Because the relaunch of the product was ultimately postponed, the production assistant suddenly found herself "unemployed" in the Big Apple. This gave her a few weeks to fall in love with the city for the first time. She was lured back with a new offer for a Tissot mandate. When the agency was able to win the international budget for this brand, this "transitional job" in consulting ultimately turned into three years at !Now, a creative store with 12 people in Basel at the time. Schafroth shot several advertising films as executive producer and also traveled "around the world".
In 1999, she moved to the Favo advertising agency, where she became a senior consultant. She worked for credit cards and on freelance mandates for Migros' newly launched Globus travel worlds. In 2006, she was editor of the first edition of the unusual and beautiful magalog.
After freelancing in advertising, Schafroth responded to an advertisement for a part-time position as managing director of the Viper International Festival for Film, Video and New Media. She also completed a postgraduate course and a master's degree in cultural management.
Because her new boyfriend and current architect partner "absolutely wanted to build skyscrapers in New York", she followed him back to the city of her early professional dreams "with little resistance". Her partner was able to work for the company that is now rebuilding the World Trade Center. Sandra initially commuted because she still wanted to complete the Viper, and then also found her start in the new world at a PR agency that looked after Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach in the USA, among others.
In addition to her work at Fitz&Co, she was also able to work for I-Beam, an institute run by John Johnson (Johnson & Johnson). This institute conducted research in the field of new media, organized exhibitions and promoted artists. "That's how I slipped more and more into the New York network," says Schafroth, explaining how she finally became deputy cultural attaché at the Swiss Consulate General in New York in 2002.
One of the highlights for her during this time was, of course, Swiss Peaks. In collaboration with Presence Switzerland, she was able to organize over a hundred events in New York with Swiss companies and artists in 2002. She was later also involved in the follow-up project Swiss Roots, where Americans with Swiss roots were sought out. However, because her partner felt his roots in Switzerland again, or at least saw more opportunities to open his own architecture firm here, Schafroth spent another period commuting, until she finally left New York for the last time - for the time being - three years ago. "It needed a hard ending, like a great love affair." Ironically, her boyfriend is now allowed to build two houses in New York with his Basel office. "But now he has to commute," Schafroth laughs, fending off further speculation.
She has since gained a firm foothold not only as a communications consultant, but also as a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. Schafroth and her students have been working on design, new media and process design at the Hyperwerk Institute of the School of Art and Design, which was newly integrated there in 2006. A year's work with a multimedia installation has already represented Switzerland at the World Summit of Information Society in Tunis. The currently developed "augmented reality" is likely to cause even more of a sensation.
Schafroth can now also live out her love of art at cR Kommunikation with a film production belonging to the network. In addition to commercials, the company Lichtspiele will soon be producing a feature film with director and ice hockey pro Riccardo Signorell.
Schafroth is also involved in politics, media and culture outside of cR Kommunikation: she is a specialist for media and culture at the Basel Women's Council (gender equality issues) and organizes the "Regionale", an annual art exhibition with 14 institutions in three countries (D, F and CH). She is also active on the board of the Förderverein Institut für Medienwissenschaft to raise funds for practical media courses at the University of Basel.
Schafroth proves in a rather original way that there is still some free time left in such a multi-faceted life. She is also behind the insider tips for the latest "Wallpaper Guide" about Basel.
Andreas Panzeri
wants to promote the creative economy as the new Managing Director of cR Kommunikation in Basel. She can look to the future. "LifeClipper2" is the name of the project that Sandra Luzia Schafroth is overseeing as a lecturer and communications consultant. With research funding of 1.2 million Swiss francs, a program in the field of "augmented reality" is being developed on the Novartis campus. With a pair of glasses in front of your eyes and a computer in your rucksack, you can "superimpose future buildings onto today's world", as Schafroth explains.
The visualization of such future worlds is arousing great interest among architects, among others. The program is also set to be used in tourism. Shanghai has registered interest for Expo 2010 in order to be able to show virtually how building plans can change an entire district.
For Sandra Luzia Schafroth, this development at the Institute of Design and Art Research at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design is an ideal example of how Basel can be an interface between business, politics, culture and the media. She calls the sector in which Basel still has some catching up to do compared to Zurich the "creative economy". In recent years, she herself has been involved in baking this cake from the somewhat more modern "Basler Daigg" on a freelance basis with various mandates. In 2006, for example, she helped organize Design Miami, which emerged from Basler Art, and ultimately came into contact with cR Kommunikation because this agency was responsible for PR.
cR Kommunikation emerged from the advertising agency cr basel in 2000 through a management buyout. Both agencies are still based in the same office in Basel and work together when necessary. cR Kommunikation now has a new office in Bern, which is managed by Stefan Batzli and specializes in political communication. The Zurich branch is managed by Thomas Löhrer. In total, the closely knit cR Kommunikation network employs around 30 people. In Basel, Sandra Luzia Schafroth is the new managing director of what is now the smallest branch with three employees. This is to be expanded in the future. Looking through the tool of her "augmented reality", Schafroth can see a medium-sized agency in the next few years. And which "broadest possible portfolio" does she want to manage with such a crew?
To best explain the future offering of Basler cR Kommunikation, it is worthwhile for the new Managing Director to take a look at her past.
Sandra Luzia Schafroth studied media and communication science in Basel, with a minor in law - "you can always use that". However, art already played an important role during her studies. Her father was a photographer, as was her boyfriend at the time. As a result, Sandra Luzia Schafroth was able to earn her living not only by teaching, but also increasingly as a stylist. She got to know the world of advertising agencies. In the course of her career, she was "supported and motivated by great, experienced women" on various occasions.
Sandra Luzia Schafroth was allowed to design sets. She was sent to New York as a location scout for a commercial. Because the relaunch of the product was ultimately postponed, the production assistant suddenly found herself "unemployed" in the Big Apple. This gave her a few weeks to fall in love with the city for the first time. She was lured back with a new offer for a Tissot mandate. When the agency was able to win the international budget for this brand, this "transitional job" in consulting ultimately turned into three years at !Now, a creative store with 12 people in Basel at the time. Schafroth shot several advertising films as executive producer and also traveled "around the world".
In 1999, she moved to the Favo advertising agency, where she became a senior consultant. She worked for credit cards and on freelance mandates for Migros' newly launched Globus travel worlds. In 2006, she was editor of the first edition of the unusual and beautiful magalog.
After freelancing in advertising, Schafroth responded to an advertisement for a part-time position as managing director of the Viper International Festival for Film, Video and New Media. She also completed a postgraduate course and a master's degree in cultural management.
Because her new boyfriend and current architect partner "absolutely wanted to build skyscrapers in New York", she followed him back to the city of her early professional dreams "with little resistance". Her partner was able to work for the company that is now rebuilding the World Trade Center. Sandra initially commuted because she still wanted to complete the Viper, and then also found her start in the new world at a PR agency that looked after Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach in the USA, among others.
In addition to her work at Fitz&Co, she was also able to work for I-Beam, an institute run by John Johnson (Johnson & Johnson). This institute conducted research in the field of new media, organized exhibitions and promoted artists. "That's how I slipped more and more into the New York network," says Schafroth, explaining how she finally became deputy cultural attaché at the Swiss Consulate General in New York in 2002.
One of the highlights for her during this time was, of course, Swiss Peaks. In collaboration with Presence Switzerland, she was able to organize over a hundred events in New York with Swiss companies and artists in 2002. She was later also involved in the follow-up project Swiss Roots, where Americans with Swiss roots were sought out. However, because her partner felt his roots in Switzerland again, or at least saw more opportunities to open his own architecture firm here, Schafroth spent another period commuting, until she finally left New York for the last time - for the time being - three years ago. "It needed a hard ending, like a great love affair." Ironically, her boyfriend is now allowed to build two houses in New York with his Basel office. "But now he has to commute," Schafroth laughs, fending off further speculation.
She has since gained a firm foothold not only as a communications consultant, but also as a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. Schafroth and her students have been working on design, new media and process design at the Hyperwerk Institute of the School of Art and Design, which was newly integrated there in 2006. A year's work with a multimedia installation has already represented Switzerland at the World Summit of Information Society in Tunis. The currently developed "augmented reality" is likely to cause even more of a sensation.
Schafroth can now also live out her love of art at cR Kommunikation with a film production belonging to the network. In addition to commercials, the company Lichtspiele will soon be producing a feature film with director and ice hockey pro Riccardo Signorell.
Schafroth is also involved in politics, media and culture outside of cR Kommunikation: she is a specialist for media and culture at the Basel Women's Council (gender equality issues) and organizes the "Regionale", an annual art exhibition with 14 institutions in three countries (D, F and CH). She is also active on the board of the Förderverein Institut für Medienwissenschaft to raise funds for practical media courses at the University of Basel.
Schafroth proves in a rather original way that there is still some free time left in such a multi-faceted life. She is also behind the insider tips for the latest "Wallpaper Guide" about Basel.
Andreas Panzeri
