We want to change the web for the better.

Everybody knows wolves are back in this ‘Schnitzel-formed’ land of ours. What‘s actually new is that there‘s a Wolf in the Kranhaus and he just recently started to form a pack. You won‘t find a better creature to be leader of pack (aka project manager), neither on the left nor on the right banks of the Rhine river.

On a cold December morning, 3 wise businessmen were lost in Köln and couldn’t find their way to the Fork office. Instead of following a star they were guided by project manager Daniela’s infectious laugh, which can occasionally be heard from Hamburg. When they arrived they were each greeted with an enviable hi-5 and left with a mixtape of Kakkmaddafakka. Daniela, you are the star!

We happen to exist in a matriarchal system and Franziska is not only our ‘Jeanne d’Fork’ but also a wanderer between worlds, shuttling between motherhood, parent company and subsidiary. Like every mom, she juggles. But besides being a super- heroine herself, she can rely on a great family support system.

Simply the vest! Patrick is a sharp-dressed man with an equally sharp mind. The Jón Gnarr-lookalike knows how to wow clients with sophisticated concepts and persuasive arguments. The patented P.O.W.W.O.W.-methodology allows P.O.W. to turn user experience into user delight. W.O.W!

One of the doglovers at Fork. His long-lasting experience with the bow-wow might be the reason for his mastery in non-aggressive fighting when it comes to resolving conflicts with barking (external) IT departments. In the end, he is always part of the solution.

One sometimes can’t exactly tell what happens inside the skull of a programmer (until it’s too late). But what happens on top of Alexander’s scalp really amazes us. He must own a dozen different caps and hats, and each one is a message that awaits to be decoded. Be it a Shtreimel, Fez, or Boss of the Plains – This black box comes in style.

What’s this ‘FF’ all about; two letters printed on almost all of his outerwear? Does it refer to the German ‘Effeff’, meaning that someone is mastering his craft to perfection? Would fit, when it comes to campaign ideas. On the other hand, Arne might also just be a foo-fighting metalhead.

The miller’s daughter prefers pixels over corn. Although young in age, Maria is a great designer and it’s hard to imagine our creative team without her. A word of caution: If you should ever enter our studio, don’t let the sight of this fairy damsel lure you into walking against the wall of our server room.

Cathy (German pronunciation please!) hails from the, loved by hipsters and top-knot-clad youths, city of Berlin. She moved to Hamburg for love and found another love, in the beautiful Hansestadt. Cool as a cucumber, she has meditated her way through many a pilgrimage, walking miles and miles through the mountains of Spain and Portugal. Needless to say, Cathy has found her zen here at Fork!

From Old Schole to New Schole, as long as it’s loud it’s all right with Joachim. Having started his career as a music journalist (think W:O:A reviews!) the metal-head developed quite a talent for writing. Nowadays he’s eloquent in writing code and has finally changed over to the highway to HTML. Jo, we salute you!

Sandra’s job is to ensure domestic P.E.A.C.E. (People, Events, Administration, Culture, Etc.) at Fork. And she’s the perfect match for this position. She never loses her good mood and even the occasional ‘kick in the arse’ comes across as an act of thoughtful humanity. Here comes the SUN!-dra.

Tattooed stray kitten goes from abandoned to loved. Yeah, this would make a good headline for our story with Susanne. Having picked her up in our backyard, one rainy-day, she turned out to be creative Wonder Girl. We can’t tell who’s luckier, the girl with the ship on her forearm or her new people.

Being one of Bavaria’s finest, it would be more than peculiar if Mr. Goppers’s future will be anything other than golden. For our part, we did not hesitate one second entrusting Markus with a responsible task in our Southern outpost. And he rewards us with excellent work. There’s only one thing that needs to be sorted out: How to deal with females envying Markus for his endless, fabulously voluminous lashes.

You know when you’ve been ‘timofeeved’! All of sudden, everything’s feels so clean and neat. Prima project ballerina Elena has the superb ability to (re-) order and resolve almost any kind of tense situation. Somehow, she must have secret techniques of controlling bodies and the minds of people.

Fork’s very own ‘DJ Premier’ sets the rhythm for all the floors of our Hamburg office. We’re not a disco (most of the time) but Kai’s approach to leadership is the one of a DJ: Digging for the right humanoid material; setting up inspiring work-n-playlists; manipulating group dynamics to certain levels of ecstasy; being well-prepared but still able to make decisions on the fly; doing at least two things simultaneously; aligning pace, … mike drop!

Some years back, at SXSW, we managed to rescue a distraught young man from the clasps of a rather unsavory hotel room, in which he’d begun to pupate within the confines of his trusty sleeping bag. Since his liberation, Henning has repaid us by flourishing within Fork’s creative walls, shining with his accomplished design skills, forward- thinking and ongoing drive for innovation.

Sandra is the soul of our Hamburg studio and our very own female version of Clark Kent; part time ‘Girl Friday’ part time Super-Heroine. Moving paper mountains, taming nerdy egos and mending broken hearts is all in a days work for Ms Müller… we’re actually thinking about releasing a set of ‘Wonder-SMÜ’ action figures.

Laura’s talent is writing. Her literary passion includes calling her typewriter affectionately ‘Brigitte’. If only she knew, we would do almost everything to have her stay on, she would insist on using Brigitte at work. But hush-hush, we don’t want Laura to dance “Bye bye bye Keyboard”.

Project management isn’t the only team in Fabian ‚topspin’ Werner’s life, oh no he also makes up one half of Fork’s table tennis team and can often be found practicing his moves after hours in the infamous Party Keller, with the hope of one day joining the ‚International Table-Tennis Association for Project Managers‘. As Bart Simpson once said ‚don’t have a cow man‘ and Fabian certainly doesn’t; get your grammar right and youll get along just fine. I mean you’ll, d’oh!

Sarah’s parents knew this for sure: If you want a smart girl, you’ll need more than vegetables. That’s why they raised their daughter on ‘Schäufele’ (a cornerstone of the Franconian cuisine) and hence made her stress-resistent, yet dynamic and inspired. Thank you Ms. and Mr. Kaltenhäuser for providing us with a smart account manager who has always lots of sweets on her table.

Being around Tania has a soothing effect. The Brazilian-born designer is the quiet eye of the miniature hurricane meandering our studio, from time to time. Stand-up meeting, coffee grinder, ”That chocolate cake, is it vegan?” – the more ambient noise, the more Tania seems to immerse herself into creation. She transforms atmospheric energy into ’ouro puro’. Pure gold that waits to be discovered on the Internet or experienced outside the browser.

Viola in Twelfth Night is shipwrecked while voyaging the Mediterranean Sea. ‘Our’ Viola’s journeys have all been accident-free, so far. Nevertheless she also washed up on foreign shores (the ones of our consulting team) one fine day. Unlike her namesake, she does not need any cross-dressing or pretending to fulfill her manifold roles. ‘Our’ Viola’s ”I totally can”-attitude, her openness and cheerful character are all it takes. One does not need to have studied psychology, to recognize a Shakespearean heroine in ’our’ Viola.

“All systems go” is a phrase we wouldn’t hear very often if it weren’t for Michi. With his infectious laughter, he’s always the friendly ghost in the system, master of the machines and guardian of spare parts. Oh and make sure you leave a note when you drop something off on his desk.

Klaudia’s a bit like a creative boomerang – she keeps coming back with more! Kicking-off her Fork career as a talented copywriter, she’s transformed herself into an accomplished Designer during a few maternal timeouts where she produced her best ever work. A persistent source of creativity and charisma, Klaudia’s an inspiration for us all.

Holger is a living database when it comes to the silver screen. And over the years, he’s breathed life into dozens of database-driven websites – some of which proving to be real blockbusters in their genre. We’re also pretty sure that this is the only photograph of him in existence.

Form follows Förg. Peter is the impersonation of design process. He’s got the components, he’s got the patterns, he’s got the grammar, and he’s got the system. Every layout saved on his hard-drive works like clock-work.

You want something done? A video tutorial is all Paula needs to accomplish the task, any task (including triathlon)! Born and raised in Transylvania, this redhead knows no fear. Like a bloodsucker she is very thirsty for good design and beautiful art. We love her design-skills and all of us dig the Transilvanian ‘paulapop culture’ she brings to our table.

Most people connect the term ‘agency’ with some sort of business and then there’s Verena who has the amazing ability of turning profane agency work into poetry. Everything ‘Ms. Spelling’ touches – be it words, photochemistry, or bread-and-butter – will become more than just a prosaic ‘job done’. How does she do it? We’re twisting our minds trying to figure out what Verena’s magic power is but still haven’t cracked the code yet.

Another talented musician, René also hits the right notes when it comes to creating amazing illustrations. From fancy Flash animations right through to atmospheric storyboards, René is our in- house Hergé.

Whoever said that money makes the world go round obviously hasn’t met Dominik Schu(h); shoes and caps my friend, that’s where it’s at. The Michael Jordan of Project Management, if he’s not dribbling various projects or out golfing, then he’s working on his smooth as caramel phone voice, that or avoiding public transport. Either way, he’s a definite Hole-in-One for Fork.

Steffen’s last name translates as ‘dive’ (headfirst) and that’s what he’s famous for: Jumping in at the deep end of work. No task too difficult, too simple, too exciting, too boring, too whatever. His skill-set is like the primordial soup, almost anything can develop out of it. Any given Friday, there’s an evening meeting in our basement where amateur researchers are monitoring recent developments in Steffens evolution.

Wolf is one of those friendly and soft spoken fellows. But do not let that fool you into thinking that he’s a pet wolf. He’s a hunter for content – hygiene, hub and hero content. Goodness, what big eyes you have! The better to find the best content for you, responds Mr. Hinsch.

Boy on a wireframe. Maurice finger on the trackpad never shakes, his face sits tight and still, and he’s quite as mouse when setting out to work on the future user experience of any given client. Wireframe-fame is guaranteed, a bright future is awaiting this fellow.

Roman is known to lead his fellowship without any unnecessary shilly-shally. He’s managed to balance the formalities of business with his own brand of creative flair. His rule is often associated with extravagance but never tyranny.

Our one and only local hero of the ‘Strom’ (aka Rhine) likes to laugh aloud and often. We can’t tell whether his laughing is related to jokes within the source code or the positive work climate in the AT-AT (aka ‘Kranhaus’). Most definitely it’s not related to the performance of his favourite club (who’s just so different).

As former singer and guitar player of German punk rock outfit ‘Sissi’s Revenge’ Cynthia comes with a great do-it-yourself-attitude. A great approach when it comes to conceptual challenges. Her cat – may God rest her soul – would be proud, if she saw her ‘cynthesizing’ even the biggest challenge into a splendid concept.

Don’t underestimate the drive behind her tranquil guise. When it comes to project management, consulting and user experience, Katrin’s versatility and efficiency would give even the sharpest Swiss army knife a run for its money. And a lot like a female MacGyver, she can handle any situation with composure, finesse and charm.

Claudia’s a fashion-following, trend-setting aficionado who’s usually directing photo-shoots and showing brands the world over how to create the perfect digital magazine.

Frederic is a bit of a live wire. Plug him in and he’ll deliver cutting-edge art direction. He’s an inexhaustible source of energy and a great inspiration to our design team. “Fork Fab Freddy” re-introduces our design standards to the left bank of the Rhine. Do kanns zaubre, Freddy!

tobitatze to us, Tobias to you. Our new account director has two babies; his daughter and FC Schalke 04, both of whom he loves dearly and sincerely. Whilst studying Social Sciences at uni, he spent a semester in Finland, but he didn’t (Hel)sink(i), he swam right to the surface and found Fork on his journey home through the cool, blue waters.

The Mikkat is a wunderkind from the shores of the Baltic Sea. Despite his youth he’s a master of his trade. As if it were nothing, he is shapeshifting in-between concept guy, designer and programmer. Soon after hiring him, we realized, this ‘kat’ is complete. At this point, we also realized that it is for us to teach him about the advantages of imperfection. When too perfect, lieber Gott böse.

Hush! Hush! Look closely! With a little luck you will find Teresa, generally well camouflaged within personae, sketches, or paper click dummies. When it comes to crafting UX concepts Ms. Huschet is a busy bee visiting touchpoint after touchpoint for the pollen and nectar that improves joy of use. It seems like she CAN be everywhere at once, and the best part, she always has a smile on her face.

Karin is our very own “Alice in Medialand”. She’s the designer to talk to if you’re ever lost in type or need some help with a little CMYK. Plus: as a budding maritime photographer, you’ll often find her on the high seas taking snapshots on container ships.

Niente di nuovo sotto il Sole? Far from it! Our tech team has been spiced up with Mediterranean flair. Marcello, a full-blooded virtuoso simpatico, ‘autentico’ from ‘macchina’ to ‘baffo’. We were ‘insoleroed’, almost immediately.

Werkstudentin Laura from Weserbergland is our very own Wunderkind. Why? Because she can do absolutely e v e r y t h i n g ! At 163cm Laura is one of the shorter members in the Fork Fellowship, but when it comes to getting the job done, this ‚Typonerd‘ always reaches the heights of the mountains from which she hails.

Apparently it never rains in California. So you can imagine our surprise when we managed to attract a real-life California Guy to rainy Hamburg. And not just any old California Guy either. On a quest for the holy grail of script, we’ve instated Mr. Jason Lee Rogers as our newest code-crusader. And just like his 0s and 1s, Jason’s a lean, mean variable machine.

Once upon a time, whilst out night-jogging in the hills of Helsinki, Janek saw a shooting star. He looked at the star and wished that he would one day become one of Cologne’s most esteemed web developers. The Gods of HTML were listening and he’s been with us at Fork ever since, coffee in hand and always in the zone.

Project Management by day, motorbiking by night, this angel gives ‘em hell as a team leader, colleague and beer-drinking companion. With at least 20 visits to the US under her belt, she’s a packing pro. And boy does she pack a punch!

Although he does play in a band, we’d like to go on record and confirm that Olaf is in no way related to ex-Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones. Although he doesn’t speak much, Olaf prefers to do his talking in the source code. Just like any other accomplished backend programmer.

“Jetz isch färtig luschtig!” Lisa just took her first step into working life as a designer at Fork. It is our pleasure, and responsible task as well, to tame and train this full-time fashionista and queen of monophthongs, diphthongization and crossbows.

Matt is something like a North Star to Fork’s creation. A passionate Creative Director and (emotion) designer who won’t give up until true quality is achieved. There are few people who have dug deeper into the soul of the Fork Brotherhood and as with every celestial body, Matt comes with a mysterious share of shining light and a dark gravity.

Jan ‘Icke-bwana’ Gehrke, a true master of digital products, adds a little Berliner Schnauze to Fork’s Babylonian confusion of languages. For the sake of THE perfect product, the reliable, grounded, and practical character fuses together all the right people – Mokume-Gane-Style. For Jan knows, that great products are made by great teams.

With being a badass at analogue photography, Robert installed the first darkroom at fork (of course for developing photos). With tastings of dark chocolate and his all black everything attitude, we can say that he fits perfect in our deep, culty family. But we have to admit: he is pretty bright himself and a designer with more than black in his palette.

Ha! Ho! Let’s go! Hanne is the girl rocker of our little endeavour. Away from the mud of festivals she is a guarantor for clean and reusable code. We’re talking separately maintained version of reusable assets, here. Don’t you dare call this ‘Mädchen-Informatik’ (#likeagirl).

“Who put that plug there?”, “That milk doesn’t open properly”, and “This lift is not compatible with my expectations as a user” – Wanda’s mission is making the world a better place. Lucky us, she decided to bring in her skill and labor, helping us to change the web for the better. ‘User Experience’, for Ms. Martini, is a higher calling on behalf of those struggling with the ubiquitous digital layer; and all the users sing: “Aaand after all, you’re my Wanda-wall.”

Although controversial, our favourite authentic Hamburger comes with neither fries nor onions, but rather with glasses, an inconceivable knowledge of quality assurance and of course…a whole lotta cheese. Dinner and beer are Dinnebier’s idea of a perfect night in and if you ever find yourself stuck in a rut, unable to remember the lyrics to songs from the 90s, then Jan is your man, so keep him near.

A programming and managerial powerhouse, Siggi’s a talented bass player and resolute technical project manager who packs a punch both on-stage and on digital projects.

Nina. Junior Project Manager from Franken NOT Bayern. You could describe Nina as a woman of contradiction: the longest of lashes without the need for mascara, the busiest of bees but never tempted to sting and reacher of heights, despite being afraid of them. When it comes to finding Nina, you could say ‘Mia hoan fei an Dussl ghabt’, but ‘We got very lucky’ works too.

There are two kind of ideas you can expect of Paul: great ones and even better ones. Our Scotsman (expat-style) has always been one of the most inspiring powerhouses of idea development. Much like a good Scotch in a barrel, he seems to be in the middle of a process of sophistication, no end in sight, yet.

Well blow me down, if it isn’t Alex Steinert from Westfalen. As a child, her mum would say ‚Alexandra! If you want to be a Senior Art Director and extreme techno enthusiast one day, then you have to eat your spinach!‘ With her dreams in sight Alex listened to her mum and hopped on the green hype all the way to Hamburg. As strong as a stone, but with more personality, Alex can take on anything and we’re happy to have her.

This die-hard Apocalyptica fan of 12 years came through our doors headbanging all the way to her desk and whether it be sport, music, cooking or project management, Carina really is a Jack of all trades. However, we do advise you to steer clear of asking her to water your plants whilst you’re on your hols, as it could result in the end of your precious home-grown basil. Bye bye Basil, hello Carina!

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and Katja‘s talent as a creative person. When she first appeared at Fork for a one week work trial, the sun turned into darkness. Well, we accepted this sign from above.

Girl meets code and nothing stays the same. Julia was a designer down-on-her-luck in the no-go areas of Offenbach, when she met Code, who asked her to strap her hands across his engines, and run with him. It’s a romantic story of a metamorphosis: From south to north, from design to code (with occasional relapses). We’re proud that Julia considers us to be her vanishing point.

Welcome to ‘Li-La Land’! It’s Lisa’s sovereign territory, a queendom where numerous great ideas are being implemented (in time and budget). Sure, project management is far from being a musical, but Lisa’s managerial skills come with rhythm, tone, and depth. If there was an Academy Award for project managers (and if it was up to us), it would definitely go to… (imagine a drum roll here): Lisa Landowski.

Carl “Charly” Reinhardt is to account management what Jean “Django“ Reinhardt was to playing the jazz guitar. Despite their finger issues – Django having two of his fingers disabled, Charly having the weirdest pencil grip since the invention of writing in ancient Mesopotamia – both men became stunning virtuosos in their trade. Buen trabajo, Hermano.

This graduate of Hogwarts School of Programming and Wizardry is Leon-(h)arder than you think! It actually is frightening to realize how skilled now days cubs are. Already at a young age they are capable to challenge us alphas, to end our reign with a single stroke of their paws. Fortunately, we are still hearing the sound of a gently-purring Leo…

When it comes to code, Lennart’s brain is more receptive than the IKEA drawer unit of the same name. Norm-core on the outside, soft-code inside (dreaming of Californication!?). Every now and then, Len wraps himself in a special div, and gets lost. But that’s not much of a problem, since he always resurfaces at the same place: Stadthausbrücke station.

Andreas is a classic gent with a modern twist. A certified and tattooed tech-wizard, he’s the Gandalf to our Frodo and never fails to guide us through the maze that is the world wide web. Although not the loudest here at Fork, when you hear his bike’s engine growling in the courtyard, one thing’s for certain: Andreas has left the building.

We love designers who approach work with a calm mind, rather than allowing themselves to be distracted. Jens is one of those decent fellows. Anytime our kitchen turns into Hell’s kitchen, he simply presses play and enters a state of flow. Fahr’n fahr’n fahr’n – Musik for Autobahns (and design studios) – and he gets things done.

Being a child of the far North, it is astounding how ‘Doc’ Martens managed to stay away from Schnapps. Somehow strange that Sebastian is collecting whiskey without drinking it, he doesn’t give the impression of being part of the hardcore subculture. But he definitely is a straight-edge wonder-boy operating on the cutting edge of creative technology, including pyros and confetti bombs.

Born in Indonesia Firyal isn’t put off by an archipelago of tongues. At Fork he jumps right into a junction of low and high-level languages, design vocabulary, as well as the grammar of responsive web-design. We are so happy to have him aboard our quest for an inspirational Esperanto of design.

We’ve got one thing in common with Hotel California: One can checkout at any time but (almost) never leave. Especially the good ones are not allowed to desert. And so it came to pass that Sarah abandoned us once but is still around. Fräulein Moser talent in project management is more than welcome. Not only every project she gets in her different long fingers turns into gold, also her delicious banana bread tastes especially.