about us

RedFrau, a web design studio in upstate New York, was formed in 2001 by Sandra Gardner, a printmaker, graphic designer, and musician.

{What is a red frau? Red is a primary color. Frau rhymes with wow and is German for “woman.”}

A dozen years ago, Sandra’s then-boyfriend gave her the nickname “red fraulein” because she had bright red hair (at the time) and she was Germanic. After they got married, the fraulein of course became a frau, and a new nickname was born: red frau. It stuck.

Sandra Gardner, the red frau, designs web, print, and multimedia for education, publishing, real estate, retail, entertainment, and the fine arts. She studied printmaking under Michi Itami, the Japanese-American printmaker. When she’s not sleeping designing or taking care of her son, she plays bass, keyboards, and sings in Poem Rocket. And although she loves every color, she has been obsessed with red ever since she was a young girl.