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Tobias van Schneider — Creative Direction - House of van Schneider

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I CREATE;
THEREFORE
I AM

DESIGN PRAXIS EST. 2000

I’m the founder & creative director at ✣HOVS, a studio that builds and runs its own products – and occasionally works with partners such as NASA/JPL to brand their space missions.

Currently growing mymind™, my peaceful escape from the chaos of the internet.

I’m also the co-founder of Semplice™ and Carbonmade™, which have been serving the creative community for more than two decades.

HOVS believes in brands and products that have a point of view.  Take a look at some of our work

↓

Tobias van Schneider

FOUNDER HOVS

HOVS — Building a retro-futuristic interpration of the original BMW airhead

Brand Identity, Product Design

In collaboration with my friend Seba (oneYedeer), we reimagined the classic BMW R100R airhead through a retro-futuristic lens. Every element, from the front fairing to the upholstery and tail, was custom-designed from the ground up. The bike maintains its clear identity as a BMW airhead, but with an unexpected twist that only those with a keen eye for design might fully appreciate.

View project details

Detail of the custom fabricated tail section

Custom badge design

NASA — Branding NASA’s mission to Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa

Brand Identity, Product Design

Once again, NASA asked HOVS to brand its latest mission to space – this time to find out if Jupiter’s moon, Europa, has habitable conditions for life. We designed the logo to reflect the clipper’s orbit of Jupiter, in which it will dip in and out of Jupiters' dangerous radiation zone to collect samples from the icy moon Europa. Another HOVS logo in space, 1.8 billion miles deep.

View project details

The mission type identifier on the launch rocket.

The additional text identifier.

mymind — Building a peaceful oasis within the chaos of the internet

Brand Identity, Product Design

mymind is the first and only extension for your real mind. It’s one private place to save everything you care about online, beautifully visualized and organized with the help of artificial intelligence. I co-founded mymind and manage the product design, branding and growth.

Visit mymind.com

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A better place for everything.

The Thinking Guy: Our beloved mymind logo.

NASA — Designing an identity for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission

Brand Identity, Product Design

For the 2020 Mars Rover launch, NASA commissioned HOVS to design a symbol celebrating both the legacy of space travel, and the energy of this new mission. At once the rover in abstract and blocks reaching to the sky, the logomark worked as well on NASA gear as it did on the rocket ship.

Visit the case study

The mission type identifier on the launch rocket.

The additional text identifier.

Semplice™ — The modern creative portfolio system with an old-school heart

Brand Identity, Product Design

The world's leading creatives use Semplice to build custom portfolios from scratch. I co-founded Semplice and I’m responsible for creative direction, product design, branding and marketing. It’s an ever-evolving tool, website backend and creative community helping designers build with pride.

Visit semplice.com

The Semplice Content Editor.

Semplice custom UI elements.

Featured Essays

from the DESK blog

Dear young Designer

Breaking the algorithm

Where are our design heroes?

AD ASTRA — A movie poster for Brad Pitt’s cinematic venture into deep space

Graphic Poster Design

The setting: deep space. The actor: Brad Pitt. The request: Design a poster for the film. Our work plays with white space and the acronym LOS, meaning Loss of Signal. While our designs were not ultimately the final poster, it was an honor to have our work considered for this film.

Details of the typography.

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Signal lost in space.

Custom Sneaker, hand-made with love and tears by me. Inspired by Virgil Abloh.

Photograph of a beach in Iceland. It felt like being on another planet. The sand is black due to the volcanic ashes.

Poster designed for one of my essays.

Badge design to celebrate 80th anniversary of JPL, the founding agency of NASA. Designed in collaboration with Verena Michelitsch.

Exploratory book cover design featuring photograph from Barcelona MACBA architecture.

Photograph of Ferrari (Upstate NY).

Custom sneaker hand-made by myself, NASA inspired. Find more at vanschneider.com/custom-sneakers.

Limited Edition sweatshirt designed by yours truly, in collaboration with Unsplash. Only 500 were ever made, and all sold out.

Custom Sneaker, hand-made with love and tears by me. Inspired by Virgil Abloh.

Poster designed for one of my essays.

Exploratory book cover design featuring photograph from Barcelona MACBA architecture.

Custom sneaker hand-made by myself, NASA inspired. Find more at vanschneider.com/custom-sneakers.

Photograph of a beach in Iceland. It felt like being on another planet. The sand is black due to the volcanic ashes.

Badge design to celebrate 80th anniversary of JPL, the founding agency of NASA. Designed in collaboration with Verena Michelitsch.

Photograph of Ferrari (Upstate NY).

Limited Edition sweatshirt designed by yours truly, in collaboration with Unsplash. Only 500 were ever made, and all sold out.

CARBONMADE — Helping creatives show off their work since 2005

Brand Identity, Product Design

Carbonmade is an institution in the creative community, powering more than 2 million portfolios since before Twitter and the iPhone existed. I came on board as partner in 2018 and led Carbonmade through a complete redesign and rebrand. I now manage Carbonmade’s product design and identity.

Visit carbonmade.com

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Show Off Your Work® with Carbonmade.

The Carbonmade Interface.

Memomi — Reinventing the luxury shopping experience with a new high-end digital mirror

Advisor, Creative Director

Memomi created the world’s first digital mirror software platform called Memory Mirror. I overseeing the user experience, brand creative and ever-evolving product design. Memomi launched with partners such as Intel, IBM, Sony and Panasonic, and now appears in high-end stores like Neiman Marcus.

Visit memomi.co

The memory mirror (memomi) logo.

The smart mirror in action.

Business cards designer for myself, HOVS. Printed and designed back in 2012.

A skateboard made out of marble. A concept.

Print ad for Semplice.com.

App design for Wave Meditation.

Photograph of apartment towers in Singapore.

Custom beard oil, formulated and designed by HOVS, in collaboration with Beardbrand.

House of van Schneider Necklace concept featuring the HOVS logo.

Photograph of classic Porsche.

Business cards designer for myself, HOVS. Printed and designed back in 2012.

Print ad for Semplice.com.

Photograph of apartment towers in Singapore.

House of van Schneider Necklace concept featuring the HOVS logo,

A skateboard made out of marble. A concept.

App design for Wave Meditation.

Custom beard oil, formulated and designed by HOVS, in collaboration with Beardbrand.

Photograph of classic Porsche.

3 ROOMS — Creating a transportive digital art gallery that celebrates the early internet

Brand, Storytelling, Webdesign

It started when we commissioned artist Jesperish to create three pieces of artwork incorporating the HOVS identity. Then it became bigger. We designed and built three rooms (works of art in themselves, in 40k pixel resolution) to feature each piece of art. Why? For pure fun & curiosity, like the good old days.

Visit Three Rooms

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The HOVS museum experience.

Room Nr. 3, the paradise.

Spotify — Designing a music brand and product for millions of loyal users around the world

Brand Identity, Product Design

I worked for three years on the Spotify brand and product design, guiding Spotify through a major rebrand as the company tripled in size to more than 80 million users. I also worked on the Spotify Innovation Team, establishing and implementing Spotify’s first design guidelines and designing future products.

The new Spotify desktop experience.

The new Spotify mobile app

Photograph of the Aqua Tower, Chicago, 2018.

Business cards for my old design studio called.

Photograph of Porsche RAUWELT Edition.

House of van Schneider, 2023, Badge.

Branding for my old design studio called.

Poster designed for the official NASA Mars 2020 mission.

The mymind guy — Our mascot and logo for mymind.com.

Sneaker sculpture made out of metal mesh.

Drone photograph of the famous skatepark at Venice Beach in LA.

Photograph of the Aqua Tower, Chicago, 2018.

Photograph of Porsche RAUWELT Edition.

Branding for my old design studio called.

The mymind guy — Our mascot and logo for mymind.com.

Drone photograph of the famous skatepark at Venice Beach in LA.

Business cards for my old design studio called.

House of van Schneider, 2023, Badge.

Poster designed for the official NASA Mars 2020 mission.

Sneaker sculpture made out of metal mesh.



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