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
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Semplice Content Editor.
Semplice custom UI elements.
Featured Essays
from the DESK blog
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.
Signal lost in space.
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.
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.
The memory mirror (memomi) logo.
The smart mirror in action.
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.
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
Thank you for
visiting the house.