Information
Tobias van Schneider is a multi-disciplinary maker of useful, curious and beautiful things (he just doesn't like the word entrepreneur). He is the founder and creative director at House of van Schneider (HOVS), a boutique creative studio building and shaping products loved by millions. Born in Germany and raised in Austria, Tobias now lives and works in New York City.
(biography written by Lizzy Spano,
photograph above by Sidney H. Gomes)
Tobias’ journey is a little different than most. He started his career by dropping out of high school at 15 with grand plans of becoming a software engineer. After realizing he, quite frankly, sucked at it, Tobias began teaching himself design at the age of 16. Fast forward a few years and he is now a designer, founder, speaker, mentor and maker.
House of van Schneider’s unique perspective is born from building and running its own independent products. The studio doesn’t just prescribe solutions to clients; it takes its own medicine. Tobias and his team are also NASA’s studio of choice for branding their missions to space, most recently for the Mars Rover 2020 launch and the Europa Clipper mission (coming soon).
Tobias is the co-founder of mymind™, an AI-enhanced extension for your mind. With its beautiful design, strong focus on privacy and an unconventional approach to organization, mymind has made a niche for itself among creative people and independent thinkers. The tool exploded while still in beta, and has since grown into a passionate community of supporting members.
He also co-founded Semplice™, a portfolio system and community of the world’s leading designers who represent brands such as BBDO, Disney, Apple and many more. Since its launch in 2014, Semplice has attracted the upper echelon of creative talent, resulting in a Showcase mined by top companies, admired by creative peers and referenced by aspiring young talent.
Tobias is the co-CEO of Carbonmade®, which has helped more than 2 million people launch their online portfolio since 2005. Creative types of all kinds – photographers, makeup artists, concept artists, designers, illustrators and more – use Carbonmade to effortlessly build beautiful websites.
Tobias writes about design and productivity in his newsletter and on DESK, an online magazine reaching hundreds of thousands of designers and creators each month. Since 2016, DESK has been a trusted resource for those looking to challenge their thinking and find new perspectives on design and creativity.
Previously, Tobias served as art director & lead product designer at Spotify in New York . Spotify grew from 15 million users to 70+ million during this time (2013), becoming the leading music streaming service in the world.
After founding his first design studio, Tobias had the honor of developing products and services for companies such as Red Bull, Google, NASA, BMW, Wacom, Sony, Fantasy Interactive, Stinkdigital, Toyota, Ralph Lauren and Bwin, to name a few. Tobias has been honored with the net magazine Designer of the Year & Awwwards Art Director of the Year awards. He also served as a member on the Board of Directors at AIGA NYC and a supporter, advisor and mentor to a variety of programs around the world, including Cannes Lions, HyperIsland, Art Directors Club & the FWA.
In addition to his mentoring work, Tobias is advisor and creative director at memomi®. He played a crucial role in creating the brand and overseeing the user experience to help establish the world’s first digital mirror software platform called Memory Mirror. memomi’s success led to a successful acquisition by Walmart in 2022.
Tobias’s work has been published in Wired, GQ Germany, FastCompany, Inc Magazine, net Magazine, Computer Arts, FirstRound Capital, BusinessInsider, Washington Post and TheNextWeb, among others.
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If you're interested in working with HOVS, please contact business@vanschneider.com
Press &
Recognition
Past Speaking
Engagements
Jury Panel
Cannes Lions Award, Art Directors Club, GDA2015 Hong Kong, The Webbys, The Pixel Award, AIGA Nebraska, Adobe Creative Edge Awards, The FWA, Awwwards, Ukrainian Design Awards, EyeEm Award
Thank you for
visiting the house.
