Tobias van Schneider

What they show

A studio site under the headline 'I create; therefore I am': he's founder and creative director at HOVS, a studio that builds and runs its own products and occasionally works with partners like NASA/JPL. A long scroll mixes the studio's ventures (mymind, Semplice, Carbonmade), client work (NASA mission identities for Europa Clipper and Perseverance, three years on Spotify's brand and product through a major rebrand) and personal objects (a custom BMW motorcycle, hand-made sneakers, posters, photographs). Each venture carries an explicit ownership line, for example: 'I co-founded Semplice and I'm responsible for creative direction, product design, branding and marketing.' Essays from his DESK blog sit alongside.

Why it works at this level

This is the designer-founder's portfolio: he never stops being a maker, so the companies appear as projects in the same grid as the client work, with a credit line that says exactly what he owned. That framing does two things at once. It shows the founding as design work (creative direction, product, brand, marketing), and it shows a track record of launching things, which is what the next co-founder or investor wants to see. It's leadership framed as authorship rather than management, which is the right frame for a founder who still does the work.

What to steal

If you've built products of your own, put them in the grid with the client work and write a one-line credit that names what you were responsible for. Treat side projects and failed experiments as part of the record; a founder's portfolio is a record of shipping. Don't separate 'ventures' from 'work'.

What I'd change

One thing I'd push on. Every site here is good; this is the note I'd send the author.

There's little on the site about running the companies (team, growth, what it took to operate Semplice for years), so the founder story is all launch and no operation. One project file on the business itself would round it out.