It's live! Introducing the new HOVS website

by Tobias van Schneider
Published May 29, 2024

The new HOVS (House of van Schneider) aka my personal (studio) website, is finally LIVE!

After about 8 years I'm finally happy to announce my new home on the internet. It feels a bit like the old days again.

This article (first introduced to the readers of my DESK newsletter) l entirely dedicated to this relaunch. I'll share all my thoughts with you on the WHY, WHAT and HOW.

✦ Step 1: Make sure you're on your computer. The bigger the screen the better. YES, the website works on mobile too, but it would be a shame to experience it there first.

✦ Step 2: Hit play here. Then you are listening to the same music as I listen to while writing this article. We're now entirely connected.

✦ Step 3: → Visit my new website — Have a scroll, enjoy it as long or as short as you like.

✦ Step 4: Come back here and keep reading my deepest, most useful (or useless) thoughts on this redesign. You might end up liking it.

↓

The personal internet is back, baby!

I haven't touched my website for about 8 years. And for the past 3 years I've been more urgently thinking of what to do with it. I did countless designs, but every one of them felt... meaningless. There's no point in designing something if you don't even know where you're going. How do you find the answers, if you haven't even started asking the right questions?

What do I want my new website to be?

But let's re-phrase that question to make this a bit easier on myself.

What do I NOT want my new website to be? Now we're talking. This is the right place to start.

– I DON'T want it to be some standard, "boring" and meaningless portfolio just to show my work that you visit once, but then never again. I've done this plenty of times over the last decade. Where's the fun in that?

– I DON'T want it to be a generic agency website with "Work, Services, Contact" and "We create solutions for visionary brands" slogan that mirrors thousands of other studio websites competing for the same work (no offense). I'm frankly not even looking for work (exceptions apply), so it doesn't make any sense to position it this way.

– I DON'T want it to be something trendy that impresses a small group of designers which is then out of style less than a year from now and I have to do it all over again.

Now that I've found out what I DON'T want, I can think of what I DO want.

– I want this page to feel like a hybrid between professional (my work) but also personal. Like an ultimate throwback to how websites used to be when they were the only place on the internet for us, before our social media profiles took over.

– I want this page to feel nicely designed, but also timeless in its approach. In fact, I don't want to touch the design for the next 10 years. I need to restrain myself and find the perfect balance. "Will I like this in 5-10 years from now?" It's like getting a tattoo.

– I want this page to feel like a treasure trove of things that interest me, from my designs and experiments to the things I enjoy outside of work. I want the site to have the potential to grow in all directions, almost like a weird sort of archive/collection of things I enjoy, expanding over the years.

– I simply want this page to feel like ME. My new home on the internet. In a world were we left personal websites behind, I want to bring it back.

And this is where I landed

Of course, this is a never ending process. My new website isn't finished, it never will be. But that's the whole point. It's the framework that counts for me, the system that supports my multitude of interests.

My new page is as close as possible a reflection of who I am. Because my motto is: I create, therefore I am.

Quick facts:

✦ My new website is built with Semplice
✦ My site is hosted on Flywheel
✦ My blog+newsletter is powered by Ghost

THE HOMEPAGE

This is where you find the majority of my commercial/professional work. I killed over 50% of my old portfolio work and focused on a multi-disciplinary mix of projects I'm proud of. Many of these projects now happen to be my own products/companies. Client work is taking the backseat with this new site. I changed over the years, and so should my portfolio.

Each layer is carefully curated and branded with slideshows to give you a quick view of the brand universe of each project. Not too little, not too much. Lagom; as the Swedes would say. Mixed in between these project layers you will find my "Design Artifacts" which are pieces of work from my design archive. They serve as both a break between the more heavy projects, but also give you more sense of the depth of work available.

The design direction is a bit of a throwback. In fact, I got inspired by some of my old portfolios I did back in the early 2000's after browsing my own archive. Fixed container width (you'll notice this on bigger screens), restrained animations and layout, no fancy scroll-hijacking or anything that annoys the hell out of you when visiting the site more than once.

An old portfolio of mine, from ~2005 which served as inspiration for my current page, especially that tab on the left side (you'll see this on my new site, in red)

The new HOVS site is far away from any current trends. I wouldn't be surprised if you are not blown away by it, because that's the entire point. I envisioned the design to feel as relevant in 2005 as it would be in 2030. Solid, timeless, informative and extendable. My once-a-decade redesign.

But lets dive into some of the sub-pages.

ESSENTIALS

The "Essentials" page is an outlet for me to share some of the products I use on a daily basis, some of which are my own products. Of course, the list will grow over time. On one hand this gives you a little bit of insight into my personal taste and who I am as a person, but it might also help you discover new things for yourself. In the future I hope to extend this list with more quirky objects that I am surrounded by on a daily basis.

ESSAYS (the blog)

My blog, which you probably already know

This is my blog, what you're reading now, as you already know it. It's a separate page and not affected by this redesign. With close to 1000 articles published, the DESK blog has become a big archive of my thinking over the past years. I refer to it often, and I will continue to add to it for the years to come.

THE WEEKLY

It's my newsletter. Now with a beautifully updated sign-up page which you are welcome to share with friends, so they may sign up to receive my emails as well.

MIXTAPES

They say that making a mixtape for someone is a form of love language. It takes time and love to pick the right songs, put them all into a list, into the right fitting order, design a nice cover for it and then share it with a friend. This is what I do with my mixtapes page. Custom designed mixtape covers (I love doing those) and curated songs for you. There will be many more mixtapes coming, each with a different theme. So keep an eye out, as this page will be updated frequently.

BOOKS

My Reading Recommendations all in one place

I took some of my all-time favorite books, designed a custom book cover for them and listed them all out for you to see. This is my "Books" page. All my reading recommendations in one place. And here as well, this list will continue to grow, so you have a reason to come back whenever you need something new to read.

QUOTES

All the wisdom I've collected from those books and elsewhere, all in one place for you (and me) to enjoy. Call it cheesy, but when I have a bad day, I just have to read the right quote and I immediately feel better again. The quotes someone subscribes to often tell us a bit more about them. And with my new website, I have a place for all the thoughts, humor and advice I try to internalize, handpicked from inside mymind. I will continue to update this page as the years go by.

THE PRAXIS

There has to be some sort of About page, right? That's what this is. Who I am, what I do, and what I did. Pretty boring, if you ask me. But it has to be there.

ARTIFACTS

This page is an extension of the "Artifacts" layers on the homepage. Here you will find everything that didn't fit in elsewhere. From old client work, personal projects from the archive or simply just experiments. Almost like a moodboard of random snippets of my work that isn't represented anywhere else. I already have dozens more queued up to be published over the next weeks.

PHOTO ARCHIVE

(this page is coming soon) I love photography, it's a big hobby of mine. And for the first time, I will show a very limited and curated collection of them on my website. Before I only shared them on Instagram, but it's a bit of a shame running around with a medium format camera and then only putting them close-cropped on Instagram. It's like putting my photos in prison. I'll let you know once this page is LIVE, should be within the coming month.

That's it!

Well, at least for now. In the future I have other sub-pages planned, like a small shop where you can purchase prints and other goodies. And then of course, a true DESIGN ARCHIVE of sorts because I practically killed 90% of my client work from the past two decades which are now nowhere to be found. So in the spirit of making this a real HOME on the internet, an archive needs to be there, even if its just for me or my grandkids.

And of course

Big THANK YOU goes out to my team. While HOVS might be my studio and represents my personal interest, there's an entire team behind me that does great work on all of our combined projects (mymind, Semplice, Carbonmade) — and for the first time in my career, I involved my team on my website.

THANK YOU to Andrew who helped with the final implementation, custom code, animations and testing. This page wouldn't be online without you.

THANK YOU to Surya who helped with design explorations of each sub-page and put his beautiful design hands on the special book covers. I am still jealous you got to work on those.

THANK YOU to Lizzy who's been listening to my rambling for years, proofreading my copy and helping with the tone of voice of the page.

THANK YOU to Mike, my partner on Semplice who has continuously provided feedback on the design and helped with many other things as well. And yes, my website is of course built with pride, and made with Semplice.