Desk of Tobias von Schneider

The unexamined life is not worth living — From the Desk of van Schneider — Edition №259

Last week I wrote about "Style is the answer to everything", a short personal meditation on style and a subtle nod to one of my favorite poems by Charles Bukowski. If you missed it, I highly recommend you read it. You can now read it here on my

by Zoe

Tutorial: How to make an illustration & animation portfolio with Carbonmade

Some portfolios look so good, you can't imagine how they did it. They must have hired a developer and worked for hours on the design.

by Tobias van Schneider

What makes me a designer?

This question crossed my mind enough times recently that I went into the DESK archives to find my own answer. To my surprise, there wasn’t one. I’ve never written about it, not until today.

by Tobias van Schneider

Make it invisible

Our approach to building products may seem counterintuitive. Our goal is to make a product so good, you don't think about the product at all.

by Lizzy Spano

The anesthetization of beauty

They were all over the internet: Images of deep space, revealing thousands of distant galaxies, twinkling in vivid detail. They were beautiful. Full-spectrum color. Never seen before – except they were.

by Surya Anand

Our favorite portfolios launched with Semplice in August 2022

Every week, we handpick two portfolios created with Semplice to feature on our Showcase. These are the best of the best, chosen by yours truly from hundreds of beautiful submissions

by Tobias van Schneider

When did our tools become our religion?

Designers love to argue about design tools. Some treat it as their religion, as if their design tool is the only thing that gives them meaning or an identity.

by Tobias van Schneider

The last house standing

"Only crazy people attempt to start their own company."

by Surya Anand

Our favorite portfolios launched with Semplice in July 2022

Every week, we handpick two portfolios created with Semplice to feature on our Showcase. These are the best of the best, chosen by yours truly from hundreds of beautiful submissions