Mate Steinforth (born 1977 in Hannover) is a designer and director based in New York City. In his teen years he became active in the computer art subculture called Demoscene and eventually began working as a graphic artists for computer games. He studied graphic design at University of Applied Arts Hildesheim and the University of Madrid, Facultad de Bellas Artes.
In 2002, he moved to Madrid to work as an Art Director in the graphic studio Juan Dela Mata. From 2004 an he worked as a freelance motion designer/director for several companies in Berlin and Munich. In 2007, he moved to New York to work for the production company PSYOP.
From 2002 to 2006 he was focussing on animation, particularly the Performance art of VJing. Under his VJ alias of mateuniverse, he has toured Europe. He could perform at various art and electronica events in Europe and abroad with his moving pictures work being screened at festivals and on TV.
His visual style as a VJ has been described as “deconstructionist abstract”, with three-dimensional objects creating impressing effects of space and depth. His understanding of the art is deeply rooted in the attempt to be able to immediately respond visually to any given auditive and emotional situation.
His current work at PSYOP as a Designer includes doing styleframes for pitches and projects. These are graphic illustrations that communicate the content and vision for a yet-to be produced spot to the client and the animators.
Next to his professional work he always tries to spend time on collaborative projects, directing animated shorts and short clips. His recent works include the projects PSST! Pass It On 1+2, Getty Images The Next Big Idea and Advanced Beauty.
Be my friend
Feedback is greatly appreciated. You can either give me a call, write me an email or contact me at myspace, facebook, twitter, linked in, xing, computerlove, flickr or bitfilm club.
About the site
mateuniverse began in 1999 as a place to toy around with then new technologies like flash. The name mateuniverse was chosen to represent Mate’s own tiny universe. It gets it’s superior hosting and service from Aconi. It’s earlier versions was based on a custom engineered content management system by mspro. The current version is based on the open source blog system wordpress. It is optimized for Firefox and may look crazy on other browsers. Thanks to Rene Machel for initial help with the CSS. Thanks to Frank for the cool preloader idea.
Publications
Creators Based In New York, Taiwan, 2008
Web Design Index, Pepin Press, Amsterdam, 2008
IdN Magazine, Singapore, 2008
Rojo Sieve, Barcelona, May 2008
Exploring Motion Graphics, Thomson Delmar Learning, New York, 2007
Stash Magazine 7, 13, 22, 25, New York, 2005-2007
D-Fuse: Audio-Visual Art & VJ Culture, Laurence King, London, 2006
Motion By Design, Laurence King, London, 2006
IO Magazine, Berlin, 2006
Tres Logos, Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin, 2006
ROJO(R)DOLF, Barcelona, March 2006
IdN Magazine, Singapore, 2006
Isolated: Funkstorung Triple Media, Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin, 2005
Digital Production September/October 2005, Munich, 2005
SPEX Magazine, 2005
Shots Magazine 92, London, 2005
Vapors Magazine, San Francisco, 2004
Belio Magazine 11, 12, 13, 17, Madrid, 2003-2005
Exbihitions and Screening
Pocket Film Festival, Paris, June 2008
Napoli Film Festival, Napoli, June 2008
Dislocation Festival, Luton, August 2008
Republica De Transito, Spain, 2007
DOTMOV, Japan, 2007
Argos, Brussels, 2007
onedotzero, Wow+Flutter, 2007
Fluctuating Images: Media Flow Part 4, Stuttgart, Germany, 2007
Interfilm 2006 “So Dazed - New German Music Videos”, Berlin, 2006
Hijacked, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth, 2006
Pictoplasma Conference, Berlin, October 2006
Rencontre Audiovisuelles, Lille, France, October 2006
TRANSFER, Videorgy, Romania National TV, June 2006
Lumen Eclipse, Harvard University Square, November 2005
Antenna, London, 27. October 2005
Lovebytes, Internation Festival of Digital Art and Media, Sheffield, UK, 2005
Energias Renovadas, Belio, Madrid, March 2004
Mirador, Madrid, Spain, 2003, 2005
Lectures and Panels
“Design and Animation”, Flashbelt, Minneapolis, June 2008
“Design and Direction for Animation”, OFFF, Lisbon, May 2008
“The Creative Process”, INSPIRE, Savannah, April 2008
MFA Computer Arts Workshop, SVA, New York, Februaryl 2008
After Effects User Group, AENY, New York, November 2007
“Under the Influence”, OFFF, New York, November 2007
“PSYOP: Visual Music”, TYPO Berlin, Berlin, May 2007
“Video 2.0″, Interfilm, Berlin, November 2006
“Graphics in Motion”, HAWK, Hildesheim, November 2006
“Motion Graphics”, New York University, New York, September 2006
STASH Global Student Animation Award 2006 Judge, New York, 2006
Mirrorball, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh, August 2005
Videoart - Sex and Identity, Universidad Autonoma, Madrid, March 2003
VJ Sets
Fluctuating Images: Media Flow Part 4, Stuttgart, Germany, 2007
mirador, Madrid, October 2005
Clic Clac Club, Bar der Republik, Berlin, April 2005
Rio, Berlin, April 2005
decibelio Festival, Madrid, Februar 2005
Funkstörung DVD Release, watergate, Berlin, November 2004
experimentaclub, casa enscendida, Madrid, October 2004
lunatic festival, Lüneburg, July 2004
Contact Europe 04 VJ Festival, Café Moscau, Berlin, July 2004
_tension basement, Stuttgart, June 2004
espacio 04, Madrid, April 2004
espacio 03, Madrid, March 2004
Campus 1, Lüneburg, December 2003
Le Fonque, Stuttgart, December 2003
reset, depot, Tübingen, December 2003
experimentaclub, casa enscendida, Madrid, October 2003
Matrix, Arena, Madrid, October 2003
unique, Düsseldorf, August 2003
Basswerk, Gebäude 9, Cologne, August 2003
Broken Beats Festival, Alter Wartesaal, Cologne, August 2003
mirador, Madrid, July 2003
electroacustica, Madrid, Spanien, November 2002
deftek, munich, July 2002
bad, hannover, July 2002
werkstatthaus, stuttgart, June 2002
vivaplus.tv, colonia, June 2002
_tension basement, stuttgart, May 2002
bad, hannover, April 2002
Friends
Please take some time to look at the great work of these very talented individuals and groups. Ordered alphabetically to protect the innocent.
Advanced Beauty
Andrea Wong
Andreas Vrhovsek
Arrrgh
Belio Magazine
Blacklist
Blurp
Cityförster
Demo Design
Derya landet
Despairow
Enna
ESPAUN256
Everyone Forever
Flash Force One
Florian Witzel
Freefarm
Funkstorung
Gregor Hofbauer
Grow Design Work
HECQ
imagi-nation
immerfern
In Graphics We Trust
Jon Saunders
Kiezkollegen
Laurent Barthelemy
Loewe10
Lutz Vogel
Machtgrafik
Mark Wirblich
Massmarket
Metaphrenie
Michael Fakesch
Motionographer
mspro
Nindustrict
Pingmag
PSST! Pass it On
Robokid
Ronin
RTZ23
Sceen
Selzam
Serie B
sukio
Universal Everything
Uwe Flade
Yack Fou
Zeitguised
We are White Label
Zoe Wishart
Thanks to
motionographer, newstoday, computerplove, nice to meet you, lounge72, the fwa, screenfluent, pixelsurgeon, jvm neckar, onepagefolios, mostinspired, heavy backpack, form fiftyfive, josh spear, daily slurp, cgart, ffffound, uailab, trapcode, etcetering, 2m3, antenna7, refreshlinks, designflakes, ephatch, doggdot, gascap, elmaaltshift, pristina, why we rock, i love new work, mymspro, design you trust, luminescene, tips from the top floor, ctt, explanent, nisitake, artremix, julieh, kahn77, jimmyr, blund, dekku, fichey, zahar, 72dpi, bigspaceship, dustbowl, infostuka and neublack for linking me up and the overall support of the designscene in many different countries. In order of referred visitors ;)
Flickr
as long as I haven’t fully switched to a policitcal correcter service.
2008
Check out the Hijacked Video Zine Exhibition with Dirt Empire. Opening on Saturday, May 31 at 20h at fluctuating images in Stuttgart.
2008
Advanced Beauty is featued on Apple’s Quicktime site.
2008
Check out this interview on Spraygraphic about freelance design projects, PSYOP, and the demoscene.
2008
2008
Toonami is featured in Stash’s Motion Graphics 1, “a genre-defining collection”.
2008
Check out IdN The Identity Issue (V15N2). There’s a feature in the Pick Of The Month Section.
2008
Check out the Hijacked Video Zine Exhibition with Dirt Empire. Opening on Saturday, May 31 at 20h at fluctuating images in Stuttgart.
2008
Check out our entry for the See What’s Possible Challenge for the Adobe Photoshop Logo. Go there and vote. With the help of Florian Witzel and Michael Fakesch.
2008
Stash Magazine’s Music Video Collection includes the Punk Motherfucker.
2008
Channel is included in Rojo | Sievel.
2008
Due to site maintenance all the videos are temporarily offline. Check back soon to see them live again, until then enjoy the images.
2008
Advanced Beauty is featured on the Trapcode Gallery.
2008
Monday, the 11th of February, I’ll be giving a Motion Graphics Workshop at SVA. It’s 137W 21st Street between 6th & 7th Ave on the 10th floor, Room 1022, from 6-8pm.
2008
Immerfern and I did a piece for the Transito Exposition in Tenerife, Spain.
2007
If you get the chance, check out my upcoming lecture at the After Effects User Group NY at Pratt Insitute on Thursday, November 29 at 6:30pm.
2007
Tuesday, November 20th I’ll do the Keynote Speech (wow) at the Youth Design Conference at the Ex-Centris Center in Montreal.
2007
Check out the feature in the New Web Pick Connection Issue about german Designers.
2007
Check out the feature at videopark with Advanced Beauty and AP1105. (german).
2007
Check out some (late) Cut And Paste Coverage written by Hailey Eber on The Brooklyn Rail - Critical perspectives on Arts, Politics and Culture.
2007
Last Sunday, Novemer 4th, Marco Spier and spoke about PSYOP at a Panel at OFFF New York 2007 together with Buck, Tronic and Justin Cone.
2007
Advanced Beauty was selected for the DOTMOV Festival 2007. This November 1st, the screening will be held in the Sapporo, Sendai and Tokyo. Beginning 7th November at the Osaka venue.
2007
Check out the ARGOS Video Vortex Channel featuring Advanced Beauty. The conference was very impressive and inspiring. A good mixture of scientific and artistic speakers.
2007
Check out the interview on Josh Spear. It’s mainly about the Cut And Paste Event.
2007
Yesterday I participated in the Cut and Paste Digital Design Competition. I could stay through all 3 rounds and finally won the thing. nice!
2007
Check out the artist feature in Issue 6 of Iniciativa Creativa, a really cool PDF Zine. Here’s the PDF.
2007
Thanks to Drew Wilson for that Interview on MUSE.
2007
Check out this interview over at TOCA ME. (You have to click on Mate Steinforth to read it.)
2007
The PSST! Pass It On movies are screened at the bitfilm festival at the Spielbudenplatz in Hamburg this Saturday, September 1st at 9.30pm.
2007
Advanced Beauty was selected for the onedotzero Festival 2007.
2007
Thanks a lot to mspro and In Graphics We Trust for featuring me in Computerlove and NTMY.
2007
Welcome to the freshly launched, brand new mateuniverse. The portfolio of Designer Mate Steinforth.
2007
I will be participate in this year’s Cut’n'Paste Competition in New York. Wish me 15 Minutes of Luck.
2007
At the TYPO Berlin Design Conference I will talk about “Visual Music” for PSYOP. It’s on Saturday May 19th.
2006
I will be speaking about video on the web at a Panel at Interfilm in Berlin on November 9.
2005
Seems like the Punk Motherfucker was nominated in the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards Video Clip Category.
2005
My next VJ Gig will be in Madrid at the Mirador 2005.
2005
The Punk Motherfucker is featured on the Trapcode - User Gallery.
2005
Tonight’s the night, and off I go to ARS Electronica 2005.
2005
I’m proud to have the Punk Motherfucker over at boards - Screening Room.
2005
Finally the 2005 Global Student Animation Awards news arrived at my favourite Motiong Graphics Ressource tween
2005
Watch my video Punk Motherfucker featured at spex.de
2005
Check it, next round: The Global Student Animation Awards. I’m overwhelmed.
Togehter with Funkstorung’s Michael Fakesch I’ll be present at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
2005
Next VJ Dates: 25.6.2005 Munich, 2.7.2005 Lunatic Festival, Lueneburg, 9.7.2005 Polar TV, Berlin. Check links for places, updates follow… Thanks to my booking guys at White.
2005
The Toonami Idents will be feautured on the next Stash DVD!!
2005
A List of Films I’d like to see…
Alejandro Amenabars, “Das Meer in mir”, ES2004
Oliver Hirschbiegel, “Der Untergang”, D2004
Michael Mann, “Collateral”, USA200
Steven Spieglberg, “Terminal”, USA2004
Brad Bird, “The Incredibles”, USA2004
Jim Jarmusch, “Coffee And Cigarettes”, USA2004
Chan-wook Park - “OldBoy” - 2003
Kerry Nonan - “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” - USA 2004
Oskar Roehler - “Agnes und seine Bruder” - D2004
Walter Salles - “Die Reise des jungen Che” - 2004
2005
Thanks to the guys at pictoplasma for including some of my sketches in their archives.