Mate Steinforth

(*1977) is a German designer and director. 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.

In his teen years Mate Steinforth 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.

From 2005 to 2009, he worked at PSYOP as a Designer and Director, 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.

Starting December 2009, he moved back to Germany to head up the Berlin branch of the motion design and animation Label SEHSUCHT.

Next to his professional work he always tries to spend time on collaborative projects, directing animated shorts and short clips.

Source: Mate Steinforth's website

Mate Steinforth, berlin, design

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Sonic Graphics/Seeing Sound (2000) by Matt Woolman presents exemplary work from studios around the world in three sections: Notation analyses the use of sign and symbol systems in creating identity and branding for music artists, recording projects and performances; Material considers how products can package the intrinsic nature of the music they contain; and Atmosphere looks at how space and multidimensional environmeaants can be used to visualize sound. A reference section includes studio websites and a glossary. (Thames & Hudson)

Audio.Visual - On Visual Music and Related Media (2009) by Cornelia Lund and Holger Lund (Eds.) is divided into two sections: the first deals with the academic discussion on the subject of visual music; the second introduces contemporary paradigms of audio-visual praxis in brief presentations and contextualises them. Apart from being a guide in the historical sense, this new volume provides theoretical approaches to understanding and making visual music. (Fluctuating Images)

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Funkstörung: Dirt Empire (2004) by Funkstörung somewhat breathes the air of 1960s psychedelic music and so the images in the video too quote the 60s psychedelic art. From a vague anticipation of blurry haze in the beginning graphical patterns evolve into more and more concrete forms. In the course of the video by Mate Steinforth these shapes form parts of contemporary architecture. (Vimeo)

Resonance (2011) is a collaborative project with over 30 independent visual and audio designers and studios. The aim was to explore the relationship between geometry and audio in unique ways. Animators and Audio Designers were paired up at the beginning of the project and were given the guidelines to create a piece between 12 and 20 seconds and in HD quality, the rest was up to them. (Resonance website)

Advanced Beauty (2007) was curated by Universal Everything and musician Simon Pyke. Advanced Beauty is an international collaboration and ongoing exploration of digital artworks born and influenced by sound. (Universal Everything)

Sehsucht has its home the heart of Hamburg's Karolinenquarter – home of advertising agencies, creatives and artists. Founded in 2000 by a bunch of hungry design addicts, Sehsucht has come to leave its mark as a top-notch quality label in the field of animations and graphics. (Sehsucht)

Petard (2003-2008) is Depart's 'synapsisyntactical dewelloperawe', an audio-visual live performance for synced fragmented audio and video, mostly improvised live. This is a short capture of a Petard audio-visual live performance at Cimatics in Brussels, Belgium using Pure Data's Gem and Native Instrument's Reaktor. (Depart)

Rimantas Lukavicius (KORB) (*1983) is a Lithuanian CGI director. He started to experiment with motion graphics in 2001 and studied Photo/Media in Vilnius Art Academy. His short film Ku Ku won the Best Animated Short film at the 5th KaraFilm Festival. In 2005 Rimantas Lukavicius founded KORB to integrate visual effects, motion design, live action and mixed media. The Vilnius based company works for worldwide brands. (KORB)

Massive Attack World Tours (2003-2010) by United Visual Artists. UVA and Massive Attack have an ongoing artistic relationship. Up to date UVA have created four world and festival tours for the band, the 100th Window Tour (2003) being the first. UVA created a new stage set with a wide, sculptural LED screen as the centrepiece for the fourth tour in 2008. Perfect synchronisation between the music and the visuals was made possible by United Visual Artists’ custom d3 software. (United Visual Artists)

Universal Everything is a UK-based diverse studio at the crossover between design and art. With commissions ranging from packaging to stadium events, for clients from Apple to London 2012 Olympics. Their works have shown in galleries from Museum of Modern Art, New York to Colette, Paris. (Universal Everything)

Konzerthaus Dortmund: Typofonie (2006) by Hamburg-based design studio tisch eins.

Visual Music Archive

Mate Steinforth

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