Interviews with Helen Louisa Sauter

The main question for this design was how a huge amount of flexibility can be provided on small space

Besides the functional aspects, it was very important to me to create a homelike, friendly look that fits in to spaces to live in and feel comfortable in.

It would be great to continue my work on the Heli X system. This way I could exploit all the potential that lays in the concept.

It took me two weeks to develop the underlying principle, but to finalize all details and prepare everything for production it took me around three more weeks.

Until now, the Heli X Furniture System was only produced once, but I hope to find a company or a producer who is interested in a cooperation.

It was developed for people that live on small space but want to be flexible and adapt to many different living situations, due to an active and social lifestyle. Especially in cities where housing is getting more and more expensive, solutions like the Heli X furniture system are demanded.

Many modular furniture systems have simple, geometrical shapes like cubes or hexagons. This often creates a pretty technical, rather cold appearance that does not seem suitable for a homelike atmosphere. With the Heli X system, you also have a wide range of combinations, but the design seems vivid and friendly.

The name Heli X is inspired by the helix shape that the furniture elements create when stacked onto each other.

There was a lot of sketching and building small mockups to check the proportions, the exact shapes and measurements. Later on, everything was finalized in the CAD program Rhinoceros 3D.

It is the special shape of the elements that enables all the different combinations.

Design is the ability to focus creative energie to find easy solutions to all kinds of problems and tasks, in a way that function and aesthetic appear as a coherent unit.

Every interesting task can be exciting, but I believe what I like most is designing furniture and interior furnishings. These design processes are always a lot of fun because you can experiment with building mockups and your own body and surroundings can be used as straightedge for proportions or atmosphere. It feels like you are really creating something for use in everyday life.

The overall impression and how coherent all details fit together.

I love to go outside or sit in the train during the design process. Like this, I can let my eyes wander and discover all kinds of different shapes and patterns passing by.

I sketch, build paper or metal mockups and write down all my thoughts before I go into computer visualisation programs such as Rhinoceros or the Adobe Creative suite. Because of my manual work background I then often finalise my designs in a metal workshop, where I test all the technical details before the final design goes into production.

Self-reflection and an open mind

A lot of manual tools like sketching, brainstorming, taking notes and building real life mock-ups. Then of course for visualization and details I use software like Rhinoceros 3D and the Adobe Suite: InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop

It always depends on the size of each project and how well-engineered it should be. I often feel like there is always more to improve or overthink, no matter how much time there was. The more time you have to finalize the last steps of a design process the better the outcome.

Every interesting task can be exciting, but I believe what I like most is designing furniture and interior furnishings. These design processes are always a lot of fun because you can experiment with building mockups and your own body and surroundings can be used as straightedge for proportions or atmosphere. It feels like you are really creating something for use in everyday life.

I develop most of my designs by my self.