Interview with Helen Louisa Sauter
Helen Sauter is a young, passionate designer from Germany. Besides her design skills, she also has a manual work background that enables her to design, plan and produce projects from the beginning to…
Interview about Heli X Modular Furniture System Design Interview
Designer Interview
23 May 2022
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.