The designer Helder Barbosa, whom I met at Paris Design Week a few months ago, tells us about his career, his creative process and the history of his designs.
→ Hi Helder, can you introduce yourself?
I am Helder Barbosa, 31 years old, designer, astrological sign: Libra (big impact on my work - ahah). I live and work in Paris. Or almost, my workshop is in the 94th district of Paris.
As for my background, I started with a degree in communication and then I went to the Boulle school, cabinet making section.
The reason for this choice is that I had been interested in furniture for a while and I knew that I wanted to enter the world of design, but first I had to learn to work with different materials.
Then, I continued to train in several workshops to learn how to work steel, aluminium or brass, while having my own workshop where I started in 2017 to prototype my first creations.
Today I alternate between the creation and production of my pieces that I sell on order and freelance missions in other workshops.
→ How do you define your design practice?
My way of creating is perhaps particular because I don't draw, or make 3D renderings. I like to develop my ideas more through visualization. A detail or a shape will emerge, I will work on it and make it evolve by taking several forms. Almost simultaneously I will think about the choice of material which will not only specify the rendering that I will have of my creation but also guide the next steps by the technical constraints that it will impose.
Afterwards, once my idea is sufficiently developed I continue it in the workshop where I make a scale model. This stage allows me to choose the materials and sections I will use, to define the proportions of the object, to solve technical problems and to specify certain details. This manufacturing part is really the extension of the first creative part, it completes it and gives the object its final version before launching the real prototype that I make if possible myself or that I subcontract.
Not having had a traditional education, my vision of design was mostly built with a sculptor and set-designer I assisted for a little more than 4 years (hello Arnold Goron - @arnoldgoron) and who was a huge source of inspiration for me. It was during this period that my curiosity for almost all materials was born, my attraction for minimalist shapes and lines, my attention to detail to bring rhythm and aesthetic balance to my creations.
→ You recently took part in Paris Design Week and the Collectible Fair. How have these types of events contributed to your professional development?
These are important events on two counts:
The first is visibility. This kind of exhibitions or fairs allow you to exist and to take place within a scene, in this case that of emerging designers. Your creations become real and tangible for the public (pro or not) and that makes all the difference, the impact is much stronger (if we compare to the visibility that can bring you networks like Insta...)
The second is the development of your professional network. Whether it's with other designers or with professionals (gallery owners, publishers, architects...). It opens you up to new collaborations and opportunities that make you evolve and take a new step each time. That's the goal of the independent designer's game: to climb the steps - ahah.
→ What objects did you present there?
It was quite large because there were about ten pieces created between 2020 and today. In fact, I was often asked if this was my "first collection" but I don't think like that at all.
I like to create one piece after another without necessarily having a direct link between them and to change materials between each project. The most important thing is that you feel that they were created by the same person. I'm bored by the idea of having one concept in several objects... I constantly need change.
→ What was the starting point for the following objects: Onda / Bourrelet / Tootoo?
We have 3 different situations:
For the 'Bourrelet' lamps, it is the "discovery" of a technique.
I was having fun in my workshop heating/burning a lot of materials until I did it on big PVC tubes. I noticed at that time that it became soft for a few moments before becoming hard again and keeping the shape you had given it (I realised afterwards that it's a technique that absolutely everyone knows but at the time I experienced it as a discovery - ahah)
So I wanted to make a small folded table lamp because the bulges created by the material interested me. After about fifty tests to get the perfect bead, it was moulded to make ceramic prints.
For the 'Tootoo' stools, it is the "classic" way I described above. First of all, the desire to make a piece that can be used outside as well as inside (this is something I like, I did the same with the 'Pool' concrete bench). Then, the idea was to play with the lines created by the cuts in the aluminium, keeping in mind this notion of rhythm which is present in many of my projects.
The name came when I added little legs to the stool :)
For 'Onda', it's a bit of a "good surprise". At the beginning, I was looking for shapes for an armchair. I had folded several small pieces of sheet metal and I played with them, assembling them in several ways until I arrived at a shape close to the shelf and realised that it would make a nice module that could be stacked endlessly. So I put aside the idea of the armchair and continued to work on the shelf... Sometimes you have to provoke luck but above all you have to remain open to all forms of inspiration.
→ Finally, what is the project that occupies you the most at the moment?
I always work on 2 or 3 projects at the same time because it allows me to alternate or to let an idea rest and come back to it later.
So at the moment I'm working on a new stool, a wall lamp and an ashtray.
They are still in work in progress, but their starting points are again different:
The stool, which will be made of wood, starts from a graphic research thanks to a hollowing out technique.
For the wall lamp, it's a process I've never used before that attracted me (thermoforming a glass plate).
Finally, the idea of the ashtray came to me after I thought of an opening and closing mechanism that would avoid the smell of cold tobacco inside. To be continued...
Further info |
The designer Helder Barbosa, whom I met at Paris Design Week a few months ago, tells us about his career, his creative process and the history of his designs.
→ Hi Helder, can you introduce yourself?
I am Helder Barbosa, 31 years old, designer, astrological sign: Libra (big impact on my work - ahah). I live and work in Paris. Or almost, my workshop is in the 94th district of Paris.
As for my background, I started with a degree in communication and then I went to the Boulle school, cabinet making section.
The reason for this choice is that I had been interested in furniture for a while and I knew that I wanted to enter the world of design, but first I had to learn to work with different materials.
Then, I continued to train in several workshops to learn how to work steel, aluminium or brass, while having my own workshop where I started in 2017 to prototype my first creations.
Today I alternate between the creation and production of my pieces that I sell on order and freelance missions in other workshops.
→ How do you define your design practice?
My way of creating is perhaps particular because I don't draw, or make 3D renderings. I like to develop my ideas more through visualization. A detail or a shape will emerge, I will work on it and make it evolve by taking several forms. Almost simultaneously I will think about the choice of material which will not only specify the rendering that I will have of my creation but also guide the next steps by the technical constraints that it will impose.
Afterwards, once my idea is sufficiently developed I continue it in the workshop where I make a scale model. This stage allows me to choose the materials and sections I will use, to define the proportions of the object, to solve technical problems and to specify certain details. This manufacturing part is really the extension of the first creative part, it completes it and gives the object its final version before launching the real prototype that I make if possible myself or that I subcontract.
Not having had a traditional education, my vision of design was mostly built with a sculptor and set-designer I assisted for a little more than 4 years (hello Arnold Goron - @arnoldgoron) and who was a huge source of inspiration for me. It was during this period that my curiosity for almost all materials was born, my attraction for minimalist shapes and lines, my attention to detail to bring rhythm and aesthetic balance to my creations.
→ You recently took part in Paris Design Week and the Collectible Fair. How have these types of events contributed to your professional development?
These are important events on two counts:
The first is visibility. This kind of exhibitions or fairs allow you to exist and to take place within a scene, in this case that of emerging designers. Your creations become real and tangible for the public (pro or not) and that makes all the difference, the impact is much stronger (if we compare to the visibility that can bring you networks like Insta...)
The second is the development of your professional network. Whether it's with other designers or with professionals (gallery owners, publishers, architects...). It opens you up to new collaborations and opportunities that make you evolve and take a new step each time. That's the goal of the independent designer's game: to climb the steps - ahah.
→ What objects did you present there?
It was quite large because there were about ten pieces created between 2020 and today. In fact, I was often asked if this was my "first collection" but I don't think like that at all.
I like to create one piece after another without necessarily having a direct link between them and to change materials between each project. The most important thing is that you feel that they were created by the same person. I'm bored by the idea of having one concept in several objects... I constantly need change.
→ What was the starting point for the following objects: Onda / Bourrelet / Tootoo?
We have 3 different situations:
For the 'Bourrelet' lamps, it is the "discovery" of a technique.
I was having fun in my workshop heating/burning a lot of materials until I did it on big PVC tubes. I noticed at that time that it became soft for a few moments before becoming hard again and keeping the shape you had given it (I realised afterwards that it's a technique that absolutely everyone knows but at the time I experienced it as a discovery - ahah)
So I wanted to make a small folded table lamp because the bulges created by the material interested me. After about fifty tests to get the perfect bead, it was moulded to make ceramic prints.
For the 'Tootoo' stools, it is the "classic" way I described above. First of all, the desire to make a piece that can be used outside as well as inside (this is something I like, I did the same with the 'Pool' concrete bench). Then, the idea was to play with the lines created by the cuts in the aluminium, keeping in mind this notion of rhythm which is present in many of my projects.
The name came when I added little legs to the stool :)
For 'Onda', it's a bit of a "good surprise". At the beginning, I was looking for shapes for an armchair. I had folded several small pieces of sheet metal and I played with them, assembling them in several ways until I arrived at a shape close to the shelf and realised that it would make a nice module that could be stacked endlessly. So I put aside the idea of the armchair and continued to work on the shelf... Sometimes you have to provoke luck but above all you have to remain open to all forms of inspiration.
→ Finally, what is the project that occupies you the most at the moment?
I always work on 2 or 3 projects at the same time because it allows me to alternate or to let an idea rest and come back to it later.
So at the moment I'm working on a new stool, a wall lamp and an ashtray.
They are still in work in progress, but their starting points are again different:
The stool, which will be made of wood, starts from a graphic research thanks to a hollowing out technique.
For the wall lamp, it's a process I've never used before that attracted me (thermoforming a glass plate).
Finally, the idea of the ashtray came to me after I thought of an opening and closing mechanism that would avoid the smell of cold tobacco inside. To be continued...
Further info |