HELMUT TELEFONT

Sensitive design: Helmut Telefont’s work has won several design prizes and awards. He designed the successful, emotionally charged vienna range.

Illustration, graphic design and 3D computer visualisation are Helmut Telefont’s special fields. He worked for Bene Büromöbel KG and, as an independent designer and illustrator, also conducted projects for LAUFEN and Niethammer. Telefont has received several design prizes and awards for his work and in 1997 he was included in the International Design Review. Helmut Telefont was born in 1952 in Krems an der Donau in Austria. He completed his Diploma in 1977 at the College of Applied Art in Vienna and in 1985 took the bold step of becoming freelance.

During this period he designed the highly successful vienna series for LAUFEN. His central idea was to give a lyrical interpretation to the desire for well-being.  Accordingly, his vienna series is sensuous and gently rounded and brings back memories of the charms of days gone by – for instance, the sophisticated elegance of the Ringstrasse Hotel in Vienna. However, there is also a well thought-out concept behind the design which helps to make life simpler. For example, the series includes a washbasin that can be cut on either side to fit the space required and a ceramic vienna comfort WC which is 5 centimetres higher than standard in order to make sitting down and standing up again easier. The visual counterpoint and functional complement to the organic ceramic objects is the vienna furniture range with its straight, clear lines.