Isabel + Helen on making the Wallpaper* Design Awards cover 2025

(Image credit: Isabel + Helen)

published 15 January 2025

Deliberating on how we might encapsulate the year in design for the cover of the Wallpaper* February 2025 issue – dedicated to the annual Wallpaper* Design Awards – we quickly settled upon the joyfully imaginative work of Isabel + Helen. Isabel Gibson and Helen Chesner met while studying at Chelsea College of Arts, London, and, since graduating in 2012, the pair have taken their kinetic performance sculptures to festivals and design fairs, photo shoots and runways.

The easy appeal and readable artistry of their work is the very embodiment of light relief. This year has been a big one for the London-based duo, who took their Power Suits – ‘wearable energy generators’ – to Vienna for Cartier; collaborated with Chanel and Porsche; and conducted a ‘human firework’ workshop with students at ÉCAL in Switzerland.

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For our cover, they sought to capture a lightbulb moment, with a pulley mechanism manually operated by two people to create a bright yellow version of our Wallpaper* asterisk. ‘We love that it celebrates people and design – it’s about a collective coming together to turn ideas into reality,’ says Chesner, while Gibson adds: ‘A lot of what we do is trial and error. It’s wonderful to see people’s responses to our performances – a mix of escapism and engagement, but also feeling part of something; a happening in real time.’

Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 issue February cover with yellow asterisk held up by two people — The newsstand cover (left, and in stores now) and the limited-edition subscriber cover (right)

As we teeter on the brink of an AI-generated creative landscape, Isabel + Helen’s work is a welcome reminder that we still have magic in our own minds and hands.

@isabelandhelen_studio

A version of this article appears in the February 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on international newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

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Hugo is a design critic, curator and the co-founder of Bard, a gallery in Edinburgh dedicated to Scottish design and craft. A long-serving member of the Wallpaper* family, he has also been the design editor at Monocle and the brand director at Studioilse, Ilse Crawford's multi-faceted design studio. Today, Hugo wields his pen and opinions for a broad swathe of publications and panels. He has twice curated both the Object section of MIART (the Milan Contemporary Art Fair) and the Harewood House Biennial. He consults as a strategist and writer for clients ranging from Airbnb to Vitra, Ikea to Instagram, Erdem to The Goldsmith's Company. Hugo has this year returned to the Wallpaper* fold to cover the parental leave of Rosa Bertoli as Global Design Director.

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