Designers We Love: Helé de Beer

WORDS Lindi Brownell Meiring

Every year, Design Indaba, in association with the Department of Arts and Culture, chooses 40 talented up-and-comers as part of the anticipated Emerging Creatives initiative.

Started in 2005, this programme has helped launch the careers of many successful South African creatives. At this year’s exhibition, held at the Watershed in Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, we spotted some local stars we just had to chat to. Meet textile designer, Helé de Beer.

Describe your work in three words.

Playful, absurd, ambiguous. In other words, FUNtasties.

What do you love about design? 

The endless possibilities. Design is essentially a process, a series of decisions made. My first year design lecturer used to say (and still says) that everything is design. And it’s true. The way you got to work this morning was designed by you. Whether you’ve walked, caught a taxi, or cycled to work, you designed your way to get there. So I think design is evidence of the way God created us, i.e. with the ability to make decisions. Design is the canvas that expresses a process of decisions. I love the infinite possibilities that design holds.

What did being an Emerging Creative mean to you?

I felt privileged to be recognised as an up-and-coming South African designer. Being part of the Design Indaba Festival had been my dream since I was in high school. I felt like those people you see on TV who’ve won the Lotto or had their lifelong dream come true. It felt both amazing and strange at the same time. The idea is to use the Design Indaba Emerging Creatives as a stepping-stone to actually making a living from being a designer in South Africa.

Helé describes herself as a thing-maker, an explorer, a hoarder and a daydreamer. She is based in Port Elizabeth.

View more of her work at behance.net/hele.