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.
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.’
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.
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
