Cornelia Stehling

-helio

/PROJECT 9, Helio

»Helio« is a drinking aid for seniors. As an additive product it makes use of the bottling jar as a requisite, which is common in ordinary housholds.

Products for seniors and for toddlers very much assemble as they address the same basic needs. For example drinking assistants: In both cases they provide unsteady hands from spilling liquid. Though certain decades lie in between the groups of users, the products are designed in a similar understanding of aesthetics. Bright colors and blobby shapes create an image that match toddlers more than elderly. Helio is a redesign for an existing scenario. It tries to change our human interpretation of aging as being a downward curve. The product combines the material and optic – in a reduced way – of an ordinary drinking assistant with a tool known from grandmas kitchen. The top bit is left in a bright color. This contributes to the visibility and the pride it's supposed to be used with. The bottom bit is based on the most common normed-sized glass. Not only for health reasons glass is more appropriate than plastic. Also the transparency of the material makes the containment visible. Its modularity makes it easy to clean and to fill up.