Activity as a designer
In April 2012 she founded her own label and from then on started working for international brands on various design projects. Beginning with Amenity Kits for Lufthansa Sky Chefs (now Spiriant) in Frankfurt (2012). Following a year-long project with Festo in Stuttgart, to consult a redesign of their brand portal communication (2013). Designing wearable and lifestyle products for Philips and Apple with tech-agency Colorfy in Berlin (2014). Developing a product mailing for Volkswagen with Ogilvy & Mather in Frankfurt (2015). Launching her first table collection (2015) which was awarded as winner of Interior Innovation Award (2015), and in 2016 Nominee of Architektur & Wohnen Designtalent, Special Mention of German Design Award, Nominee of German Design Award and distributed through Ikarus.
In 2015, she returned to Luigi Colani as his master student whose design factory was now in Changzhou, China. For 2 more years, she was involved in creative direction and brand performance, as well as a representative at international events mainly in China and Europe.
Furthermore she launched a car wheel collection (2017) and designed a Moncler Mercedes Benz G class show car concept for Carlsson (2017) in Milan. Later she designed interior products, packaging and exhibition concepts for Chalet Affair in Frankfurt that were exhibited at Harrods London and Maison & Objet Paris.
Hellen Westerhof was born in Frankfurt Main, Germany with Austrian and Dutch Nationality. Today she lives in Frankfurt Main and Luxembourg.
Lecture Activity
Westerhof is lecturing since 2016 and currently in Corporate Product Design, Packaging and Biodesign at 3 Universities in Germany (University of Applied Sciences Saarbrücken, University of Applied Sciences in Soest, University of Applied Sciences in Hagen) supporting around 80 students each year.
She also lectured at Academy of Art & Design Offenbach, Europa Campus in Karlsruhe and Design Academy in Hanau.
TV
In May 2022 she was featured in the last episode, of the two-episode documentary "Luigi Colani" produced by arte.
Entrepreneurship
In her expanding portfolio of projects, she founded the label BLONDEBOX® in 2021, which specializes in the design, production and trade of packaging and is a registered trademark of Hellen Westerhof Ltd. company.
News
In 2023, Hellen Westerhof will launch a new business model.
Education
After graduating from high school in 2003, she studied product design at the Academy of Art & Design Offenbach. From 2004 to 2005, she completed a one-year internship at the Design Factory of Luigi Colani in Karlsruhe. The main tasks were the mold making of automobiles, airplanes and sculptures. In 2005 she worked 4 months for BMW in Hamburg, building Formula 1 car models, for the intel Racing Tour 2006. She graduated in 2010 with a thesis on "The strategic design approach of modularity and its embedding in product design". From 2010 to 2011 within a postgraduate program, she worked on projects with BSH Siemens Group and Peter Schmidt Group and received a one-semester teaching assignment at Academy of Art & Design Offenbach. In 2011 she joined the Brand Strategy team at Peter-Schmidt Group (BBDO) Frankfurt for a 5 month internship.