Helfershelfer - Türbremse, Tropfenfänger und andere obligate Symbionten

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What function does a drip catcher have without tea pot, a door stop without a door have? These and other never before asked questions were on the minds of the editors while investigating the previously neglected world of "Helfershelfer” (helper’s helpers). These seemingly "underage” or "immature” products have increasingly become part of a major design discourse.

Renowned authors* from design and cultural theory, designers, producers, and even consumers illuminate the world of "additional products” from different perspectives. The excerpts weave through widely varied illustrations introducing numerous helper’s helpers (from the bathtub shortener to the clothes line addition to an extension for the edge of a plate), completing this volume as a profound and enjoyable reader.

In the supplementary "Arbeitsheft” (work book), the designers Jörg Adam and Dominik Harborth introduce themselves as creative product designers. Based on their theoretical investigations of the topic, they developed their own helper’s helpers that deal with the everyday use of "modern classics.” Their developments, intended for use with design icons like the drip protector "Salif Aid” for Philippe Starck’s lemon press, move intelligently and ironically through the spectrum between extremely useful, very decorative and simply congenial.

* among others, Jürgen W. Braun, Hajo Eickhoff, Hans Höger, Jean-Baptiste Joly, Wolfgang Pauser, Hans-Joachim Ruckhäberle, Bruno Sacco, Helmut Staubach, Ivan Vladislavic, Margit Weinberg-Staber