Long live the catalogue!

Long live the catalogue!

The 2019 Helle catalogue is here - the first fully digital Helle catalogue available free for all to download. The latest digital release follows in the footsteps of over 80 years of experiences in catalogue making.  

Download the 2019 Helle Catalogue

A brief history of Helle catalogues

Catalogues have been one of the most important tools for Helle since the start. In our archives we have catalogues made by Steinar and Sigmund in the 1930s! The earliest catalogues were based on drawings, not photos, showing the artistic streak of Helle at the time. Since Helle mostly made knives for the Norwegian market, they were all in Norwegian, of course.

By the 1960s and 70s cutlery and kitchen knives were more important than sports knives - and the market was both domestic and international. During these decades Helle both designed its own products and produced on license for others - but all the catalogues carried the distinctive "Made in Norway" trademark.  

At the end of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Helle made a lot of headway in the Norwegian sports knives market as the popularity of our laminated three layer stainless steel grew. The number of sporting knives offered by Helle subsequently rose as well, meaning that the format of the brochures were often broad page. 

The 1990s and 2000s also saw an expansion of models. But the minimalist trends of the time meant that the size of the catalogues were reduced - enter the era of the booklets. Helle's catalogues had also by these decades gradually expanded to include images of not just the knives, but their production and use. And you typically found our catalogues in at least three languages.

Today the large-scale format is back, but we dedicate more space to document the individuality and characteristics of each knife. For the past five years we have kept the same format of our catalogues. But given the trend of Helle catalogues changing with the times, it is perhaps not a surprise that 2019 is the year of the digital catalogue. We believe that by going digital we will not only lessen waste and reduce costs for the environment, but that the the availability and use of the catalogues will increase, because you can access them directly.

We hope you take this opportunity!