Making a family design stand out: Paul Aron on his helmet design

Paul Aron has stuck with a similar helmet design throughout his career, and it all goes back to when his brother was racing and he was watching on from the sidelines.
Now, the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver takes us through the design himself, what he’s evolved over the years and why no two helmets he ever has are the same.
“If you know my story, then you know that I started racing because of my brother. He was racing from a very young age, and since I was young, I was trackside watching him, and always wanted to race as well.
“When he got his first painted helmet, I had the same design, but my colours were inverted so where he had blue, I had white, and where I had white, he had blue. Then a few years ago, when Ralf stopped racing, I preferred his colour combination, so I kept the design quite similar, but took over his colour combination of switching around the blues and whites.
“Throughout the years, I’ve always kept the same colours and a similar design, just tweaked it around a little bit. And I think if you compare my helmets, they always have a similar tone, but there are noticeable differences.
“I’ve always thought that blue, white and black is one of the nicest colour combinations. And funnily enough, it’s also the colours of the Estonian flag. So I’m happy that I represent the country’s flag on my helmet, but at the same time, I have one of the nicest colour combinations in my opinion as well. So, the idea didn’t come from the flag, but it means that there’s a bit of a connection between me and Estonia.
“My design and painter is Uffedesigns. I really like what he does because, in my opinion, his work is very original. Every year, I’m pretty specific with what I want and quickly have an idea of what I want to do, and Uffe basically never does exactly what I want.
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“He always adds his touch and most of the time, whatever he changes, I like it. So I always like painting with him, because that means that no helmet is similar. I think the helmet should be original, because it’s the one thing the driver can really design themselves, and it’s the one thing that really represents a driver.
“So I really like working with him, he’s done a great job on all my helmets, and I really like how he adds his touch to everything, and I think that’s what a designer should do.
“The most important part – I think the blue colour has come become my thing. I think if you look at the grid, I’m really the only person who has such a blue helmet, the blue and white contrast. I think the blue colour has really become something that represents me.
“Actually, on this helmet, I have a pretty special blue colour. If you look closely, it’s a very glittery blue, and it’s a special colour that Uffe does for me, and it never comes out the same. I think that also kind of fits into the philosophy I have with my helmet designs. I’m always changing a little bit, and even if the overall design is similar, there’s always changes.
“This blue colour, it never comes out the same and I think that’s a really cool thing – every helmet has its own touch, even if I keep exactly the same design, we would never be able to replicate this helmet exactly.
“There are always a few details that you would like to change, but to be honest, I’m really, really happy with my helmet this year, and at this moment, there’s nothing big that I would want to change.
“There would be maybe a few small details, just to kind of help bring out some other bits of the helmet, but I’m very happy at the moment. I have the blue, black and white colour combination, which, as I said, is one of my favourite colour combinations.
“I have the glitter outlines that help make the helmet pop. I have the hexagon logos which represent my father’s company. It’s part of their logo. I think it looks minimalistic in a way but also with the glitter lines, it really makes it pop. So, my opinion, this helmet has everything.”