Distinguished Automotive Designer Visits Florence

 Above:  Designer Keith Helfet

Elegant and powerful. These are the kind of words that a person may use to describe a brilliant and timeless design, such as a sports car or a sculpture, or possibly even a piece of medical equipment. We’ll come back to that last part a little later.

Elegant and powerful are the same words we would use to describe the visionary automobiles designed by Keith Helfet, who just happened to be in the Florence area this past week. Helfet, originally from South Africa, is well-known for his involvement in Jaguar car designs for more than two decades, in particular his role in the creation of the Jaguar XJ220 supercar (1992-1994).

This automobile stylist was visiting family in Boston and knew he couldn’t leave the states without traveling to South Carolina to see his good friend – and brilliant local sculptor – Alex Palkovich. If you asked Helfet how he came to know Palkovich, he’d start by telling you “that’s a bit of a long story.”

“I was in the design studio of Jaguar where I worked in 1993,” Helfet explained, “when I received a phone call from a very foreign sounding gentleman who talked about the fact that he was both a sculptor – and I couldn’t make complete sense of this initially – and also ran a company that made magnets for MRIs. All of which was complete Greek to me.”

The foreign sounding gentleman was Palkovich, who was indeed an accomplished sculptor in spite of the fact that he was a running a factory that made very clever body scanning equipment at the time.

Palkovich had seen Helfet’s very public artwork and was very impressed with his designs. He wanted the designer of the XJ220 to the design the next generation of MRIs. “I’ve said that Alex is a visionary because it’s not obvious to connect those two,” noted Helfet.

Having been trained as a car designer at the Royal College of Art in London, the idea of designing anything other than cars had never been on Helfet’s radar. However, he said Palkovich was so enthusiastic about it that he bought into the idea and they “had a go at it.”

The new MRI design was extremely successful -- described as mold-breaking and very sculptural. Helfet made an MRI feel “un-threatening,” which hadn’t been the case previously. “That bit of vision from Alex, that one phone call, changed a lot for me,” said Helfet. “It lead into a double-life of designing Jaguars as well as designing other things. We’ve been friends ever since.”

Helfet is not just a friend to Palkovich, but he’s also one of his biggest fans. He spent the week catching up with Palkovich and seeing some of his newest pieces, as well as some of his older works that he’d seen previously only in pictures.

“He sends pictures of his work on a regular basis, but with sculpture you need to see it in the flesh,” said Helfet. “You need to be able to touch and feel it to really see his work. [For example] I’ve seen pictures of his eagle in the [Florence] Veterans Park, but when you see it at full-scale in that setting it’s absolutely stunning. It is a fabulous legacy for the town, for the veterans and for Alex.”

He added that he has traveled to the states many times, before but had yet to see this part of the world. Helfet said being in the area had been a “real treat” and that he now understands why Palkovich has chosen Florence as his home. Helfet said that what he is doing for the community is “important.”

“Alex is an extraordinary bloke and a visionary in many ways. It’s been really wonderful to share this with him.”

Visit the Florence Veterans Park, located behind the Florence Civic Center, to see Alex Palkovich’s award-winning public memorial and visit his studio, located in downtown Florence at the Art Trail Gallery, to see some of his newest creations. For more information, please visit www.alexpalkovich.com.


For more information, please contact the Florence CVB at (843) 664.0330 or visit them online at www.visitflo.com. 



About Florence Convention and Visitors Bureau
Florence Convention and Visitors Bureau is the official destination marketing organization for the city and county of Florence SC whose primary mission is to market and promote the Florence area as the optimal site for conventions, sports, and leisure travel.  More information may be found at www.visitflo.com.