Helio. Art. Store.

Is it an art gallery or a store that sells Helio handsets? The answer: both. At Helio’s newly opened (today) flagship store in Santa Monica, CA, you can of course buy the touted Helio devices that will change the way you communicate with your friends by putting you and your GPS-based device smack-dab in the middle of a friend-centric network (MySpace and Facebook included). But what’s more impressive is the way Helio has found a way to integrate real art with the Helio brand. The flagship store, along with another 5 soon-to-launch stores, feature artwork curated by John Doffing, founder of Start Soma + Start Mobile galleries and curator of the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco. The art-rich stores offer more than just a gallery setting though– customers can actually download digital versions of the art as wallpaper for their Helio device or purchase the originals directly from the stores. Ingenious.