Today, we visited Helio Headquarters in LA. Around those parts, they call it “Helio House”.

So, the results are in: LA Traffic sucks horribly. Helio House does not.

We only spent about an hour there, but it was great. Not a single Helio employee went by without at least smiling or waving. The design of Helio House is pretty awesome - it seems as if they were working on making the office as comfortable as possible, while still maintaining a professional look.

Wanna read about the trip, and check out some pictures? More after the jump.

I arrived at the Helio building at 1:15. My appointment was for 2:00, so I had some time to burn. The building also houses quite a few other companies, so I figured I’d explore. Walked around the building aimlessly, bought a nasty green tea from the coffee shop thinking a purchase was required for wifi (It wasn’t), and then headed upstairs. Helio house is on the 7th floor.

This is the lobby of the Helio House. Though the design of Helio House is great, it’s not very photo friendly. It was pretty difficult to find a spot to get good shots. It’s probably pretty rare for people to walk around Helio taking photos, so I guess that’s okay.

Theres a better shot of that awesome frosted glass Helio logo over in the Flickr photo stream.

Right outside the left frame of this photo was the receptionist’s desk. The receptionist was nicer than I imagined receptionists being. I actually have no idea how nice most receptionists are. However, this one was nice - forever altering the image of receptionists in my head. After asking her if she minded me taking a shot of the lobby, I completely forgot to mention that I was meeting someone there. I’m pretty sure she thought I was completely crazy as I took a bunch of shots, and then proceeded to sit around and read magazines without really saying why I was there.

Probably goes without saying, but we figured that out eventually. Once she realized why I was there, she called out Justin Ried, and the tour began.

The first step was the room they call “The Bar”. I’m assuming this is where the more casual meetings go down and where employees go in their off time. It’s decked out with a fridge, some surprisingly comfy couches, and video game consoles. Not a bad way to spend your break - beats going outside and hanging out with the smokers.

After a brief discussion on Helio’s hopes to really build a strong multimedia oriented experience, we continued on. Walking through the hallways, we stopped in to say hey to Rick Heineman (Director of Communications), Elizabeth Baicy (Senior Product Manager), and a good number of other people in charge of making things happen at Helio. Apologies if I’m not mentioning you by name - I promise I remember you, I just didn’t manage to nab your business card before heading out.

It would have been nice to be able to take more photos. I didn’t wish to violate anyone’s privacy by taking any shots with employees in them, so this limited my selection a bit. However, I managed to get a few shots of one of the coolest parts of the Helio House.

The wall of the longest hallway features a mural painted by Buff Monster. (Link not safe for work). I couldn’t get one shot of the entire mural, but I managed to cover most of it.

Supposedly, there are some hidden innuendo goods tucked into the mural. All I know is that I want one in my house.

All in all, I was happy with the trip to Helio. I was mind boggled at how friendly they were. As long as they can continue working to be something different, I can’t imagine them having any trouble becoming a massively successful company.

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