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Catvas Cat Scratching Board by Livelyhood Ltd.

Catvas Cat Scratching Board by Livelyhood Ltd. is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 A' Design Award in Pet Care, Toys, Supplies and Products for Animals Design Competition Category.


IronPet Care· 2024

Catvas Cat Scratching Board

by Livelyhood Ltd.

Client: Livelyhood

A' Design Award Winner in Pet Care Category

33,791

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #159966

Colors

The Design

About Catvas Cat Scratching Board

Catvas is a new pet product that reshapes scratching from a destructive behavior into a creative process. It gives both people and cats the chance to co-create their living spaces together. The designed double layered fabric will be gradually presenting a unique painting like effect during cats’ scratching behavior. The replaced fabric scratching panel are no longer just discarded as wastes but acts like a memorial to record and preserve the cat's traces of its life in a more artistic way.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award

Catvas Cat Scratching Board is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. Catvas Cat Scratching Board is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. Catvas Cat Scratching Board is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.

Interviews

Design Interview

What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?

Our design concept stems from our care and love for cats. We care not only about their physical health as owners but also their happiness as friends. Inspired by their natural behavior of scratching furniture, we wondered if we could create an environment where they could happily scratch a canvas and create a picture.

What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?

During the design process, our primary focus was on creating an exceptional experience for cats while ensuring the product itself exudes a high-quality feel and seamlessly integrates into warm home environments. To achieve these goals, we undertook a rigorous design process that involved extensive testing and experimentation: We conducted thorough research and testing to identify the most suitable materials for the scratching surface, we created various prototypes to determine the optimal angle for the surface, we also employed techniques like wood heat bending to achieve a unique and stylish form factor.

What are your future plans for this award winning design?

we're collaborating closely with manufacturers to refine the production process, aiming to bring this innovative scratching board to market in the near future. We believe in the power of user feedback to refine and enhance our designs. Once Catvas hits the market, we eagerly anticipate gathering feedback from users, both cat owners and their feline companions. Their insights will be invaluable in assessing the product's effectiveness and identifying areas for further improvement.

Read the Full Interview

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties
Catvas is a new pet product that transforms scratching from a ‘destructive’ behavior into a ‘creative’ process. It offers both people and cats the chance to co-create their living spaces together. The specially designed double-layered fabric gradually reveals a unique painting-like effect during cats’ scratching behavior. The replaced fabric scratching panels are no longer simply discarded as waste; instead, they act as memorials, recording and preserving the cat’s traces of life in a more artistic way.
Dimensions & Packaging
300 mm x 430 mm x 370 mm
Tags
Cat Painting, Pet Product, Co-creation Across Species
Production Technology
Catvas is made by materials which are mostly recyclable such as wood, aluminum, and fabric made of old cloths and mycorrhiza. It is manufactured-friendly with easy-to-assemble components, by which the packaging costs and waste during transport can be significantly reduced. Regarding to the specially designed multi-layered fabric, the top layer is thinner, which means it can be scratched more easily.
Research
For cats: From cats’ perspective, the scratching board is not only for meeting the demand for regular removal of surface nails but also a way for cats to vent their emotions and leave pheromones. With the increase of pheromones, the cat will also generate more emotional links with the scratching board.

For people: We found that many cat owners collect cat-related objects, such as cat hair and toys. The reason why cat scratching boards are not left behind is that they are defined as consumables. Transforming the concept of "consumables" into "artwork" will also satisfy people's need to collect old things.
Inspiration
From a human’s perspective, the scratching behavior of cats is usually regarded as ‘destructive.’ Cats love to scratch almost anything they can see, including fabric sofas, leather seats, and even stereos. This often results in something people dislike. But what if we view this phenomenon from a different perspective? Catvas can facilitate a re-examination of the norm, encouraging people to reflect on the new relationship between humans and companion animals.
Project Duration
The project started in January 2023 in Shanghai and finished in December 2023 in Shanghai.
Operation Flow
The L-shape structure fits in with the cat's stretching habits and the removable double-layered fabric panel can be easily replaced. In the process of the cat scratching, the underlying fabric is constantly exposed, thus gradually presenting a unique visual effect which is similar to a painting, which can be customized with frames as decorations at home.
Team Members
Mingye Wang
Xuyang Zhang
Xiaofang Li

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