Press Release
Silver A' Design Award in Furniture Design Goes to Cat Ear Multifunctional Chair by Mingzhi Cai and Hongqi Cai
Mingzhi Cai and Hongqi Cai recognized for furniture design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 25, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Cat Ear Multifunctional Chair by Mingzhi Cai and Hongqi Cai, designed for Demi Industrial Design Co.，Ltd, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Furniture Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the Silver A' Design Award Means
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
About Cat Ear Multifunctional Chair
The cat ear chair design can be used as a dining chair, office chair, low chair, and pet bed through different installation methods. Its inspiration comes from the contour of a cat's head, creating curved shapes and designing stretching structures to solve the problem of load-bearing deformation. By using mold hot forming technology and frosted surface treatment, the wear resistance problem has been solved, breaking through the limitations of traditional disposable products and realizing the multifunctional innovative application of a mold.
About Mingzhi Cai and Hongqi Cai
My name is Cai Mingzhi, and I am a pioneer in the integration of industry and education in academia. I have been guiding practical knowledge for more students, while also paying attention to vulnerable groups. I have been doing this for 3 years now.
Award Record
This recognition makes Mingzhi Cai and Hongqi Cai a winner of 2 A' Design Awards. All of the awards belong to the 2024 - 2025 edition of the A' Design Award & Competition.
About the A' Furniture Design Award
The A' Furniture Design Award is an international furniture competition recognizing good furniture designs by best furniture designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to furniture designers, product designers, industrial design studios and furniture brands from all countries. Entries typically include chairs, tables, sofas, beds, cabinets and shelves. Awarded furniture designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/furniture
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/166612
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/166612
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!166612
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/362496
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Cat Ear Multifunctional Chair
- Function
- Multifunctional Chair
- Category
- Furniture Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Furniture & Home
- Colors
- Dark Orange, Orange, Khaki, Dim Gray and Gold
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Demi Industrial Design Co.，Ltd
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Mingzhi Cai and Hongqi Cai
- Country
- China
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2024 - 2025
- Design ID
- #166612
Credits
- Team
- Cai Mingzhi, Li Fengshi and Cai HongQi
- Image Credits
- Design Director: Cai Mingzhi/Mentor: Cai HongQi，; Design Director: Cai Mingzhi/Art director: Li Fengshi，; Design Director: Cai Mingzhi/Mentor: Cai HongQi
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- This chair meets various usage needs through different structural components. Through the video, it can be seen that it can be used as an office chair or dining chair. The designer has designed a set of injection molds to achieve at least 4 different functional uses, such as dining chairs, office chairs, rest chairs, and pet beds.
- Inspiration
- The design inspiration comes from the circular outline of a cat's head. Get inspiration for exterior design by observing cats. Design a hollow contour on the ear and increase the edge width for easy lifting. The armrest is designed with rolled edges to provide a comfortable grip for both hands.
- Research
- Focus on optimizing comfortable sitting posture, combining animal shapes to improve design practicality and aesthetics. By observing interviews, screening and investigating initial drafts, conducting interviews to determine buyer needs, observing chair usage, and recording interviews. Obtain user browsing time and color preference data, identify installation convenience issues. Improve the design direction, simplify the process, optimize installation, and make the chair more competitive.
- Challenge
- Breaking the traditional design, this multipurpose chair is shaped like a Cat's ears . Endowing cat ears with curves while considering modern craftsmanship, with diverse functions and simple operation. Considering the different needs of young people in pursuit of fashion, family users who pay attention to practicality, and business scenes that need a stable texture, we will study and fine tune the curvature of Cat's ears (Steamed cat-ear shaped bread) and other details in the design to collect feedback. After the design was completed, an appearance design patent was applied for to optimize the injection molding process and solve molding defects in production.
- Realization and Technology
- The product is formed by hot injection molding of polypropylene plastic, melted at a certain temperature, and integrated into a single piece through an injection molding machine. The production time for each piece is about 3 minutes. The designed mold optimizes the shape analysis, and the finished product can be packaged without repair. The material can be recycled and reused. This production technology is currently mature in the market, with high production efficiency and the ability to quickly meet production demand.
- Operation and Interaction
- In the early stages, 3D modeling was conducted and a multi-purpose application with optimized usage functionality was optimized through multiple scaling adjustments. After the final draft, 3D printing was conducted to test the convenience of seat installation, and the edges of the details were smoothed to feel smooth and without edges, making it more comfortable to sit and use.
- Project Duration and Location
- In May 2024, we began conceptualizing the appearance of the product, tested 3D printing in Langfang, Hebei in July, achieved final optimization in September, and arranged mold production in late September. It will be exhibited at a grand exhibition in April 2025.
- Specifications
- The diameter of the chair is 55CM, the depth from the armrest to the bottom of the seat is 19CM excluding cat ears, and the total height after installing the legs is 64CM. Can be stacked and packaged, greatly saving transportation and storage volume.
- Keywords
- Dining chairs, office chairs, leisure chairs, bar chairs, pet beds, ski cushions, low chairs, swing chairs
