For the sake of pets, it has made in-depth research on dozens of pet products and projects around the world. These cases reflect changes in the pet products market, especially new insights into the physical and psychological needs of pets. The product inspiration of the modular cardboard cat room of A Cat Thing, a design company in Taiwan, China, China, comes from a abused cat rescued by the founder and his wife. The cat likes to hide in the dark corner of the carton, otherwise it will have no sense of security. Callison RTKL, headquartered in Washington, D.C., launched a product called "Ball House". This is a 3D printing kennel that can be adjusted in size, and the surface is embedded with tennis balls, which perfectly integrates the dogs' love for ball throwing games and living needs.
There is also concern for pet habits in the field of architecture. In a residential post earthquake reconstruction project, Hitotomori Architects from Nara, Japan, added some support columns for earthquake resistance to the house, and ingeniously built these wooden structures into a catwalk in the air (cats can even move from one room to another through the beam on the ceiling). Studio North, a company in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, invented the embedded corner, It provides a hiding place for cats who are naturally quiet.
Kate used to be the marketing director of a baby products company. She witnessed the transformation of the market from daycare design to high-end design, and couldn't help thinking about why such a development trend didn't occur in the pet industry. She said: "We need to design for our pets. We need to understand their behavior habits to ensure that they feel comfortable and safe. Cats are small predators, with the natural instinct of climbing, scratching, hiding and hunting. If you take care of this, you can create the best living environment for them." This is Kate's area of expertise. She and Jackson Gelecsi, a cat behaviorist and the host of the Animal Planet Channel "There are evil cats at home", co authored two books, "Catlike Design" and "Pleasing Cat Owners and Children with Catlike Design". She provides customers with a variety of cat friendly design solutions, ranging from cheap black technology to customized furniture up to 5000 dollars.
The market boom of pet products has also swept the field of "catering". When Jay Sae Jung Oh, an industrial designer from Seattle, could not find a food bowl suitable for her pet dog Boo, he simply established his own pet product brand Boo Oh in 2018 (in addition to the food bowl, he also made leather harness, dog rope and fashionable printed toilet bag). Her original intention is to "want a simple bowl with simple shapes and colors, but only very gaudy ones can be found". She added that whenever her friends came to visit her home, she would hide those ugly food pots. "There are limited choices in the market, and I think someone needs to break this situation. I like this designer and dislike the vulgar and ugly food bowl, so I always go to the second-hand market to find some antique small dishes. Their size is just right for my cat to use as a food bowl, and they can also be perfectly adapted to toy dogs and cats.
Kate Benjamin, founder of Hauspanther, a cat product website in Phoenix, USA, and an expert in cat friendly design, said: "People now have a deeper understanding of love and can realize that animals are also perceptive. They have come into our lives, which has enriched our lives." Given the joy they bring to our family, what better way to express our gratitude than to give them a small gift of their own?
