Ebi Helmet
Ebi Helmet
A collapsible, breathable helmet designed for a rider who grabs a shared e-scooter on impulse and never planned to bring one.
Year
2024
Product
Safety Gear
The Problem
Cat owners face a quiet, frustrating ultimatum: buy furniture you love, or get a cat. Scratching is not a bad habit, it's a biological need cats have for marking territory, conditioning their claws, and releasing stress. Every existing solution tries to fight it: scratching posts, deterrent sprays, furniture covers, even declawing. None of them solve the real problem, and most make living with a cat feel like damage control.
The Process
Existing solutions
Deterrent Spray
Declawing, comparison with human hand
Material exploration
Nylon, velvet, denim, microfibre, and many more tested for scratch resistance, tactile preference (cats strongly prefer chenille and rough-weave fabrics), and aesthetic behaviour over time.
After testing across various materials, two of them emerged as the answer: one for each layer.
Form exploration
Internal structure and modules
Reflection
The most useful thing this project taught me: the brief everyone ignores is usually the real one. Nobody was asking for furniture that welcomed scratching. That reframe changed everything.
Next steps would be pushing the concept further, experimenting with multiple layers of contrasting textures and materials to create a richer, more unpredictable reveal over time, and testing the system on other furniture surfaces beyond the armchair. The goal would be an art piece that doesn't just change, but tells a story specific to the cat that lives with it.
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