The Birth of Yǎng Chair
A two-way journey between design and production. 2022.04.22



From the germination of the idea to the realization of the design, it took 18 months of careful polishing. How did Jianze finally create an undefined home product?



Inspired by simplicity.
As the brand's first series of research and development products, what kind of image will Jianze show to others for the first time? By studying the diversified lifestyles of the target users, Generation Z, Jianze did a lot of research in the early stage of product design, just to better meet the needs and imagination of Generation Z for products.



▲Initial concept drawing of the chair back shape.


Generation Z is a simple and pure generation, and Jianze also hopes that this will be a chair as "simple" as possible, which can adapt to most life scenes and make people feel friendly.

Jianze's collaborative design team, Chen Min Office, considered that Generation Z, as the original inhabitants of the Internet, has a natural affinity for the mobile Internet, so they applied the ICON form that is most familiar to Generation Z to the chair back design. Jianze hopes to use this product to show Generation Z a home brand that puts function first, is interactive, and has both physical and emotional experiences.


The birth of a name.
After determining the basic form of the product, Jianze further thought about how to make people sitting in the chair feel more comfortable and relaxed, and sorted out various possible sitting postures: sitting upright, sitting sideways, sitting reversely, sitting back... Analyze the support needs of each part of the body at this time and try to meet them with the simplest possible structure.



▲Research on the interactive form of seating and body.


Therefore, the designer further widened the width and curvature design of the product's backrest to make it embrace the shape, giving the back sufficient coverage and support. Then it folds back gently, extending a horizontal platform, allowing the person sitting in the chair to sit sideways and lean on it, or rest their arms. Of course, they can also sit on the other side, or even sit on the back of a friend's chair. Talking more intimately can help you stretch your body and relax your mind.

The adjusted chair looked like a "little person with his head raised", so he named it Yǎng Chair.



▲Yǎng Chair 1.0 rendering diagram.


From the initial prototype to the stunning one.
Jianze has extremely high standards and almost demanding requirements for product craftsmanship and details. From the design concept to the design realization of Yǎng Chair, it went through the proofing process from version 1.0 to version 3.0, and finally perfectly presented the ideal Yǎng Chair.




▲Version 1.0


The Yǎng Chair version 1.0 is a white embryo. The functional test is good and the sitting feeling is acceptable. However, the shape of the chair back is quite different: the folding angle is insufficient, and it is too stiff. The biggest problem is the bulkiness and imbalance caused by the thickness. Although the results of this proofing were not satisfactory, it provided valuable real data for product adjustment. After completing the detailed adjustments to the beams, seat panels and joints in sequence, only the most difficult realization of the chair back remained.




▲Version 2.0


Although the 2.0 version of Yǎng Chair has been greatly improved, the "lightness of the chair back" still does not meet Jianze's expectations. The uncompromising brand attitude led Jianze to continue looking for a factory that could manufacture Yǎng Chair.




▲Version 3.0


When seeing the 3.0 version of Yǎng Chair, the team was surprised beyond words. This time around, the Yǎng Chair was prototyped. The overall chair body was lighter and thinner, and the chair back had a stronger sense of tension. The wood grain direction of the chair back and seat was even unified, and after multiple adjustments to the chair back curvature, the overall sitting feel was improved. Comfort achieved to perfection.




▲Comparison of proofs of various versions of Yǎng Chair.

This time, we chose to cooperate with a factory that provides manufacturing services to many top international home furnishing brands. In order to combine the three-dimensional curved wood board processing technology with the chair back to achieve the ultimate effect, the advanced "3D-Venner" was used in the manufacturing process. technology, finally realized the perfect curvature of Yǎng Chair.

This technology makes the chair back thinner and lighter than the original design. The designer also adjusted the width of the chair back to give the Yǎng Chair more room for imagination. Jianze, designers and factories jointly pursue perfection and promote the perfect implementation of this piece of work.



▲3D bending technology with excellent modeling power and stability.


The original color of the brand.
What color should the Yǎng Chair be? The visual system of Jianze is operated by RAW COLOR, a well-known Dutch design group. The designers give each brand color of Jianze a unique meaning and build a unique color system for Jianze with a perceptual attitude. Each color of Yǎng Chair is also based on Jianze's brand color and contains the brand's attitude towards life.






A two-way journey between design and production.

Over a period of 18 months, Jianze invited well-known domestic designers to collaborate on design, and collaborated with top domestic factories on ingenious manufacturing, realizing a two-way journey between design and manufacturing. Based on the brand's insistence on high standards and the ultimate pursuit of product quality, Jianze finally created this undefined Yǎng Chair. When the Yǎng Chair came out, it won the 2021 Red Dot Design Award.






After the Yǎng Chair was put on the market, it immediately received recognition and praise from Generation Z consumers.

"The backrest is so comfortable." It gives you enough support and a sense of wrapping when you sit on it." "It is the most comfortable wooden chair I have ever sat on."






Jianze's product design is not slow, but every product is surprising when it comes out.

Thanks to the ignorant and fearless courage, Jianze is desperate to polish every product and create design products that are "undefined".



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