What is PIY? PIY = play it yourelf. It is a brand that challenges the traditional flat furniture.
From "do it yourself" to "play it yourself", when furniture product design becomes toys, home is full of meaning. PIY's original intention is to pick up traditional crafts, embrace natural materials and explore their neglected beauty. Minimalism is a positive challenge. While making the design concise, PIY is also trying to reduce the burden of forest, atmosphere and you and me. "Let everyone have good design" is PIY's dream and core value.
PIY is subordinate to Pai home furnishing Co., Ltd. and was founded in Guangzhou in September 2013.
The founder, Mr. Shen Wenjiao, a cross-border designer, a former senior creative director of Ogilvy & Mather advertising, and a guest lecturer of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. In 2012, he founded the "general studio" of the technology brand incubator, and used BDH (brand + Design + handmade) model to excavate and rebuild the traditional crafts through the all-round creative output of design, production, communication and marketing, so as to create a world brand with Chinese humanistic characteristics. At present, the incubated brands include PIY, Cu, Xiyoutang, lianger and huama, involving traditional handicrafts such as carpentry, copper beating, bamboo weaving, rattan art, ceramics and paper art. PIY is undoubtedly one of the best.
"Business" and "Design" in the BDH model innovated by general studios and PIY are the "design driven brand" advocated by BDD. The "brand" here must be the concept of "product + service". Years of experience in the advertising field has enabled Shen Wenjiao to accurately cut into an orderly and benign brand upgrading track from the beginning of transformation, from a product to a series of products, from furniture to furniture system, from selling furniture to selling experience and services.
Red dot supreme prize, supported by six sticks
PIY's famous work is a flat packaging clothes rack called Nude. Its design is inspired by the common clothes hanger in rural China. It integrates the processes of mortise and tenon, Luban lock and Hu Qin. It is composed of 6 sticks. It relies on three groups of long and short stick units that are mortise and tenon to form a lock structure, with up to 13 effective hanging points, so as to maximize the utilization of limited materials.
No glue, no metal connector, can be disassembled for many times. The package is a circular paper cylinder with a diameter of 10 cm. Nude has won the 2014 German red dot supreme award, 2014 China red cotton supreme award, 2015 Taiwan Golden dot award, selected into the Milan satellite exhibition in Italy and the 20th anniversary exhibition.
On June 31, 2014, nude clothes rack launched the first crowdfunding of PIY brand on Taobao. The time is one month, and the financing is 161326 yuan. The 500 seed users of the first batch of products had poor assembly experience due to process defects, but it did not affect the use. Later, four optimizations were carried out to completely solve the process problem, which took more than two years. After the optimization, PIY immediately sent a letter to recall the first batch of products. It was moving that only three people returned. Fans have given great tolerance and understanding to the original products.
Is the original creatvity dead?
It is undeniable that for more users, the understanding of PIY began with the "original is dead" event in 2017. One year later, when the BDD team visited PIY studio, founder Shen Wenjiao recalled this "interesting" experience with emotion. He said:
The growth history of PIY is the history of fighting against Shanzhai. After the news that nude coat hanger won the 2014 red dot award was released, countless imitations quickly appeared on the Internet, and even put on the shelves faster than PIY. Because we were busy optimizing the organization and products, we ignored it. By the end of 2015, we had been investigated by lawyers. At that time, there were 288 Shanzhai links on a website. According to rough calculation, only 1% of the total sales of 80 million yuan came to us! This forced us to take actions, including complaining to a treasure, getting a patent evaluation report, initiating 10000 signatures, writing to the premier, etc. of course, we also sued some businesses. It was this move. One year later, when we won one lawsuit after another, we also ushered in the terrible consequences of almost zero sales. The reason is that "the store was attacked by fake traffic", The factory began to shut down and the book was in deficit. In desperation, it could only announce the clearance and closing of goods. On that day, I calmly wrote an article called "originality is dead", feeling that it is not easy to adhere to originality. Unexpectedly, the article quickly became popular, with a reading volume of more than one million, and countless forwarding. Many netizens left messages to support and placed orders in the online store. I hope we can tide over the difficulties. The sales on that day were close to 2 million! As a result, we miraculously survived and made our first profit at the end of the year.
For the suspicion of "hype" questioned by netizens, Shen Wenjiao frankly said: "if you take the initiative to do such a thing, it can't succeed, it's unintentional. From the perspective of marketing, it's unintentional. From my perspective, it's true feelings." interestingly, after experiencing "the original creation is dead" After the incident, Shen Wenjiao and his team's attitude towards Shanzhai manufacturers changed 180 degrees. Because they slowly found that the early cottage manufacturers took it directly and copied it as it was; Now some changes are beginning to be made. There are plastic and metal materials, nine sticks in the structure (three on the top), trays below, and thick and thin sizes. They all collected it and prepared to make an "interesting and meaningful" exhibition. Shen Wenjiao said, "in fact, all the imitators are helping you create ideas and make optimized versions. In this way, you have a balance in mind.". "Or they may wake up one day and know from now on that they want to avoid patents, engage in R & D and find designers. That's positive energy.".
From all these experiences of nude and PIY, it is not difficult to find that Shen Wenjiao, who comes across the border with advertiser temperament and brand thinking, is slowly adapting to the rhythm of product and industrial design, becoming more and more confident, more and more inclusive, and more aware of the importance of design for brand drive.
"Furniture without screws"
Design philosophy behind classic products
At the beginning of the establishment of general studios, while studying copper art and bamboo weaving, they were also thinking about the innovation of traditional woodwork. At that time, the proposition was "mortise and mortise flat furniture". They found that almost all the flat furniture on the market were connected by screws, which had not changed for decades. This method has a fatal defect, that is, it is not durable, easy to loosen, and it has no fun to assemble. Consumers are only the last worker on their assembly line. Chinese classical furniture and even architecture are all connected by mortise and tenon, which is firm and durable. Shen Wenjiao, who has humanistic feelings and childlike innocence, thought, "can we design a new flat furniture without screws like Chinese classical furniture without a nail?". Inspired by Muzhi workshop M1, he came up with a scheme that wooden sticks penetrate each other, cancel metal connections, use straight tenons, reduce 15 components to 6, complete proofing and enter the production stage, At that time, because there was no factory to receive orders, he also made a production line by himself.
No more screws for flat furniture! This is earth shaking for young users. Young people who love to play by nature need this kind of furniture like toys. PIY has also been pursuing the interworking between "parts" and "parts" in design. The combination of different parts will have unexpected surprises. The concept of "toys in furniture" is naturally formed.
The use of nails is the soul of Chinese classical furniture. Its advantage is that it is firm and durable. Its disadvantage is that the process is very difficult and difficult to start. It is impossible to realize flat packaging and large-scale production, and the production and use are closed; Western screw flat furniture has the advantages of rapid scale and easy to use. Its disadvantages are easy to loosen and short-lived, but its sense of production and experience are open. What PIY needs to do is to combine the advantages of the two and create a new flat furniture, which is durable, easy to use and can be produced on a large scale.
PIY summarizes the design concept of "East tenon and West mortise", perfectly combines the eastern and Western ways of thinking, and creates a new flat-panel home ecology, which is in line with the Taoist saying that "Tao generates one, life two, two generates three, and three generates all things".
Growing PIY family
Starting from the earliest coat rack, PIY has successively developed bookshelves, chairs, tables, stools, wardrobe, side tables, sofas and other products based on the concept of "no metal link", with the goal of filling a 100 square meter house within three years. With the efforts of a young team of only 11 or 2 people (all post-90s industrial designers, furniture designers and graphic designers except the founders), this seemingly "appetite is not small" and some "idealized" plan is being realized step by step.
Bao wardrobe
Flat packaging, the volume is only 1 / 15 of the ordinary wardrobe, saving freight.
Finnish loose thread tenon, no paint, no metal connectors, extreme environmental protection.
Double 30 minutes to complete the assembly by hand, fun wardrobe.
Waterproof lycra elastic cloth coat, replaceable wardrobe.
Innovative "X" four head zipper group, no dead corner for wardrobe use.
Miao cat table
An ordinary edge table is activated by two elastic bands,
MIAO！ An interesting cat was born.
You can play your own tricks and play your own cats according to your needs.
Elastic with a variety of color options.
Pudding sofa
Pudding sofa still continues the flat packaging design concept, which is composed of 31 parts.
The sofa connection structure is completed by the "screw" system,
There is no metal connector, which can be disassembled for many times and installed by hand in the whole process.
Bamboo laminated timber is selected as the frame material to realize the brand's ultimate environmental protection concept.
The soft bag adopts high rebound sponge with density of 40 and hardness of 30, which makes it more comfortable to sit.
The shape is chamfered on all sides to make it look round and lovely, like a palatable pudding.
Cell shelf system
Cell is a furniture system based on solid wood screw connection and combination,
Compared with the widely used metal screws, the connection of solid wood screws is more stable and durable.
The whole system has only 16 parts,
But it can change from a few flowers to a building,
It's like cell fission, so we named it "cell".
"Furniture shop without furniture"
Open a furniture shop without furniture
All parts are hung on the wall
Want a chair
Take a stick on the left and a board on the right
Field assembly trial
Take it away if you like
If you don't want to bring it, scan the code and place an order. The background delivery will arrive on the same day
Or design it on the touch screen
Do you want arms for the chair? How many shelves do you want?
The coat hanger was engraved with the name of his ex girlfriend
Help yourself
Finished, one click to generate order
Back office packing and delivery on the same day and arrival on the next day
Shop head, 50 square meters is enough
One tenth of the money, let's drive to K11
Clerk, let's just buy one
Just keep the shop clean at the end of the day
Why tens of millions of square meters?
Ask dozens of clerks to talk to them
Still have to work in the urban-rural fringe?
If you have money, let's eat, drink and have fun
Don't work for the landlord
A set of data
Total floor area: 45 ㎡
Display area: 3 ㎡
Area of experience area: 42 ㎡
Number of furniture parts: 3616
Number of furniture products: 255-360 pieces
Number of lamps placed: 126 (smart lamps)
Number of furniture accessories: 1311 pieces (silicone foot cover, elastic belt enclosure)
Number of household items: 225 pieces (doughnuts, insulation pads, double-layer clothes supports)
Cool? It's really cool! Shen Wenjiao's idea four years ago finally came true at the Guangzhou International Furniture Expo on March 18, 2018. Welcome to the world's first "furniture store without furniture".
In terms of brand characteristics, the slogan of "the world's first flat furniture without metal link + the world's first furniture store without furniture" is enough to make PIY attract the attention of many young consumers; In terms of business model, the combination of online and offline challenges the creative flat furniture sales mode with the highest floor efficiency and human efficiency. Under the appearance of sufficient topic, it is actually a "new retail" and "service design driven innovation" with deep understanding of consumer psychology, user-centered and contact innovation as the core.
PIY, serious "play" furniture
