Press Release
Chen Xu Is Honored with the Golden A' Design Award for Camp Napper Portable Camping Pillow in Outdoor Gear and Camping Equipment Design
Chen Xu acknowledged for outdoor gear and camping equipment design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Camp Napper Portable Camping Pillow by Chen Xu, designed for RestBase, has been granted the Golden A' Design Award in the Outdoor Gear and Camping Equipment Design category. The award was conferred within the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Golden A' Design Award
The Gold A' Design Award is granted to designs that demonstrate a high level of innovation and a significant impact on their intended audience. Recognized as a major achievement by the A' Design Awards, these designs are characterized by their visionary approach and the exceptional skill of their creators. Winners of the Gold A' Design Award are noted for their ability to push the envelope in art, science, design, and technology, delivering solutions that not only meet but exceed expectations. These designs serve as benchmarks for excellence, encouraging further innovation and inspiring future generations of designers.
About Camp Napper Portable Camping Pillow
Camp Napper is a portable camping pillow made for outdoor and indoor use. The shape is bionic, inspired by the forms of spores, fungi and hollow plant stems. Protrusions on the front spread pressure and improve ventilation. Blind holes on the back, together with changes in thickness, give four distinct feels and reduce weight. The pillow is made of memory foam, shaped with special molds and a foaming process. Anti-slip rubber particles help the pillow stay in place. Packed in the storage bag, the pillow is compressed to the size of a water cup.
About Chen Xu
As a design studio in China, “SX” stands for Chinese “ShangXiang” which taken from “Yi Chuan”. The name expounds our core opinion: To build significance of daily life through the observation, extraction, abstraction and reorganization of phenomena. sxdesign creates and values languages and ideas of client and user, such as requirements, knowledge, or the attitude of sxdesign itself.
Award Record
Chen Xu is a winner of 16 A' Design Awards, including this recognition. The awards were granted between the 2020 - 2021 and the 2024 - 2025 editions of the A' Design Award & Competition.
About the A' Camping Gear and Outdoor Equipment Design Award
The A' Camping Gear Design Award is an international industrial design competition recognizing good camping equipment by leading brands and designers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to camping gear designers, outdoor equipment designers, product designers and industrial design studios from all countries. Typical entries include tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, camping stoves, lanterns and multi-tools. The awarded camping gear designs are published at https://desingers.org/design-category/camping-gear
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is 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. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously 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. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which 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, uploading a work and receiving a 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. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://desingers.org/168729
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/168729
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!168729
- Laureate Profile: https://desingers.org/d/304255
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
- Camp Napper Portable Camping Pillow
- Function
- Portable Camping Pillow
- Category
- Outdoor Gear and Camping Equipment Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Sports
- Colors
- Dark Slate Gray, Dark Gray, Gray and Dim Gray
- Images
- 5
- Client
- RestBase
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Chen Xu
- Country
- China
- Recognition
- Golden A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2024 - 2025
- Design ID
- #168729
Credits
- Team
- Chen Xu, Huang Hao, Dr. Zhang Rong, Liu Beibei, Hao Qian, Wu Fangbo, Li Shulong, Yu Ziran, Zhang Mingjie, Dr. Wang Lijing, Zhao Yanzeng
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- The Camp Napper is a portable camping pillow with a special bionic shape. The front protrusions can relieve pressure and ventilate, boosting comfort. the blind holes on the back, combined with changes of pillow's thickness, can offer four distinct feels. The punched holes also cut down the weight and improve compressibility. When packed in the storage bag, it can be compressed to a water cup size for easy portability. Also, anti-slip rubber particles help it fit different camping conditions.
- Inspiration
- For camping pillow, both portability and comfort are essential. The Camp Napper achieves them by drawing inspiration from the organic forms of organisms in nature. By imitating the surface structures of spores and fungi, the contact area between the pillow surface and the skin is increased, which improves comfort. By mimicking the hollow structure of plant stems, the pillow core achieves maximum weight reduction while maintaining strength and durability, and creates rich experiences of feels.
- Research
- Using Voronoi polygons, the pillow - surface structure is optimized to fit the pressure from the head and neck, improving comfort. The pillow core has high - neck, low - neck, head - pillow, and wrapping - enhancement areas. Protrusions in each area are adjusted to match compression changes during use. This structure disperses pressure, preventing circulation problems during sleep, and its grooves boost breathability.
- Challenge
- The challenges of the project lie in the product shape design and the process limitations during industrial mass production. To obtain a suitable product shape, designers and developers carried out a large number of simulation calculations. In the processing stage, through continuous adjustment of the material ratio and the parameter details of the foaming molds, the product was finally able to meet the requirements for the yield rate of qualified products and the appearance design.
- Realization and Technology
- To shape the pillow core, developers measured and simulated its deformation under volunteers' head, neck and shoulder pressure, then built a math model. Based on it, the bionic structure was obtained via simulation. In production, special molds and foaming process are used, with memory foam of suitable soft - hard degree as the material.
- Operation and Interaction
- The Camp Napper, as a multi - functional camping pillow, can be used in various indoor and outdoor scenarios. Its typical use is to be paired with camping tents, sleeping pads, camping chairs, etc., to enhance sleep comfort during outdoor camping. Meanwhile, it can serve as a backrest cushion during business trips or travels, and replace overly soft down pillows in hotels. At home, it can also be used as a backrest cushion or an everyday sleeping pillow.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in March 2024 in Beijing and finished in December 2024 in Beijing.
- Specifications
- The size of the pillow is 35cm*30cm*10cm, and when compressed in the storage bag, it is 10cm*10cm*20cm. The weight of the whole pillow is approximately 400g.
- Keywords
- Product Design, Pillow, Bionics, Parameterization, Outdoor Camping
