This Is:

the design process

Our thought process for designing the This Is products and brand.

 

the person that does it all

Inspired by the people who refuse to be defined by one role - the entrepreneur/photographer/motorcycle enthusiast - we set out to create a bag that seamlessly transitions between each area of their lives as easily as they do.

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The research: #thisiswhatIcarry

In order to design the ideal bag for our customer, we first needed to understand what kind of stuff they carried around.

But how do you discover what people carry in their bags without invading their personal space? We ran a social media campaign asking everyone to share what’s in their bags. (You’d be surprised how many people are motivated by the prospect of free food.)

initial ideas

While we were running our instagram campaign, we started thinking about what the perfect bag would be for our "do it all" consumer. We thought it might mean transformable straps.

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Prototyping and user feedback

We gave our prototypes to potential users and asked them for feedback. Their input helped us realize that our idea of a transforming bag was very complicated and missing the mark.

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reviewing our research

After realizing that transformable straps weren't the best idea, we looked back at our research. We realized that there was an opportunity to design our bag around the things that people carry and not how they carry it.

More Prototypes

With our research in mind, we started thinking that ‘transformable’ could mean a modular bag system, not just how one carries a bag. This led us to design a removable panel that could easily organize one’s small items.

We also started exploring versatility in materiality. Our bag could go anywhere with people and we wanted our materials to reflect that.

See how we made the final products here.

designing / making / selling