Define yourself
A tote bag case study: ongoing project
How do you get to know someone without actually speaking to them?
Fact is, we often dress to cater our personality, our interests and even our status. But if you were to eliminate your wealth, your hobbies, interests, all things external and look inwards to ask yourself, ‘what type of person are you?’ , how do you express that with just one item? That is the main idea behind this personal project: dress to express, not dress to impress. Personalisation became a big trend during 2018 as we saw a boom in monogram trends on phone cases, wallets, notebooks and so forth. Also during my daily commutes to the city for work, I would often see the classic black and white Oscar Wylee tote bag being used not just for practicality (everyone loves a good ol’ simple tote bag) but also as a fashion accessory to complement their outfit.
After some brainstorming, I narrowed it down to three core elements: minimal classic typography, being bold in defining who you are and creating engagement/conversations.
Visual concept
Pros & cons
Pros:
Minimal expression with big impact.
Great conversation starter. I am big on sparking conversations with strangers and encouraging connection with others.
Classic black and white making it classy and an easy accessory to any outfit. Feedback was given to provide options for different colours.
Every tote bag will be different as it is personalised to suit.
Makes a great meaningful and sentimental gift.
Cons:
People may value privacy and don’t want their name revealed.
Solution: Create variations with just lettering, not displaying names or characteristic traits OR just lettering and including characteristic traits.Costly: this can’t be mass produced as each piece would be unique, i.e. different nouns and adjectives for each name.
Solution: Stick to names and letters only?
Next steps
Establishing a business/product name with proper branding.
Ideally to create real prototypes for usability testing and feedback within a small group of people. This would involve research on costs, sustainable materials and ethical sourcing.