Work in Progress…

I have a bookmark folder in my browser dedicated to my online identity: google circle, facebook, twitter, linkedin…a dozen of them. I noticed a long time ago that my online communities on these websites are quite distinctive from each other—some represents my professional side as a design student, some for family and close friends, and some for public. Of course they are not completely separated. Where I choose to post certain aspect of my life depend on how relevant it is to this particular online gathering/community of mine.

I’m not super active online but I had the exhausting experience of posting my winter session japan trip on five different social media, because this trip happens to be a professional trip–where I learned traditional Japanese ceramic skills and wood firing and made some clay pieces for my portfolio; and a really fun vacation abroad which I wanted to share with all my friends and family. 

I feel the same redundancy in real life when I kept changing my bags and the things I carry with me depending on what I am doing that day. I always need my keys, my small wallet (with one credit card and my ID) and phone, and if I’m out for long I carry a big travel mug no matter what bag I carry so I keep empty them out of my previous bag to put them in the new one. For studio I carry my big black bag pack to hold all my tools and books. For weekend I carry a smaller purse to hold the said essential, but if I decide to take my camera that day I need an extra camera bag. For shopping trip I need my essentials and switch my small wallet to my big wallet, which contains more credits cards, cash, gift cards and coupons….I don’t mean to bore you with different things I carry with me, but do you feel my frustration? I’m not a even a person who has to have different “look” on different occasions—all my bags are pretty much the same style, leather, brown or black–they pretty much can be a set.

Is there a magic bag that can change size, compartment configurations and weight based on my need? The magic bag needs to always always have my essentials, but the rest compartment should be able to be mixed and match without requiring too much effort.

For the longest time I have been searching high and low for things like this. I tried all kinds of organizers and I own dozes of pouches of all sizes you can think of. I thought I’d like them, because they looked nice and seemed functional. So form and function, checked. But recently i have been reading the book Emotional Design and all of sudden I realized that they failed me at the reflective level. They made me feel wasteful, redundant, disorganized and sometimes panic even. It’s the same feeling I had when I have to decide which pictures to post at which social media circle.

Really…not offense to these organizer type of bags. I’m sure they are great for someone who needs to carry all their belongs with them in one place and don’t have to change up much. But I don’t need all of these all the time.

Obviously I don’t do magic but my design solution to this problem is a compositional bag with detachable compartments that you can mix and match the things you take that day by simply grab the one or two or three compartment you need and the things inside can stay organized–a bag that helps you compartmentalize the space around your body.

Observation:

I have been paying attention on people on the streets who carries multiple bags and try to understanding the reason behind it.

Small backpack+laptop case:
One shoulder bag+one laptop bag
One bag pack+Purse One purse+One tote bag One backpack+Hooked EssentialsEach lady has one bag pack and one small purse.

Preliminary sketches: