Luggage Unite for Industrial Designers

Hi! We’re working on a luggage unite for Industrial Designers. For the research part, I have a few questions and I’ll be appreciated if you answer them.
1- What are the things that you take with you as a designer into your luggage?
2- What are the common practices that you do through out your journey that are related to design?(e.g. sketching, reading books that arerelated to design…)
3- Do you prefer backpack or suitcase as a travelling bag?
4- What are the main purpose of your journey? (e.g. workshop,presentation…)
5- What are your transportation preference after/before taking a flight?(e.g. public transportation such as bus, train, taxi or personal vehicle…)

Thank You.

  1. If I’m traveling for more than a few days, I take a backpack and a small duffel. It’s almost 100% clothes in my duffel. In my backpack, I’ll usually take a few pens, a couple gray markers, a couple colored markers, and a few sharpies. Sketchbook. Laptop. Charger. Ipad. Headphones. Stuff like that.
  2. Sketching, movies, books, music.
  3. Backpack for 0-3 days. Backpack + duffle for >3 days.
  4. Traveling overseas for factory visits.
  5. Uber.

So you’re an industrial designer, designing a bag for other industrial designers? Is this a school project?


Edit: Snacks. Can’t forget snacks. In both my backpack and duffle. Dozens of Clif bars.

I’m a second year industrial design student at METU :slight_smile: Thank you so much for your answer!

I see. Have you considered designing luggage for other types of users? In my (unsolicited) opinion, it would be a much more compelling project (for your portfolio) if you weren’t designing a bag for users just like you. You could design a bag for bike commuters, construction workers, tennis players, doctors… people whose needs are different from your own.

I will be traveling to the USA this summer.

I am planning on scrapping (i.e recycling) my old heavy 2 wheeled softside overseas luggage and investing in the new lightweight ABS upright 4 wheeled 22" carry on and a 24" check thru pieces (US$70 here in Korea). The reason for this is that I will be using public transportation in NYC and eastern seaboard as well as traveling by car in San Francisco bay area. These 4 wheeled pieces are far superior for navigating in airports as well as using for shopping trips in large urban cities.

Designing for the ‘creative class’ is a growing market and targeting designers is a good place to start.

1- What are the things that you take with you as a designer into your luggage? All of my design work content is in the cloud, so no need for special consideration for tools, work or storage other than a macbook.
2- What are the common practices that you do through out your journey that are related to design?(e.g. sketching, reading books that arerelated to design…) I will work on research, proposals, reports, 3D CAD, rendering, layouts on my notebook. Sketching and ideas are tracked on a4 size spiral bound paper notebooks.
3- Do you prefer backpack or suitcase as a travelling bag? Hardside suit case. I am finished with ‘wearing’ my stuff.
4- What are the main purpose of your journey? (e.g. workshop,presentation…) meetings, interviews, research
5- What are your transportation preference after/before taking a flight?(e.g. public transportation such as bus, train, taxi or personal vehicle…) Bus, train, taxi, ride sharing…in that order.

Thank you so much for your detailed answer. My I ask your name in order to note?

1- What are the things that you take with you as a designer into your luggage?

Nowadays I pack as light as possible and I arrange items towards a presentation at the meetings I go to.
I have a shoulder bag and pack a 12" flipbook in there that functions as standing tablet or laptop or sketchboard.
A small notebook and pen for brainstorming while traveling.
Sometimes a toothbrush.
A water bottle is optional - there are these very thin bottles that would be great for a portable solution.
An A4 sized sleeve for my resume and portfolio and relevant sketches/documents to the project.
It would be great if I could securely carry that on my body without it swinging or loading my back.
Sometimes I have to carry along a prototype, it needs to be well protected and secured. These can vary in size so most likely will need a separate solution (I currently use a metal suitcase)

2- What are the common practices that you do through out your journey that are related to design?(e.g. sketching, reading books that arerelated to design…)

Sketch/brainstorm, make preparatory notes, prepare deals/offers
Sometimes I browse a book or magazine
I usually do email while on public transport

3- Do you prefer backpack or suitcase as a travelling bag?

Suitcase or rather a crumple type bag or more fashionable shoulder bag.

4- What are the main purpose of your journey? (e.g. workshop,presentation…)

Most often it is a design related meeting where we develop concepts together.
Having some paper and markers with me would be a nice-to-have.
At other times it is a catch-up meeting discussing progress and further phases
It would definitely be great if the bag could be transformed into something aiding to the presentation, already if it were something simple such as a standing moodboard. Now the bag often ends between the furniture or somewhere in a corner.

5- What are your transportation preference after/before taking a flight?(e.g. public transportation such as bus, train, taxi or personal vehicle…)

I prefer to personally be transported by someone in the project, a taxi is great but often I take the train and bus.