Making of the Laptop Bags

Posted by Stuart:

I have 5 weeks left now before I return to the US and I really need to have a sample laptop bag and a laptop sleeve to be able to show people.

So far Nicholas and I have been working on a design for the front of the bag which is going to have an attractive, non-abstract but stylized graphical treatment. We chose to work with Nicholas not only because he is a renowned Ghanaian artist and a close friend but we also felt his work really lends itself to being transferred to the batiking process; his style being somewhat closer to graphic design than traditional painting. Still, he has had some difficulty moving from acrylics to batik because where he used to employ many colours and shades he is now restricted to 3 colours. Batiking is quite labour intensive so the fewer colours we use the easier and cheaper the production process becomes. We now have a design which we think will work and are getting the blocks made next week.

The prototype batik work for the sample bag is being produced by Vida who is an experienced and very talented batiking artist working in the Osu district of Accra. Vida has been advising Nicholas about what can and can't be achieved in the batiking process and Nicholas and I spent a very pleasurable afternoon with her last week talking to her and watching her make some of the Fearless Planet bandanas that Danielle is producing.

The next piece of the puzzle is to get the actual laptop bag designed and manufactured. Danielle had one made by someone called Kwabena in the Madina district of Accra last year and having seen the quality of his work I decided that he would be ideal for this. I went to see him last week and saw his workshop. Next week I hope to return with an idea for a design that Danielle and I have been working on.

So the pieces are starting to come together. However, having a laptop bag with a neat and colourful design is only part of the story. After all, there are many bags out there competing for attention and for people's money.

The final piece of the puzzle is extremely important and hopefully it will really put the icing on the cake. But details of this will have to wait for another blog posting!