COLLAPSIBLE DUFFLE BAG
This piece was designed as part of a university project at the Queensland University of Technology in my first semester of study. The main focus of the subject was developing physical prototyping skills, as well as design process.
Commuting is an unavoidable part of urban life. Whether commuting for work, study or leisure activities, you often need to carry essential items and have storage space available for any items picked up along the way. At the same time, it is important not to be overloaded with bulky items when you are getting around. To solve this problem, the task for this project was to design and fabricate a collapsible bag that can reduce its size for easier carrying.
The first stage of rapid prototyping used wash cloth, card, and tape to focus on more traditional shopping bag style designs. However, what I decided from these initial iterations was that shopping bags were all either intentionally or unintentionally collapsible, and producing a design in this style would not test my creativity or design skills enough. As such, I redirected my efforts towards duffle bag style designs, which yielded more exciting results that reflected a more worthwhile amount of collapsibility.
In the second phase of iteration, I looked into origami patterns that produce a collapsing effect. I chose to follow this path because the folding mechanisms I was investigating in the previous iterations were a bit too simplistic for my liking, and while they did achieve the required collapsibility, the actual process of folding the bag up was a little tricky.
Through the origami investigation, I found this pattern that folded extremely efficiently from a flat sheet into a triangle, which worked perfectly in a rectangular duffle bag with square ends. However, after producing cloth and cardboard prototypes, I realised that without the form memory of paper, it was proving very difficult to make sure the panels folded in the correct way. To solve this issue, I came up with a 'drawstring' mechanism that attaches to the middle of the folds and runs through either end of the bag, which, when pulled, draws the centre of the origami pattern inwards and forces the panels to fold in the correct way.
Through the origami investigation, I found this pattern that folded extremely efficiently from a flat sheet into a triangle, which worked perfectly in a rectangular duffle bag with square ends. However, after producing cloth and cardboard prototypes, I realised that without the form memory of paper, it was proving very difficult to make sure the panels folded in the correct way. To solve this issue, I came up with a 'drawstring' mechanism that attaches to the middle of the folds and runs through either end of the bag, which, when pulled, draws the centre of the origami pattern inwards and forces the panels to fold in the correct way.
The final stage simply involved producing a high fidelity final prototype of the chosen design. I chose to use laser cut, clear acrylic to make the panels, as they are rigid and sturdy enough for prototyping purposes, and maintains a clean aesthetic on the interior of the bag. I then cut and sewed the side panels together, as well sewing the zip to the top panel and the shoulder strap (with buckles) to the end panels. I also inserting eyelets for the drawstrings to travel through, and after fully assembling all the panels and drawstrings, secured the ends of the drawstrings with toggle stoppers.
Overall, I was extremely pleased with final product. Not only did both the collapsible duffle bag exceed the requirements, but it did so through the use of creative designs that were far from conventional and utilised construction techniques that tested my fabrication capabilities. Focussing on a specific target audience of athletes from the very beginning of the design process aided greatly in keeping the direction of designs and not becoming overwhelmed with design options.
