Adobe Messenger Bag
Collaborating on the ultimate bag for creative professionals

Designing the ultimate bag
Build a bag expressly for creative professionals? That was the task recently set by Adobe for footwear and luggage brand MEDIUM Design group.

In approaching the project, the first step for MEDIUM’s designers was compiling a list of features. First, they decided the bag would have to be practical. Most creatives and designers favor huge laptops and carry around lots of gadgets and accessories, including digital cameras, MP3 players, and so on. It also needed to be rugged and weather resistant. But, just as important, it had to look great.

“It was something that creative pros would definitely carry around, and at the same time, it wasn’t a compromise in quality,” says MEDIUM’s executive producer Kevin Milden. “It was a really well-done bag with full-grained leather and places for everything.”

Next, design director Coleman Horn began drafting a prototype in Illustrator CS2. “I originally created the whole thing full scale, which is a great option,” he says. “It’s a really quick way to get your idea down, and you don’t have to worry that the dimensions are correct.”

Horn’s design says a lot about its intended audience. Creative pros usually have large laptops and plenty of peripherals. As a result, Horn made the bag large and gave it a wide, oversize strap to lighten the load. Protection of equipment was also important, so the bag ended up with a hard, rolled top. Other features, however, like the full-grained leather flap and the anodized aluminum toggle, were there because, frankly, creatives like nice things.

“The goal of engaging with MEDIUM in this bag was to demonstrate the importance of good design,” says Tricia Gellman, director of product marketing at Adobe. “Just as Adobe builds products based on customer insight, we wanted to ensure that this bag met the customers’ needs and was differentiated from other products on the market.”

Working out the details
Once his sketches were complete, Horn used the Gradient Mesh feature in Illustrator CS2 to create a photorealistic rendering of the bag. From there, he converted the image to PDF and sent it to the team at Adobe for a review. Interestingly enough, the main objection was that the Adobe logo, which was presented red on white, was too prominent. The team suggested toning it down by using
a black background surrounded with red stitching.

The original design presented was very refined and shiny, and it didn’t reflect the lived-in and more casual look that the Adobe team wanted. In addition, there was a version that had too many pockets. In the end, the teams settled on a design that would allow people to carry most things but that didn’t have to include the entire kitchen sink.

The story behind a unique project to ease the creative burden