ticktickticktickticktickBOOM!

it finally happened. the sewing machine finally blew up. thread was everywhere. needles were broken. fingers were bleeding. hearts were bleeding. it was a sad moment.

so we’ve turned to Rose, the alterations lady, or the alterations place rather. They’re stitching the rest of our bag together. It was something we should have looked into in the beginning but I’m sure it would have been crazy expensive. right now it’s costing us $80 to finish up the bag – given they are doing a fair amount of work. When we get it back tomorrow night (hopefully) there will be very little left for us to do. Emma and I went and checked on it on Saturday after the best football game ever and it was looking good.

so for now the time is ticking. we’ll have to see if we can get it together.

Dark cloud gone

I just dominated the sewing machine.

backpack of doom

There is a gray cloud hovering above our cubicle in studio 104. Emma and I spent an hour fiddling with the sewing machine this evening (with help from an expert). This process is not going very well. We have most of our pieces cut and lots of things pinned but the materials are so thick it’s pretty difficult to actually get through them with the machine we have. We didn’t think we could get an alterations place to do it for us without mechanical drawings/we don’t trust other people so we are on a fun little adventure in threadandzippersandliningandstraps land right now. It’s a magical place.

Research from Wednesday

Here are more pics from our adventures at Dick’s.

lots of bags. some good. some not so good.

Let’s do the time warp agaaaaaaain

I wrote the title for this post 2 hours ago and didn’t get to start it so now I’ve completely forgotten what I was going to write about. I feel like we’re behind but we’re making progress.We’ve had a lot of trouble finding time for all 3 of us to actually meet together – thus the “learning to work in a group” thing is being accomplished. I think tomorrow’s going to be a big day for us. We’ll be making lots of decisions about our design. We’ve chosen to aim our bag at teenagers and college students. I think they are probably the best target because they are more likely to adopt a lifestyle change than older adults. Gotta get em while they’re young.

Right now it seems like we’ve got all of the thoughts, all of the ideas, most of the information – we just don’t have anything physical. It’s hard to model a bag. I know I’ll feel a lot better when we have something tactile, until then I’ll be a bit uneasy. I’m just so use to a lot of pressure being put on a model. I’m pretty sure this weekend this thing is gonna get knocked outta the park. It has to. Thanksgiving (aka my 21st birthday) is on the horizon and there will be very little time for pootin’ around with this. We’ve just got to get it done. I think Emma and I may go talk to some seamstresses tomorrow if we have time. Definitely on saturday. If they can’t make the whole thing for us maybe they can do part of it. But that means we need killer drawings. Yipes. There’s so much. We just have to get it done. Ha. No sweat.

Oh yeah, we went to Dick’s Sporting Goods the other day and looked at bags that are out there now. After many “eh-bags” we found our favorite mostwonderfulandamazingdream-bag. It was actually a nike bag and only $35 but it had the best body fit we’d seen. We thought of improvements that could have been made to it and I believe it is serving as the inspiration for our final design.

Emma wearing the nike bag.

The back of the bag of wonder.

Don’t put me in the box!

So as I’m sitting here waiting on laundry, I’m thinking to myself, “What now?” We (Emma, Chris, and I) met with bag designer Malcolm Fontier on Monday afternoon and it was awesome. He was really nice and showed us all of these drawings and we talked about manufacturing and materials and hardware and all of this stuff. He had some extra valuable incite because he cycles as well. He rides his bike from his home in little five points to his office near 5 points station almost every day. He pointed out that the bag itself needed to be fairly high on the users back for stability and security as well as positioning with the bike itself (can’t have a bag hanging down and getting caught in the wheels). He showed us some of his bags that he sometimes uses while riding and how they are good and how they are bad. He brought up the point that you need to account for back splash of water and mud from the wheels onto the bottom of the bag. We had never thought about that before. I feel like he brought up all of this information for us to think about: materials, hardware, durability, ease of use, human factors, the environment, strap postioning, pockets, etc., etc., etc.

Now I’m just like, ok so where do we go from here? Back to the drawing board obviously. That’s fine. That’s process. I just…I’m afraid that this bag is going to be just some other bag. Like, “cool bag…it’s got stuff on it….sweet.” That’s the opposite of what i want to happen. But I also want to base our design on research and logic. So it needs to be a sweet-A bag that’s based on facts and research and looks awesome and unique and works really well for cyclists and educates drivers while making the cyclists feel confident and aware of their surroundings. Perfect. No big deal I’ll just go whip that up real quick.

Not! But I’ll try.

I just don’t want to end up inside the box making some bag that’s just a band-aid.

What am I drawing?

Right now, I’m struggling with the fact that I’m supposed to be drawing these ideas, but I have no idea how to represent them on paper. Like, how do I show a driving school? Or a massive feast? I mean, I know how, it just seems so far from products, which I’m fine with I’m just not sure that it’s going to be okay with anyone else. i don’t know. I just don’t know. alas, I will persevere.

Confidence

SO we’re talking about confidence and how that is the root of the problem. People don’t ride because they are scared or intimidated or feel like driving is better, but all of those things could be cured if people had confidence.

So what gives people confidence?

Familiarity – if you know something/somewhere/a process you are much more comfortable doing it because you have confidence. You’ve been there before.

Experience – goes along with familiarity. If you’ve done something before you don’t have to worry about screwing it up. However, there is the BAD experience aspect to think of. Hmm…If you’ve had a bad experience with something you may not be so inclined as to try it again. I know I think like that. But I think our project isn’t targeting the people who have biked before but are chosing not to now. We’re targeting people who know how to ride bikes but chose not to for some reason or another.

Knowledge – knowledge is power. Power gives you confidence. If you have knowledge about something you are more self assured, and thus more confident. Along with your knowledge goes the knowledge of others. If other people are informed about a situation you can feel more confident in it. For example, if you are taking charge of a group but the group doesn’t really understand that you are the leader then you may feel awkward telling them what to do. You don’t want to be that guy/girl that just takes over a situation. But if it has been clearly defined that you are a group leader then you feel like it is more your area to speak up and give direction because you know other people respect the fact that you are the leader and know you’re not just some jerk trying to control everything (This situation is purely hypothetical and not to be applied to my role in this project).

Other people – it’s the security that comes with having other people around you that often allows you to step outside of yourself and do things you ordinarily wouldn’t. When Emma and I rode bikes I felt safer and more confident because I knew if someone was honking their horn it wouldn’t just be at me but at her as well. there’s a sharing of responsibilities and consequences which usually makes people feel better.

Affirmation – this goes along with “other people.” When people are telling you what you are doing is good that diminishes doubt and gives you the boost you need to keep going. Thus building up confidence.

Power or Control – if you’re in charge it may or may not go to your head. Either way, knowing that you have authority gives you the strength you need to do whatever you need/want to. Though power can be intimidating sometimes, I think knowing you are in control, the confidence that gives you, is what helps you actually take action.

Time for a change

Tonight I was thinking (that’s a change) about how I’m lacking in the “deep thought” department. I’ve always said I’m just not a deep thinker. I’ve bragged to those with crazy frantic minds about how I have the power to zero in on absolutely nothing. In some ways, my ability to completely clear my mind is good, but I think it has been stunting my growth in the design arena. I haven’t pushed myself to think as hard as I should about anything. I’m in an exhibit design class full of kids who have insane minds. They are so analytical and philosophical. I struggle to get even close to the level of thinking they do, but it’s not from lack of want. I want to be a “deep thinker” and “intellectual” I’m just not always sure of how. I’m working on it, trying to learn what to ask myself and how to question what I’ve done. I’m writing about this because I feel like I’ve always wanted people to push me to think more, and it’s finally happening. I’m excited that this project isn’t going to consist of some piece of crap that meets a need but doesn’t really solve a problem. I’m excited about thinking and about the fact that this is a group project which will help because we can feed off of each other but also push each other to think harder and dig deeper. It’s good. It’s all good.

Ok, let’s do this right.

So we did the bike ride last night. It went……okay. Had I written this last night I probably would’ve said it was horrible. We had a few freak out moments. I almost got hit by a car (his fault, not mine – really), Emma kept freaking out thinking her bike was falling apart, and we had a miscommunication and got separated at one traffic light when I turned and Emma didn’t. Chris followed behind us in his truck which was great because we felt a lot safer. We didn’t go very fast. At all. And it was cold. And I don’t think I’ve exercised that much in a while (sad). But in retrospect, it was good. I think if we were to go out again it would be better. And I expect that it would be better every time. It all has to do with gaining confidence. Thus brings us to the new root of our project – CONFIDENCE.

We’ve decided that we need to focus on what keeps people off of bikes and we believe that is fear. What makes people afraid? A lack of confidence. So from here, we are going to start looking at what makes people confident and hopefully find someway to transform that into a product for cycling. But not some crappy, “let’s just throw on another doodad” kind of product. We want to fix the problem, not mask it.