Smthn
Self initiated product journey to go from concept to customer within a year. Key strategy was Crowdfunding. Raised about $30000 in just 40 days and delivered about 1000+ bags across India with just 2 guys. A fast paced experiment to learn what goes behind building a brand and a product. Learnt manufacturing, distribution challenges, customer relationships, managing huge problems via product real and redesigning in days to fix the issue, directing and shooting product brand videos, web design, e-commerce store design etc. What a roller coaster!
Who are we designing for?
Studying the market, building the customer persona and discovering an opportunity for innovation: Urban overnighter backpacks which are multipurpose were the need of the hustling generation
Learning from scratch - prototyping to product
Concept design through an iterative process ranging from paper models to final stitched mockups with suppliers
Sourcing and vendor development
Identifying manufacturers, designing and manufacturing some of the hardware since we couldn’t afford the ones we wanted.
Money matters : Crowdfunding journey
We couldn’t afford manufacturing or marketing so we did a Crowdfunding campaign! Incredible journey building the content for the campaign, following up with each customer and prospective buyer to generate leads, Understanding customer service and product grievance management
The video link here if you wanna check it out :)
Behind the scenes: The campaign
We reached out to fellow designers and artists to create a kick-ass product campaign video where we were the actors, directors and crew :). The most fun we've had in our lives. We shot the entire video in 36 hrs since we wanted to save money on renting the equipment. This video was the reason the audience loved hte product campaign. It was 'something'
Product v1 & deliveries
Moment of pride once we created the final product. Understanding how to set up delivery channel and managing product recalls to rectify design rapidly and resend better designed product
Unique concept : A bag that moulds itself to the stuff it holds
The concept was simple. For day to day usage, just use the zips and carry your stuff around like any other backpack. When you want to travel, you can pack your stuff properly without the clothes getting crumpled. The bag expands yet still wraps the stuff 'snug'
E-commerce
Had to learn how to set up an online store in addition to setting up kiosks at events. Sell sell sell!!
Smthn 2.0 : Complete re-design
While continuing our design consultancy, on the side we worked almost a year to redesign everything and came up with 2 new products. We set up physical kiosks and our e-store. A large e-comm player showed interest in taking over the range
New product video:
