INDUSTRIAL DESIGN THESIS - TRAVELING BACKPACK

We are 2 industrial designers from Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosi (UASLP) in Mexico. Rodrigo Villasuso and myself, Lili Lara, started this project on September 2016 and it took us approximately 6 months to finish it.

Our Thesis topic:

"Transportable storage system for backpackers, able to adapt to different uses and situations"

It all started with an online survey that we posted on facebook for all of our friends who had been backpacking before, surprisingly, we ended up with 140 responses, something neither of us expected.

In this survey we asked questions about their experiences when backpacking as well as their preferences when buying a backpack and what their ideal backpack needed.

And so we developed the next research strategy, which we followed in order to cover the most relevant subjects to our main topic. TOURISM

After covering every single one of these topics in a very extensive research, we started with the creative process of the project.

Taking into account some of the previously stablished factors. Such as; 

Formal; shape and colors

Functional; access, security, structure and practicity

Technical; Material, size, capacity

Once we had our design problem and concept stablished, we began with the sketching part of this thesis. 

We had to sketch and sketch and sketch, so the following drawings are some of the most relevant.

Once we had the final design for our backpack, we built several cardboard mockups until we came up with the right shapes. From our final mockup, we were able to obtain the patterns, which we would then transfer to fabric for our simulated prototype.

After building our simulated prototype with random pieces of fabric we realized that some patterns didn't fit right, so we had to modify some of them in order to be able to start building the final and functional prototype.

We worked along with one of the textile experts at our school, who helped us during the whole sewing process. It took us about 36 hours to build out final prototype and we are very happy with our result.

The final concept consists of 2 parts. A main backpack and a day pack. 

The day pack gets hooked to the main pack for more freedom while traveling and it can get unhooked to use individually for a day commute. This makes the backpack more PRACTICAL, you have 3 in 1.

SECURITY. 

-The zippers on the main backpack go attached to a buckle (which we designed). This buckle blocks the zipper, protecting our belongings from pickpockets.

-When the day pack is hooked, both compartments on the main pack get hidden.

-All acces to the main pack is through the back, so it can't get opened from the outside while used individually or while hooked to the main pack.

COMFORT

-We added an external frame, it goes behind the padded surfaces on the back and it gets attached with velcro fastener. The shape of the frame helps distribute the weight.

-The frame provides a gap between the back and the backpack, which allows ventilation.

We decided our backpack had to be colorful but we wanted to avoid certain colors that get easily dirty. We wanted a dark color but wanted to avoid black, so we went with dark blue as our base color. We ended up choosing wine and yellow for a constrast effect.

Once we finished building the prototype, we tried it out on a trip to Nevado de Colima in Mexico. Here's a small video from that day.