With Greg Whiting we explored an ideation technique in which we picked a noun from one small box and an aesthetic from another. Regardless of their randomness, our task was to pair them together and redesign that noun with the aesthetic that we drew. After 10-15 minutes we were asked to draw our new design on a large sheet of paper and put them up around the classroom.

My group randomly selected “Backpack” and “Japanese Motorcycles.”

Our design takes the crisp, bright colors of Japanese Motorcycles, along with the shape of the body of the bike and the leather of the seat to create the main body of our backpack. It is a top-loading bag that sits flushed along your spine such that when you sit to ride an actual motorcycle, the bag won’t move around side to side. The straps wrap around your shoulders and clasp in the center of your chest to keep it in place. The body of the bag reflects what you would see as you sit on top of a bike. The top resembles the fuel tank and the lower portion resembles the leather seat. To open the bag, you unscrew the metal fuel cap at the top and open the red flap upwards. At the bottom of the bag are reflective patches that improve visibility of the rider on the bike. They are not fully seen when the rider is standing but are most visible when the rider is bent over their bike.