Early Changes Will Change Things

My last few posts have focused on the changes that are happening for our bags between sample bag and our final production bags.  This is certainly not ideal.  I feel like a stage performer that’s doing my costume changes on stage.  There’s a reason that most changes happen behind the scenes, where you can’t see them.  It’s often times, for the best.  I also smile in celebration of the fact that Badass Backpacks has the opportunity to get vulnerable and experiment by showing you what’s happening as we stumble along step by step.

The Heron bag in our Self Reflection series saw some changes last minute before we printed the fabric for our initial sample bags.  We changed the positioning of the artwork to go up the bag vertically instead of across the bag horizontally.  That change caused surprise and momentary panic across our small collaboration team.  Would such a change work?  Is that going to look weird?  I don’t know.  It might not work.  But maybe it will.  The shift allowed us to get more of the painting onto the bag and it pulled the Heron into scale beautifully.

Change is constant.  Change early, and that will change the changes that need to be made later in the cycle.  The Heron bag will see very little difference from sample bag to production bag.  Aside from a slight cropping shift on the exterior lid of the bag – this one will look exactly like the sample bag we’ve been showcasing. 

I’ll also share again the beautiful shot of Self Reflection project collaborators standing below Eli’s Heron Oil Spill painting (left to right, Adam, Eli, Rusty, and Michael):