O bag Design Award

O bag Design Award

Deadline 27 November 2018

New product design contest on Desall.com: the O bag brand and Desall invite the international community to design the new version of the O bag, characterised by its minimal design, the unmistakable style and the many customisation possibilities.

The brand O bag stems from the incredible success of the iconic and customisable bags and clocks.

Today, it is leader in the customisable accessory market, offering a wide range of products made of innovative materials, such as combinable bags, watches, sunglasses and bracelets.

The four principles on which the brand is based are:

Modularity and Customisation: the client has the possibility to combine several components in order to create a unique and customised product.

Materials: the plastic material is the trait-d’union among all the O bag products that ensure a strong identity, providing versatility and functionality.

Democratic price & Easy Fashion: the O bag mission is to create “democratic” products with an easy fashion approach, based on a variable price that can satisfy a wide range of clients.

Design: O bag is rooted in the design world: born in 2009 at the Salone del Mobile with its iconic “O clock”, it keeps creating products that are able combine fashion with design.

What we are looking for

The O bag brand is looking for the design of the new edition of their iconic combinable bag consisting of several components – body, handles, trim, inner bag and other accessories of your choice – creating a modular, customisable product, with a democratic price and an unmistakable style.

Guidelines

For the correct realisation of your proposals, keep into consideration the following guidelines:

Components to design: the new edition of your O bag shall keep into consideration the feature of being a platform product, thanks to which the client is able to “build” her own bag, choosing among its several available components and so get a highly customised version. The components you are invited to design for the contest are:

Body: the basic component of the O bag, realised with a single mould, shall be available in various colours – a feature that characterises the brand – and feature a clasping system for hosting the components described below (handles, trim, inner bag, accessories). You may decide whether to invent a new clasping system – also providing an adapter that enables you to host the already existing O bag components – or to exploit the clasping system already in use (see Material files).

The dimension of the body of your bag shall comply with the current model, that is width 39 cm, height 33 cm, depth 12 cm, with a possible variation of +/- 5%.

In order to ensure a certain continuity with the current O bag model, the new body shall be designed so to stand by itself, when placed on a surface.

Handles: your new O bag shall be equipped with handles fixed on the body through the clasping system of your choice. Given the great customisability of the bag, you are invited to propose one or more solutions choosing between short handles, long handles, shoulder straps, etc. with a wide variety of colours, in order to offer various colour combinations between the components of the bag. The basic configuration of the O bag consists of body and handles.

Trim: you are invited to design a decorative trim, fixed on the body through the clasping system of your choice. It shall represent a further component for the bag customisation, available in various materials (fabric, jute, faux fur, etc.) and different colours, also with a view to seasonality: for ex. faux fur trim for the winter edition and linen trim for summer edition. At your discretion you can evaluate whether your trim may offer additional functionalities, besides fulfilling its decorative purpose.

Inner bag: a component meant for organising the bag at best with pockets and dividers, available in a wide variety of colours and materials, it will be fixed on the body through the clasping system of your choice. As for the trim, also the inner bag shall be a detachable component, used at the client discretion, also with a view to seasonality. Currently the O bag inner bags feature a zip or coulisse closing – the proposals suggesting new closing modalities will be most welcome.

Accessories: in addition to the components described above, you are invited to design accessories useful for customising or adding extra functionalities to your O bag. At your discretion you may also suggest the use of technological accessories, as long as they are not essential for the normal use of the bag but rather represent optional components one may choose during the customisation of the bag.

For more information on the modularity and on the components of the current O bag please refer to the Material files.

Compatibility between O bag models: in case the components you design employ a different clasping system than the one currently used by O bag, it is fundamental that you design two adapters, the first to make the new components backward compatible with the O bag bodies already for sale and the second one to make the components already for sale compatible with the new body you design.

Materials: as a way to maintain continuity with the brand, the body of the new O bag shall be mainly made of XL EXTRALIGHT® material (even if not at 100%). By virtue of its own composition, it allows to obtain different degrees of softness and thickness. You are nevertheless free to present alternative solutions to XL EXTRALIGHT®, provided they have industrialisation characteristics similar to the current material.

Other materials you may use for the various components are recycled or industrial waste materials, ecological, natural materials or faux fur. The use of materials of animal origin – including leather, fur etc. – is not allowed.

Design and style: your O bag shall have a great attention to design and aesthetics, presenting itself as a feminine, fashionable and democratic product, with a modular, minimal and highly customisable design. You may propose surface finishes realised on the mould, for example by suggesting the use of textures or other embossed elements.

Shapes: you are free to explore the shapes you prefer, as long as they keep aesthetic continuity with the brand and comply with the proportions of the body specified in the body paragraph. Besides, the new body shall be able to stand by itself when placed on a surface.

Colours: a distinctive trait of the brand is the wide range of colour variations it offers. In order to keep an aesthetic continuity with the O bag brand, you are invited to transfer this feature also to the new O bag, suggesting many different colour combinations between the various components of the bag (body, handles, trim, inner bag, accessories). For a few examples of these colours combinations, have a look at their current on-line catalogue.

Logo: all your proposals shall feature on the body of the bag the O bag logo, available inside the Material files. The logo shall be realised on the mould.

Production technologies: the O bag you suggest shall be realised with industrial production technologies. The total production cost of the product must fall in the range of 10-30 €. If you use the XL EXTRALIGHT® material, keep into consideration that due to its very conformation, it releases silicone material, which prevents the use of gluing, co-moulding or hot work processes.

Product positioning on the market: your O bag shall be a platform product that thanks to its modularity can satisfy a wide range of users, from the mass segment, where it will be particularly competitive, to the premium segment, where it will be perceived as a great value-for-money product. Thanks to its modularity, the O bag shall offer a wide flexibility in the pricing according to the components selected by the client, starting from a basic configuration consisting of body and handles – that will represent a very accessible product – to more complex configurations, featuring trim, inner bag and other accessories, with a view to a scalable price. See the Material files for more information.

Target: the client typology to take into consideration for the new O bag is a female public, aged between 20 and 50 years. Thanks to the various components you suggest for its customisation, you are invited to narrow down this target group and identify a more restricted group of users to target according to the bag configuration you suggest, specifying which element gave you the inspiration for the project, the age group for which it is meant, the user typology of your target and the context of use. You are invited to describe this scenario inside the presentation of your project.

How to use: the new O bag may be used in several modalities, thanks to the wide availability of accessories and customisations, so to be carried by hand, worn over the shoulder or with a shoulder strap and customised according to the season, be it summer or winter.

Where to use: the O bag shall be designed mainly for use in the city or at the seaside.

Deliverables: upload all the images that better present your projects (rendering, descriptions, CAD files, etc.) showing in at least one slide the various components and the modularity of your proposal. You are also required to briefly describe the target group you are addressing with the various configurations, specifying for each configuration the element that gave you inspiration, the age group for which it was designed, the user typology of your target, the context of use and some descriptive keywords. If necessary, remember that you can also attach a .ZIP archive containing extra materials.

Evaluation criteria: in the evaluation of your submissions by the O bag creative team the following criteria will be taken into account:

Functionality/Usability (5/5)

Technical feasibility (5/5)

Economic sustainability (5/5)

Compliance with the brand (5/5)

Eco-compatibility (5/5)

Language: since we are an international Community, all texts provided with your uploads (abstract, description, tags, etc.) should be written in English.

Contest timeline

Upload phase: 09th August 2018 – 27th November 2018 (1.59 PM UTC)

Client Vote: from 27th November 2018

Winner announcement: approximately before the end of February 2019

Optional deadlines

Concept revision: 09th September 2018 (1.59 PM UTC)

Concept revision: deadline for requiring an optional revision of your project by the Desall team. In order to request a revision, upload your project and save it as draft (SAVE DRAFT) from the upload page and send your request to the Desall Team via e-mail or through the contact form. The revision is NOT mandatory: it serves only as a further opportunity for the participants but does not constitute a condition for participation, nor does it constitute any advantage in the final evaluation.

Eligibility and submission

Participation is free of charge and open to designers and creative talents of any nationality aged 18 years or older. Participants can present one or more projects, but only the projects published on the www.desall.com web site, via the upload page related to “O bag design award” will be accepted.

Award

1°: €5000

The selection of the winner by the O bag creative team will be the result of an unquestionable evaluation and it will take into account originality, feasibility and consistency with the brief presented.

Option right

For the duration of the option right, the Sponsor offers an extra chance to all participants setting a fee of Euro 2,500.00= (two-thousand-five-hundred/00) for the purchase of the license for the economical exploitation of the projects not-acknowledged as the winning proposals.

For more info, please login and read the Contest Agreement from the upload page. For questions about the brief please use the “Have a question” button or write to contest@desall.com.

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