Totally Trades: Backpack Design Workshop
Mt. Blue High School: Foster Tech Center
For the past two Fall sessions, I have had the pleasure of leading a female-only Backpack design workshop for approximately 20 pre-High School students for the annual Totally Trades event at Mt.Blue High School in Farmington, ME. The purpose of the event is to teach female students about alternative careers and to introduce them to unique and inspiring careers. My goal was to get the girls interested in Design as a whole and get them to have some fun building, designing, and creating.
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All materials were donated by Samsonite, LLC sample shop and Mt. Blue High School.
Brainstorming
The students listed all the items you might find in a backpack, from notebooks to water bottles. They brainstormed a full list, including specific items like sports equipment and snacks.
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Together we created a list of all the parts of a backpack, looking at the "anatomy of a backpack" in order to get them familiar with all the specific pieces and their uses that currently exist.
Concepts
The workshop consists of concept phase where the girls are given time to sketch and draw out their ideas. They had about 10 minutes to get a few ideas on paper before starting to build.
Design
The students were given free-reign of all materials and asked to create a prototype model of a backpack from their initial sketch. After some encouragement, they cut, glued, sewed, stapled, and tied their way to finished prototypes of varying degree.
Student Results
They were able to try things, figure out what would work and what needed to be changed. Some bags resembled their original sketches, others were a brand new idea. Most importantly, they were able to create something original and effectively communicate their ideas through prototyping. Overall, everyone had a great time.
