Available in Venice from the British Pavilion, Giardini Di Castello, Venice | 9 May – 22 November 2015 | €10 / Euros

The brief was to design a bag to contain the I SCREAM DADDIO exhibition catalogue – a book in a bag.  We had some fun with this: ‘a bag’ is a certain kind of woman, and well ‘a book in a bag’ has a good measure of sexual innuendo.  In fact if you purchase a book and a bag together, I believe you get a discount, like the great old British tradition of a soup and a sandwich (of which if you’ve seen it, the book is a sandwich, either cheese or egg).

The bag can be worn over the shoulder normally or diagonally across the body – courier style.  The generous strap is attached to the sides of the bag – it’s why the bag needs structured sides – which also provide more room inside and add a distinctive satchel look.  I’ve always been an advocate of the usefulness of small canvas English fishing-bags, so while we’re at it, why not a generous flap? – to keep the weather out and the bag neatly closed.

When the flap is opened, ‘I SCREAM’ is revealed!  Otherwise it’s simply the DADDIO bag.

In Venice they flooded out into the Calles – the bright yellow effect, works.  In fact in Venice this is the bag of choice, people buying it to stuff all sorts of other Biennale books and leaflets in; and yes it looks pretty cool too! – balancing relaxed discreetness, with striking prominence.  The bag hangs fairly low, around hip height.

The issue with a standard ‘tote bag’ are the two straps – one stays on your shoulder and the other falls off, plus often the straps aren’t long enough for carrying on the shoulder, and also the bag can fall open when placed down …so this was never going to be an ubiquitous tote! – hence for a start an elegant one-strap design.

Size – not overly large, around A4 though proportion just about square – a wearable block of bright colour.  Yellow and white: eggy.

The I SCREAM DADDIO publication neatly slides in horizontally on it’s side, as well as vertically upright, it’s up to you.

 

 

For production this custom design was supplied to Per Annum Limited and made with especially dyed 10 oz heavy cotton.