Freitag, Out of the Bag

"In 1993 we were two bike-riding designers living next to the truck route in Zurich. Looking out of the kitchen window one day, we thought it would be nice to have a custom messenger bag made from one of those dirty, 100,000-mile truck tarpaulins.” -Daniel and Markus Freitag.

Out of the Bag is an insight into how the mechanics of Swiss messenger bag manufacturer, Freitag work. It is the story of how an idea becomes a design, and a design becomes a company -  how a company can grow, and how it can maintain its identity in the process. The bags themselves are made from recycled truck tarps, bicycle inner tubes, car seat belts and used air bags. To this day, each object is individual, and they are still manufactured in Zurich.

The book is constructed, not through a traditional storyline, but through interviews with every member of staff at the company - distributors, visual merchandisers, copywriters, designers, the CEO. The tale that emerges, is how the idea of tarpaulin messenger bags, started by the two Freitag ‘brothers’ became a design icon from the region.

What bits should you look out for?

Included, is the letter from 2011, where the Swiss Design Prize jury wrote to the brothers explaining that it, “does not recognise your impressive commercial success as much as it acknowledges the fact that two designers have managed, for what will soon be more than twenty years, to become entrepreneurs whilst remaining designers.”

One of the more fascinating conversations is with Roland Brummer - owner of a shop called Dings (Things) in Zurich. He was the first to stock Freitag bags back in 1994, and gives an articulate history of the packaging, the shop display systems - and how the first customers reacted to the bags.

Why is it useful?

For anyone prototyping and making early versions of their products - or anyone grappling between the worlds of art and business - this is an insightful read.

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