a better bag

At a time of heightened precarity, a better bag explores the one-bag/go-bag as a metaphor and designed object. The project asks what we choose to carry, and what those choices reveal about class, safety, and survival. Working alongside people who experience the necessity of carrying their belongings, we aim to look at preparedness as a shared practice of care.

Through co-design workshops with Color Me Back and other partner organizations, participants translate lived experience into mood boards, pulling fabrics, stories, and pockets together. As part of the workshops, participants will leave with donated bags. We are also 

Our goals include opening up conversations about belongings, preparedness, and who gets to be prepared in what way. Ultimately, we will be creating a physical prototype of bag that centers the experiences of people who live with their belongings on them at all times; and distributing survival tools to people to create their own go-bags.

Our work emerges from overlapping crises; housing insecurity, climate collapse, political unrest, and a rising cost of living. These conditions make the “go-bag” not an abstraction, but an everyday necessity. By designing with those who already live in a state of motion, we gather lessons in resilience, mobility, and mutual care. The bag becomes a vessel for dignity, resourcefulness, and expression.

* We welcome collaborations and in-kind contributions from designers, makers, and companies committed to sustainable materials and mutual aid.