Ladies designer doctor bags for IYASU bags

When you think of “Doctors bags” you will no doubt think of the classic “Gladstone bag”.
This is a very masculine bag – and is basically like a ‘giant, top-opening purse’- where everything just disappears inside! It’s a category of bag that has not really been up-dated for generations.

So when we were approached by a lady Doctor, who had an idea to create stylish and practical work bags for Doctors and healthcare professionals – we thought this could be an interesting opportunity to not only design some stylish bags – but to also completely review assumptions about design in a niche product category as well.

Our new client had already worked with another designer, but the drawings they had come up with had not challenged the assumptions about what a ‘Doctors bag’ was – and TBH in our opinion they were not very stylish. So with the customer’s support we worked on completely fresh and new concepts about what a Doctor’s bag could be and how much they should cost.

To design a practical Doctors bag we had to consider all the items a doctor needed to carry – so we requested one of everything a doctor would carry, and studied these in terms of shape, form and accessibility.

Secondly – to create a stylish Doctor’s bag we had to consider whether a backpack or a hand-bag style bag would be better – and along with the customer concluded we should design a small collection of handbags and backpacks that went together so they would look good when presented to customers as options.

The project progressed through carefully planned stages from Concepts to Design in Detail to Specifications, and we worked with the customer to review all the details at each stage.

We also recommended that the branding and finishing of the bags was really important to create this premium range – so the customer asked us to create all the finishing details – from custom style zip pullers to sliders, fastenings and studs, and of course the brand badge.

We then arranged the manufacture of all the Prototype handbag and backpack samples with a high quality factory that had experience of designer level handbag manufacture – and when they arrived we gave the customer a written guide about how to review and test the bags so she could give us detailed feedback. We were thrilled that her consumer tests came back with very positive results. The target customers really valued the thought that had gone into the organisation inside each bag and loved the premium feel of these vegan bags.

The customer did not want to use animal products and also wanted to use the maximum amount of re-cycled materials so we sourced all the fabrics to match her sustainable criteria, and arranged the colours to be fashionable classics.

We then organised all the final details of the development of the collection and the Mass Production, Quality Control and Shipping.

These bags are premium products – but the prices have come out very close to the target prices we set at the beginning of the process.

With pre-production samples already delivered – the customer was able to do all her photography and promotion in advance – with the first orders taken before they even arrived at the customer’s warehouse.

We are pleased that the range has now been launched to the market in March 2023, and we are continuing to acting as a consultant on commercial matters as the client builds her brand.

We were paid on a fee basis for this project and we arranged for the customer to pay the factory direct – we do not seek to earn money on the production.

If you would like to discuss how we can help you design a custom bag for your business please message us here.

You can see IYASU bags here: https://iyasubags.com/

You can read the customer’s review of our work here: https://www.design-iq-ltd.com/bag-design-reviews/

You can read a More detailed “Case history” about this project here.