On Friday, 18 September, the nominees for this year's Estonian product design award BRUNO were announced. 67 works were submitted and an international jury chose 28 of them. There are seven nominees in the lifestyle product category, and one of them is our cellulose-fibre tote.
We are delighted, because this bag is still a newcomer in our studio: the first one to step out beside leather.
A side path from the leather workshop
Our name and our hands have always been with leather. When you work with leather, offcuts are unavoidable: every hide has its own shape and surface, and the pattern has to be fitted to it. When we started experimenting with Texon Vogue, a cellulose-fibre sheet material made from wood pulp, we could ask the question the other way round: can the pattern be drawn so that there are no offcuts at all?
It can. The pattern follows the format of the sheet exactly, and the whole bag comes from a single sheet. Nothing is left on the cutting table. Avoiding waste is not a feature added afterwards; it is the logic of the cut itself.
What is in the bag
The material is in some ways reminiscent of leather: it is stiffer than textile, holds its shape and is durable. At the same time the bag is light and can go in the washing machine. Texon Vogue is based on 100% FSC-certified wood pulp and carries the OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 certificate and the Vegan Trademark.
The adjustable straps come off for washing: the bag is modular, which makes it easy to wash. When one part wears out, only that part is replaced, not the whole bag. The same thinking runs through all our leatherwork, where we care for, repair, rent out and redesign bags. An object that lasts is the best way to avoid waste.
What is also worth noting about the straps is that you can choose between a vegetable-tanned leather version and a fully vegan one. The bag has an inside pocket and measures 40 × 32 × 12 cm.
What the jury saw this year
The jury was Luke Pearson and Terry McStea from the UK, Jaume Domenech from Germany, Isabelle Vérilhac from France and Margot Vaaderpass from Estonia. Ilona Gurjanova, one of BRUNO's founders and the head organiser of Design Night, named the common thread of the year: "What unites all the entries is a strong environmental awareness – it has become a new mark of quality."
From a leather workshop's point of view, it is especially good to see leather alive among the nominees and looking for new forms. The same category includes Birgit Peerna's leather knits and Anna Chirkova's "Sole-mate" leather bags. In total the nominees are spread over three categories: lifestyle product design (7), living environment product design (17) and engineering product design (4). The full list is in Sirp (in Estonian).
Where to see the bag
All the nominees are on show at the BRUNO exhibition in the Põhjala factory grounds from 28 September to 4 October, during the Design Night festival. The exhibition opens on Monday, 28 September at 5.45 pm. The same evening at 8 pm, our DOM show takes place at the Põhjala factory too.
The winners are announced on Friday, 2 October at the Estonian Design Awards gala. Until then there is a public vote: click the photo on Facebook and give it a LIKE if the bag speaks to you.
Our full programme for Design Night week is in a separate post. See you at the Põhjala factory!
Active testing of the bag is still under way, but soon we will bring it out so that you can buy it – join the waitlist and be among the first to get one :)