Photos from private and Tallinn City Museum collections. Collage by Jaana Päeva
The project focuses on exploring experience-driven design principles that extend the product lifespan by using emotional attachment.
This creative research focuses on the relationships between memories preserved in perceptions and product descriptions to understand how products are perceived and experienced, which experiences become long-lasting memories, what emotions trigger remembrance, and how memories affect emotional attachment to the product to integrate new knowledge into the design creation for potential product lifespan extension.
The project concentrates on the study of bags and their associated memories. Handbags are the focus of research as everyday objects that play a significant role in the owner’s life. The appearance of a bag is a public reflection of the wearer’s cultural and social attitudes, various roles, and everyday needs, while the interior is hidden, personal, and private. The bag has both functional and symbolic value, and its ambivalence and importance in the wearer’s daily life provide an appropriate background for collecting and applying memories as input for bag design.
The project consists of collecting bag-related memories, creating a bag collection based on the collected data and finally collecting and analysing feedback on the created handbag prototypes.
This practice-based research started with a memory collection through questionnaires at the ʽEveryday Companions. Handbags 1900-1950ʼ exhibition in the Tallinn City Museum and electronically. The campaign ran from September 8, 2023, to January 15, 2024, and sought to capture the essence of meaningful and memorable bags. The questionnaire focused on the emotions associated with bags, helping participants describe the bags in detail. Insights from 116 respondents allowed us to link the emotional significance of these memories to specific design characteristics, leading to the creation of four distinct product groups.
As a result of the second research phase, a collaborative bag collection shaped by the analysis of the collected data will be launched in September. The designs—ranging in form, silhouette, proportions, material combinations, colour, texture, and ornamentation—are meaningful interpretations of the memories shared by participants. Nine prototypes, in which perception is tested through feedback, aim to assess experience-driven memories as design input. We will use feedback questionnaires to find similarities and repetitions in perceptions to build new knowledge for a more sustainable approach to bag design.
The bag collection will be showcased as a part of the Satellite program of the Tallinn Design Festival Disainiöö from September 16 to 21, 2024.
The exhibition, titled Déjà vu? will be open Monday to Friday 17:00-20:00 and on Saturday 12:00-17:00 at Volta Villa, located in the former headquarters of the Volta factory at Tööstuse 47. Now restored as an apartment building, this sample apartment blends historical details with contemporary design, mirroring the fusion of past and present in our bag collection. The chosen environment underscores our commitment to sustainable values, offering a background rich with memories and meaning.
The project partners: The Tallinn City Museum and Kadri Kruus – Bags and Accessories
The project team: Jaana Päeva, Maris Rosenthal, Kadri Kruus, Merle Visak
The project is funded by: the Ministry of Culture’s Artistic Research Support Program in the field of culture and creative industries
Thanks: Endover Kinnisvara
