Interviews with Ke Zheng

BareBag is created to empower people to do more with their hands. Before I founded BareBag, I had a bike accident that broke my left arm. The inconvenience of doing every tasks with one hand inspired me to create a product that could take over the dumb labor for your hand. BareBag is about promoting independence and inclusiveness. It aims to solve the common problem of busy hands for all people.

To me, solving problem is the basis of design, and inspiring people is the true value of design.

I often ask myself “why we’ve been choosing x to solve the problem y?”,”What are the revolutionary designs in the history of x?” In finding the core demands of problem y and exploring new possible solution, I feel fascinated.

My favorite design is the Christian cross, not because the religious part of it, but because of its minimal solution of communication and connection.

My first design that commercially launched was Miror Light for Miror. It is an ambient lamp that projects 3D dynamic color flows onto a wall, creating touching, natural atmosphere for your space.

My favorite technology is 3D printing. It revolutionized my way of designing and make the process of design a lot more efficient and straightforward.

I feel most creative when I’m in shower, alone.

I tend to focus on the physical user experience more than anything else. I prototype a lot, so I can understand the detail experiences by touching the prototypes.

I feel excited, empathetic when designing.

When my designs are realized, other than proud, I am also a little bit anxious looking for the next problem to solve.

In my opinion, a design could be commercially successful, impactful successful, or both. But fundamentally, a design has to be understandable with a touching, unique, effective solution.

I would consider the innovative part of it. Is it unique? Is it novel? Is it effective?

Designers need to understand the life cycle of their designs in order to create with environmental responsibility.

The labor part is hopefully going to be taken by AI, things like modeling and rendering. The future designers need to be more aware of the society and the most contemporary technology in order to innovate.

I have not exhibit at any event yet. If possible, I really want to experience exhibiting at Salone del Mobile in Milan next year.

My design inspiration comes from observation. Constantly ask questions about the problems and solutions around life.

My design style is influenced by math, physics and nature, I tend to find a mathematically elegant approach when executing the details.

I live in both Brooklyn, NY and Guangzhou, China. The urban atmosphere definitely affected my observation.

I usually work remotely with my colleagues.

I suggest companies should very constantly communicate with the designer to maximize the efficiency of communication because insights often come during inspiring conversations. Selecting a good designer for the project, the company should understand not only the skill sets of the designer but also focus on the designer’s innovative nature through the interview.

I often start my design with a problem analysis, with an in depth understanding of the market user group. Then I tend to prototype a mockup to experience my hypothesis for the solution. The design evolves through a long prototyping/testing process, experimenting different materials forms, feedbacks, and so on.

The tissue box hung upside down in my kitchen. The ceiling light that’s also a fan with smart home control. My Bambu Lab 3D printer. Robot vacuum. My BenQ screen bar.

Every day is a significantly different day for me.

Also being a Yung designer myself I think it is very important to keep inspired, keep observing, and keep asking questions.

I think the gift of being a designer is to have the opportunity to create and innovative for the world. The downside, however, of being a designer is probably worrying about 1 million things yet you can only accomplish one or two.

Fail fast, learn faster.

Storytelling

My favorite tools are my 3-D printer and my sewing machine as I’m always prototyping.

Draw less, model less, talk more, make more, think more.

Depending on the scale of the project, A design can take from three weeks to three years in my experience.

Do people really need this?

Starting my own business expanded my view of the industry and everything.

currently my key clients are the disabled group of people which were also my target users. Previously, I’ve worked with clients like Leica Biosystems, BOSCH, Midea Group, and CDN Lighting.

I enjoy the time of having meaningful conversations with my colleagues about the detail execution of the products, how could it help people, and the overall big concept of the story.

I’m starting my own studio BareBag designing urban accessories aiming to solve the common problem of busy hands.

I love working as a team. Because we can always inspire each other and learn from each other, which makes our products better than anyone could design.

Yes, we have been designing the signature product for our company BareBag. With this cross body bag, we aim to solve the common problem of busy hands. BareBag is integrated with a beautiful, minimal carrying system. We hope it could empower people to do more with their hands, other than carrying weights.

My email address is johnsparkzk@gmail.com but also feel free to DM me on instagram @id.zheng

The key engineering challenge is to test endlessly to find out the most appropriate size and materials that are not only securely grab the most bags and umbrellas, but also appeals proportionately decent for urban fashion. we want the hook mechanism to almost disappear and become one with the body.

ButterSlide is the very first feature we want to achieve in the development of BareBag. Among the dozens of slider we bought on the market, we found it’s very difficult to achieve one-hand strap-adjustment while having a very clean and minimal form factor. The closest one might be the buckle commonly used on the bottom of backpack straps, but it still sacrifices visual simplicity, having a fairly long strap dripping down in the air. We tried buttons, magnets, springs, but eventually we took inspiration from the infamous butterfly mechanism keyboard, to design a foldable slider that looks just like another normal slider.

Sustainability been a big part of our design. Fully using reclaimed fabrics and recycled plastics has been our goals. while this generation of BareBag might not be able to 100% achieved this goal, we found utilizing 3-D printing technology could help us get closer to that at early stage. It’s not only easier to access recycle 3-D printing materials for production, but also easier to recycle the 3-D printed test models we produced during the development.

BareBag was initially designed to be a bag carrier for the upper limb disabled. As the product evolved, we discovered that it might be a feature that is universally demanded, Because our product solves the daily problem of busy hand, and everybody has that. Eventually, BareBag became an affordable prosthetics, an ergonomic bag carrier, and a fashionable crossbody bag. It’s really is a unique product that created its exclusive category.

I believe inclusiveness and empathy is a big part of adaptive design. That means sometimes the users might not want to be treated special, they need a good, equal experience. So BareBag never will look like an obvious prosthetic. It is a personal, functional fashion that serves the users’ confidence.

The most difficult part is to get the haptics and the smoothness of adjustment. It took us more than 8 months of engineering and testing to get it right. Difference between versions often is a quarter of a millimeter in the structural mechanism, but that tiny bit of material always makes a big difference in your hand.

I hope this could encourage more fashion designers to care more about life with limited experience, and how they can make that life more equal.

Making and testing is the most crucial part of our design process. For countless times we have to start over just because the model felt not good enough in the hands or doesn’t look good enough in real life. We really have to always see and touch that exact color in that exact material on that exact form to feel if it’s right on the human body. It’s probably the reason why it takes our team such a long time to develop the product.

I believe the future of adaptive design it’s about creating more integrated experiences that enhance the life of all people. The art is to almost imperceptibly bring equity to everyone. Just like how an accessible elevator works, with only a separate panel of buttons and an addition door that make all the difference.