Commitment

 Through the weeks that I've been working on this project I've been narrowing the list of things I want to solve about grocery transport more and more. I had started out with a laundry list of things I wanted to tackle like portability, compactness, commute efficient, separating fragile and heavy groceries and more. Now I've gotten to a point where I can pinpoint exactly three things I want this trasport to function as: collapsible, lightweight, and taking weight off of the body. As I talked about in my previous blog post I was started to explore how I could appropriate the collapsing mechanism of an umbrella into a cart form. Here I begin to experiment with that idea. The sketches below capture my initial thought process.

 Cart framework directly using the same mechanism as an umbrella. 

Moving away from the rectangle bag shape to a more triangular form for the sake for stability and ease of connecting the bag to the single cane framework. 

Exploring a more traditional umbrella shape with the framework supporting the bag externally

Plan view of the bottom of the bag. This is the form I plan to more ahead with for now. The bottom sketch quickly illustrates how the support poles attach to the vertical cane. 

At first I tried to modify existing umbrellas to see if I could wrestle it into the form I wanted.   

And studying the how the inner mechanism functioned.

The above three photos are my finished attempt at modifying an existing umbrella. Ultimately this approach was unsuccessful because the form was not as mallable as I had orginally thought and was hindering me from acchieveing the shape I wanted. 

This led me to experimenting with my own collapsing and expanding mechanism  Above is a quick study of how the hardware functions.

Above is a more refined method of collapsing a bag using the hardware I designed. From this point I want to continue experimenting with the appropriation of umbrella design to create a shopping bag that is rapidly expanded and easily contracted. 

Venturing into Frameworks

Since its been several weeks since I've updated my progress I will attempt to cover everything I've been doing since then. When last I posted I had created a couple different bag forms but I needed to expand out into creating the collapsible framework. Something, I admit, has been a bit more of a challenge for me. From now on I plan to work on the bag and frame in tandem to create more of a holistic design as opposed to an A follow B approach. 

Throughout my research and obsessively pouring over design blogs, I've always taken a lot of inspiration from tents and looking at the way entire structures can be collapsed very easily and become portable. Therefore I decided to try using tent poles themselves to create a framework with wheels for an existing reusable shopping bag. I was interested in using and slightly modifying an existing grocery bags because it would allow the user to only have to purchase the collapsible framework and not another bag if they already had one. so that the user only needs to purchase the framework and not a new reuseable bag. The in sketch below you'll see the simple fastener hardware I designed out of delrin to hold the tent pole framework up and the allow for the wheels to be attached horizontally from the same piece.

I wanted to add support to the bag for carrying heavy loads so I customized a sheet of plywood for a mock-up with two hinges on each side that allowed the wheels to connect to the board.

The tent poles link together to gain height and attach to the upper part of the bag with velcro fastens. The cart is ready to go.

The bag easily detaches from the framework and the poles collapse down. The shock-cord between the poles keeps all of the framework together.

This idea is obviously not fully resolved and there are a lot of problems with it. I don't think its a very convenient design because it asks the user to preform multiple steps before they have their cart assembled. I also think a sturdier design will be needed for the groceries. Therefore I'm putting this idea on hold for the time being and exploring other directions. 

After doing that exercise I began to wonder if the support I had added to the bottom of the bag could become the case for the bag itself. Below is a concept sketch of the idea. 

This is what I ended up with. 

The zipper allows the user to to take the support out and easily
wash the bag.

Recently I've been thinking about appropriating the way in which an umbrella collapses and expands. If an umbrella were turned upside down and the framework were modified could the canopy then become more bag-like in shape? If I can modify this design then perhaps I could make reusable grocery transports as lightweight and collapsible as the mini umbrellas show below.  

Switching subject a little, below are some concept sketches from awhile ago. I wanted to include them because even if I don't move forward with the designs I would like to have more products in a product line of grocery transports. These designs would be keychain collapsible and not attach to carts. 

Overall I'm still striving to create a design that combats this feeling

Bags

Its been two weeks since my last post and I've been able to experiment with different things and physically test some of my new bags. I decided to start with just working on the bag part of the design first to get a feel for the material strength of Tyvek and how it well it would collapse down.
Below is my first prototype. Its a modified design of Joanne L's strawberry reusable grocery bag design that you can find here. The bag has about double the volume capacity of a typical grocery store plastic bag and can shrink down into a keychain-sized pouch. When talking to users most people said that they have a hard time remembering to bring a reusable bag with them to the grocery so designing this keychain feature was important to me as an easy remembering device. I, myself, have a hard time being that organized before going to the store or sometimes it's an impromptu trip so I don't have reusable bags on me. I think the keychain aspect would work for some people but not for everyone because it is still is a bulky item on your keychain and would only allow you to carry a minimal amount of food.

This is what the bag looks like when it it unfolded from the keychian. The keys can then be easily tucked back into the flap of the pouch. This is pinched together with a simple zelcro fasten.

Second Prototype 

I wanted to make a slouchy sling bag because there is something comfortable about the form and I like that the weight can be distributed diagonally across the body. With this design I also wanted to experiment with how fragile items, such as bread, could be kept away from all other groceries to avoid damage. I sewed a small circular pouch (2 1/2 inches diameter) onto the outside of the bag. From the inside of the pouch outfolds a larger drawstring bag. The top of this bag is sown to the inside of the small pouch so the two can not become separated. To keep the drawstring bag from swinging freely there is a Velcro fasten on the bottom of the main bag.

 Going Shopping

I went to Kroger with my new bags. Although I used a car to get there I deliberately parked a block away so that I would have to walk and see how the bags handled the weight.
What I discovered is that Tyvek is very flexible and can stretch to take more food items than I was expecting- I was able to fit about a week and a half's worth of groceries into the two bags. However as soon as I had to walk with the weight I realized how Tyvek would never work as an overall material for the bags. Tyvek is so thin that when its put under weight pressure the straps bunch up and pinch to an isolated pressure point on your shoulder or hands. I could hardly make it to my car it was so uncomfortable  I also have to question why I ever thought the sling would be a good choice for a grocery bag. The bag kept obnoxiously hitting my leg with every step. It seems so obvious now that that was a bag decision  Needless to say, I learned a lot from the experience and I'm ready to move on with some new information.
Tyvek is durable, lightweight and collapses well but it is not suitable for strap material because of its thin nature and it also stains too easily to be an attractive grocery bag. Also, keeping fragile items outside the main bag is not the best way to protect them. Even though I thought the bread would stay pinned against the main bag it didn't take much for it to start swinging freely and therefore was not protected as all.

 These are the items that did not fit in my grocery bag design: large chip bag, frozen pizza, and a 1/2 gallon of apple cider.

During this next week I want to create my first prototype utilizing a wheeled trolley. I realized I had been avoiding the construction of the cart because I'm not sure how to tackle it and I thought I could figure out the bag portion first then upscale the design. Now I recognize both should be worked on in tandem. Mostly because of this conversation with my wonderful GSI:

"So you really want to do bags."
"No, not at all. I want to take the weight off the body"
"So why aren't you working on the cart part?"

"....I've been avoiding it?.."
"Uh huh."

Ok point taken. Thanks Jessica!  :)

The Start

I propose that moving your groceries from the store to your kitchen cabinets should not be a hassle.

I propose that after every shopping trip you should not be left with a sea of plastic bags, most of which will never be used again.

I propose that a food transport can be designed that allows you to carry at least a week's worth of groceries without the use of a car and without killing your back or shoulders in the process. 

I propose a method of separating groceries in which one can avoid the classic squished bread syndrome and fearing for his/her ratio of chips to crumbs once they get home. 

I propose that such a food transport can be designed to be lightweight and collapsible enough that one can always have it on them and break the vicious cycle of "I forgot the cavas bag again." 

As a senior at the University of Michigan I have a 7-month opportunity to design an innovative method for transporting groceries with all of the goals mentioned above. 

Therefore I propose to explore a line of lightweight, collapsible food transports for urban locations that provide the user with a stress-free shopping commute through the use of multi-functional design.  

I have surrounded myself with images of precedents and inspirations for the purpose of creating a well-rounded design. This include things like luggage design, which already has to address several of the issues I'll need to consider like compactness, maneuverability, and weight. I've also taken notes on products like the Go-Caddy which is a new food transport design that is being worked on right now by the company Quirky and allows its user to expand and contract the caddy to two volume sizes. Wading through grocery bag forums I've discovered great designs for cloth bags that fold up incredibly small from companies like Baggu, Flip and Tumble, Envirosax, RuMe and more. As far as other inpirations I've spent hours pouring through design blogs and take inspirations in anything from the foldable hiking shoe by Timberland to the two pound tent created by Sierra Designs.

After familiarizing myself with what has come before me I started experimenting with some form studies of collapsible design. I started with paper lantern design which utilizes a bellow form for compression. Its simple, it works and its been used over and over again by other everyday products such as laundry baskets, leaf collectors and even water jugs. I've played with other simple collapsible frameworks that fold up into a single line, discovering along the way that nothing is as simple as it looks. 

I've also taken inspiration from the work of Ernestto Netto and and way he uses the transformative properies of nylon to create unique and comforting sculptures and installations. 

Materials I would like to explore further are Ripstop Nylon and Tyvek because both are very lightweight, flexible, and durable.  

At the moment I'm starting to build full scale models. This process includes getting getting strangle looks from people at the local salvation army as I haul combinations of things like baby buggies and rollerblades up to the checkout. Now that I have some wheels to play around with, let the building begin. I expect to have three models constructed by the end of next week!