Monday, June 23, 2008

Laptop sleeve design

I bought a new laptop a couple of weeks ago and have been searching for an interesting travel case for it. There are endless utilitarian black cases on the market and some outrageously expensive coloured ones. I have been toying with the idea of making my own case using fabrics padding and the deconstruction of an old leather coat, but never seem to have enough time to work out the logistics of it

Then I came across Skooba Design. They have produced a cream coloured Skooba Skin laptop sleeve that I can draw my own design on! There are some designs shown on the site and I love this Muppet drawing. The possibilities are endless, and it could be a perfect marketing tool for my art as well as a design piece in itself. I could create a main drawing looping around the sleeve or do a series of small ones. I could incorporate the shape of the bag into a drawing.

Markers are used to create the designs from what I can understand at this point but it may be open to experimentation. However, I would imagine that markers would be the most permanent solution to a bag that would be handled. I wouldn't want my efforts disappearing after being used a few times or being caught in a shower of rain.


I've ordered one of the bags to fit my new laptop and now will have a week or 10 days to wait while it ships from New York. Meanwhile I can play with designs and figure out what I will draw on the sleeve once it arrives.

I did a little more research and found a number of websites that offer unique designer laptop sleeves.

Then there are the 'do-it-yourself' laptop sleeves to create.

Knitted Aran laptop sleeve
Laptop bag
Felted laptop sleeve

And not forgetting the Macs

AirMail
Wrappers

I have finished my 1460 portrait. I'm not 100% pleased with it, as I haven't been able to get a good smooth dark background. And it looks even worse once scanned. But I'm calling it done and don't want to fiddle with it anymore or it will just get worse. As well the tooth of the paper has taken all the graphite that it can hold so there's no point in frustrating myself.

4 comments:

Rose Welty said...

Jeanette, the portrait is lovely! You've done a tremendous job on it, even if the background bugs you - I'm not sure it will bother anyone else. It looks great.

Making A Mark said...

It's very you! How well satisfied are you with the self-portrait aspect?

How funny about the Arran sleeve - it seems very Canadian!

Jeanette Jobson said...

Thanks Rose. Like most artists, I find ways to pick my own work apart. However, the background definitely isn't the smoothest but looks ok from a distance.

There are aspects of the portrait I could change but overall I'm happy with it. I think the face is too long - the nose more so, but I'm not going back and redoing anything.

Oh yes, keeping your laptop snuggly warm on those cold winter days...lol

Jo Castillo said...

Jeanette, you look great back in the old days!

My husband and daughter go for a backpack design for the laptops. I go for an old fashioned semi hard one like a little suitcase with zippers and various pockets.