As a freelance designer I always have a ton of stuff to carry around with me. Recently I decided it was time to get a new messenger bag that could better meet my needs than the leather one I was using. Now, when it comes to making purchases, I’m a little picky. So of course when it was time to look around at bags it was no different. I looked around at just about every company out there. Most of the bags were either too cheap in quality, or just plain ugly. Then I looked into the company Booq. They have bags that are exactly the style I was looking for. They are made with creative professionals in mind. Tons of pockets, and the style of the bags is classy but not boring. I chose to go with the Folee 2 messenger bag. Keep reading for my full review.

Cost

So they aren’t exactly giving these bags away. They’ll run you just over 200 bucks. I figured it’s worth it. I use it every day, and expect it to protect my Macbook Pro and all my other toys, so it’s worth the investment.

Material

The black material of this bag is one of it’s best features. Working in the city and taking public transportation has it’s pros and cons. One of the biggest cons is getting stuck walking through the rain. The rain runs right off the black vinyl-ish material of this bag, keeping everything on the inside nice and dry. The zippers even close over themselves, keeping them from being exposed.

The outside is obviously black, which is perfect in my opinion. Professional enough to bring to a meeting, but still very stylish. And if you aren’t sure if it’s exciting enough, you pop open the bag and see the brightly colored inside. Love it.

Features

One of the features that this bag has is called Terralinq. Your bag has a serial number, and you register it online at terralinq.com. Then if you lose your bag (not recommended), whoever finds it can report it and you’ll get it back. At least that’s the thought.

The thing that really makes this bag great is all the compartments, flaps, and pockets. I have a bunch of stuff I always carry with me, and it’s as if this bag was made with me in mind. There is a flap on the front that has magnets to keep it from flopping around. This is where I keep my iPhone, wallet, and anything else I need to quickly grab as I’m on the move.

The inside has two sides with multiple pockets. This is where I keep my camera, books, scheduler, etc. There is a clip for your keys, a zippered pocket, and stretchy side pockets. One of my favorite things is the large pocket that the charger for my Macbook fits into perfectly.

The back of the bag has the slot for the Macbook Pro. It fits the 15″ perfectly, and keeps it from sliding at all. Behind that is another pocket, perfect for a magazine. The very back has a flap to slide the bag over your rolling luggage. I would’ve left that off the bag if I was the designer, but I guess there’s worse things in life.

There are two side pockets, which I suppose would be a good place to keep an iPod or small headphones. I really think there is no need for these pockets since there are so many other places to store stuff. I never use them.

Pros

• Waterproof Material
• Tons of compartments and pockets
• Terralinq system
• Fits Macbook perfectly

Cons

• A little pricey
• Rather wide (front to back)

Here’s a pretty cool video showing what fits in the Booq Folee bag.

Four hours in the chair, and the outlining is done. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to start the shading. I’ve decided to stick with black and grays instead of doing any color. I saw a painting the other day at the California State Fair. The painting was black and grays with no color. Artist Michael Sly explained the reason for this choice to not use color

“My palette choice is black, white, and three shades of gray. I feel once the artist introduces color to the painting it eliminates the viewer’s imagination; everything is identified for them.”

I agree with that theory, which was the reason I chose to use grays. Here’s some pics from my first session in the chair. Check back for updates in a couple weeks!

UPDATE: I started the shading..check out the new pics here!

Well the day finally came

… the re-design of my personal website BeantownDesign.com is complete! Well, complete enough to launch I should say. A TON of hours went into this latest version of my site, and I can truly say I’m pleased with the results. I liked my old site, but I had too many new features that I wanted to try out, as well as a new look.

Some notable features of the new BeantownDesign.com include:

• JQuery pop-up boxes
• JQuery images sliders
• Live Facebook style chat
• Twitter feed pulled onto site
• CSS drop nav with image replacement
• Smooth Scroll for “TOP of page” links
• Animated Favicon
• Google Map

There is still some work to be done with the site. There are problems with transparency of the pop-up boxes in Internet Explorer, the Twitter Feed has some problems with Explorer, etc. Did I mention how great the Firefox Browser is lately? Download Firefox here!

So there it is! I hope you’ll go check out the site.. BeantownDesign.com, And as always, I appreciate any comments, advice, suggestions, etc.

ilz out

The point of this site is to show off new technologies and tricks I find, use, or think are interesting. Think Smashing Magazine, or WebDesignerWall, a couple of my favorites.

Enjoy the site, and send any comments, tricks, or ideas my way.. Thanks!

Mike