Bronze Fashion and Travel Accessories Design · 2025
Onyx Backpack
- A' Design Award 2025 Bronze Winner in Fashion and Travel Accessories Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Ana Golubic Brozovic
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 33,291
- Verification code 76AE542B4A · Verify this award
About Onyx Backpack
The multifunctional design packed into a clear, simple shape is what makes the Onyx backpack unique and timeless. Onyx is expertly crafted from smooth leather and free from any additional heavy details. In the centre of the rectangular shell is a zipper that follows the whole length of the backpack. Two adjustable handles are strategically placed and can be turned so that the zipper faces the back of the person wearing it. This way entrance into the backpack becomes hidden and protected. The backpack becomes a safe and protected little cave.
Ana Golubic Brozovic's Onyx Backpack demonstrates accomplished synthesis of functional accessory design and refined visual presentation within the contemporary minimalist material culture tradition that privileges essential form, honest materiality, and understated sophistication over ornamental excess or ostentatious display, positioning the work within broader aesthetic movements toward essentialism, conscious consumption, and design restraint that have characterized progressive European and East Asian design philosophy throughout recent decades, the designer appears to engage thoughtfully with leather goods heritage while translating traditional craftsmanship vocabularies into contemporary minimalist formal language appropriate for urban professional contexts that demand versatility, durability, and quiet elegance, the compositional strategy employed in this presentation reveals considerable sophistication in product communication methodology, utilizing architectural elements as geometric framing devices that establish visual hierarchy while the human figure provides essential scale reference and lifestyle context that transforms pure object documentation into aspirational narrative suggestion, the dual circular portal openings function as both formal compositional elements creating bilateral symmetry and conceptual metaphors perhaps suggesting threshold, passage, journey, or transition themes inherent to luggage and travel accessories, the material selection and surface treatment demonstrate technical facility and understanding of leather's expressive range, the deep carbon black hue offering timeless versatility and professional gravitas while the pronounced granular texture provides tactile interest and visual depth that reward close examination, the minimalist formal vocabulary evident in clean geometric volumes, restrained detailing, and absence of superfluous ornamentation reflects design confidence and material honesty, allowing the inherent qualities of well-executed leather craftsmanship to communicate value without reliance on applied decoration or brand signaling, the vertical zipper closure introduces functional clarity and provides subtle linear accent that emphasizes the backpack's vertical orientation while the visible strap system suggests ergonomic consideration and wearing comfort, the chromatic restraint demonstrated throughout the composition reinforces the minimalist aesthetic positioning, with the cool-to-neutral palette establishing sophisticated visual coherence and allowing material texture and form to assume primary communicative roles, the powder blue garment selection proves particularly effective in establishing gentle chromatic contrast against the onyx leather while maintaining overall tonal harmony, the lighting approach favoring soft ambient illumination without dramatic shadow modeling reflects contemporary product photography conventions that prioritize material authenticity and surface legibility over theatrical drama, this work invites viewers to contemplate relationships between functionality and aesthetics, between essential design and excessive ornamentation, between personal objects and identity expression, and between traditional craftsmanship heritage and contemporary minimalist sensibility, how might the accessories we choose to carry daily reflect deeper values regarding material culture, conscious consumption, and the integration of utility with aesthetic refinement in contemporary urban existence?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Onyx, the minimalist style backpack, represents timeless design. Simple lines accentuate and pay respect to the beauty of high quality leather material. There are no heavy details, only functional design solutions. In the centre of rectangular shell is a zipper that follows the whole length of the backpack. Two adjustable handles are strategically placed and can be turned so that the zipper faces the back of the person wearing it.This way entrance into the backpack becomes hidden and protected.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Dimensions of ONYX are: Width 300 mm, Depth 70 mm, Height 400 mm. Two longer handles are adjustable in length: 500 - 1100 mm. Short handle is 300 mm long.
- Tags
- backpack, bag, simplicity, multifunctional, minimal design, raw material, leather, vegan leather, responsible, long lasting, eternal, fair made, safe
- Production Technology
- In production we put our biggest efforts into creating as little waste as possible, 0% is our goal. That is why cut has to be thought thru very carefully. Onyx cut is simple: two rectangular pieces for the shell, two long and one short stripe for the handles. Shell is padded with heavy cotton lining which has two small pockets. All these pieces are flexible and can easily be fit into the material so there is almost no waste. Onyx comes in real leather or eco, vegan leather version.
- Design Challenge
- I had an idea what the backpack should look like, I also knew how I want to make it multifunctional. It had to be practical and also look nice. Outside features were as equally important as inside performances and durability. Designing and prototype production was first challenge. Next challenge I faced was finding high quality leather, and last one was finding small family production willing to produce it. When all those challenges were met and successfully fulfilled, Onyx was ready for public.
- Project Duration
- The project started June 2024 and was finalised in July 2024, in Cakovec, Croatia.
- Operation Flow
- Multifunctional designs have always been my passion, and when they are supported by high quality materials and made in nature and human friendly environment, they become eternal. They live forever. Onyx is not only a backpack, it is also a safe little cave for all our daily necessities. He is our loyal companion in everyday life from work to casual stroll, from sightseeing to evening in the club. Onyx is not just a bag, it is important and precious addition to our lifestyle.
- Research
- Multifunctional, minimal design that gives more than eye can see is easily adapted into many styles. By removing all unnecessary details, what we have left is pure, simple design with accent on the raw material. I can choose if I want to make the big zipper visible and part of the design or I can hide it and leave only material and connecting stich to be seen. This is not just a visual decision it is also the one regarding safety of my belongings.
- Inspiration
- During everyday comute on public transport or while traveling abroad, I was often faced with safety of personal belongings. Backpack is always my first choice regarding the type of bag I carry around. It keeps my hands free, it is practical, it sits carefree on my back. Which is also a problem because its opening is out of my sight. That is how the idea of "hidden" zipper came to my mind. And it had to be packed into stylish, minimal design which adapts easily into many fashion styles.
- Image Credits
- Image #No 1: Photographer Mare Milin, Komad Collection, 2018., Images #No 2 - #No 5: Photographer Tomislav Brozović, Onyx, 2025.