I want to write about something that you might not have thought about before in regards to your fandom purses, something known as design placement.
Every bag has a design, even if it’s as simple as a solid color, although I can’t think of a time when a fandom bag was nothing but a single color. Bags inspired by fandoms have designs on them which make it obvious, even if the designs are subtle, what fandoms they were inspired by. This can be a print, the shape of the bag, or a combination of both.
Some bags have what I call static designs, meaning that every single bag will look exactly the same. Below is an example of a mini backpack with a static design.
There are a lot of fandom bags with static designs but not all. The rest have what I call all-over prints.
All-over prints are ones that repeat a design all over the bag and it’s unlikely that any two bags are the same because of this. The Forbidden Forest design by Vera Bradley is a great example of what I’m talking about.
As you can see in the image below, this design repeats over and over. It was inspired by the Harry Potter fandom so it has elements of that world on it.
The potential problem with all-over prints, and the reason that you should care about design placement, is that every bag made from this kind of print will look different. Some will have your favorite part of the print on the front but many won’t.
Below are three examples of the Triple Zip Hipster bag by Vera Bradley from their Forbidden Forest Line. All are the exact same purse, but the design placement makes each of them different.
FORBIDDEN FOREST DESIGN – BUCKBEAK
The design focus of this bag is Buckbeak the hippogriff. You can also see Fang and Hedwig, but my eyes go to Buckbeak first.
The two sections above the zippers have parts of a thestral and Buckbeak, but you can’t really make out anything clearly from these areas.
FORBIDDEN FOREST DESIGN – FANG
The design focus of this bag is a tree and Fang, Hagrid’s pet dog. You can also see Norbert, Hedwig, and part of a thestral. If you look really closely in the upper left corner you’ll see Scabbers hiding there.
The first of the two sections above the zippers have Hogwarts castle and Hedwig, and the top one has part of Fang. I like the way the middle section looks, Hogwarts is perfectly placed there, as is Hedwig, and I think it makes the bag more interesting to look at.
My eyes find this a very pleasing layout of creatures and foliage, so much so that this is the purse that I bought. You can learn a bit more about the two bags that I bought here.
FORBIDDEN FOREST DESIGN – HOGWARTS CASTLE
The design focus of this bag is Hogwarts castle. You can also see Hedwig, Trevor, Aragog, and a thestral. Personally, I was turned off by the giant spider *Shudder* and didn’t want to look at it, but I suspect that many Harry Potter fans would like this layout.
The two sections above the zippers don’t show much other than a part of Fang. I don’t care for how these two sections look because I can’t really make out anything.
BUYING ONLINE VS. IN A STORE
Buying a bag with a static design is a safe thing to do no matter where you go to buy it, online or in person. The bag that you see in a picture is what your bag will look like. But when it comes to an all-over print, it does matter if you care about design placement.
It is always a risky thing to buy an all-over print from an online store. The exception to this is eBay when a seller shows you the exact item that you will get. Be sure to ask if the item shown in a picture is exactly what you will get before you buy on eBay if the seller doesn’t mention this in the description.
If you are able to buy a purse with all-over print from a physical store then you still want to keep this issue in mind. It’s easy to grab the first purse that you see without taking the time to examine it to make sure you like the way it looks. Also, you can ask an employee if there are more in the back so you can compare all of their purses to find the one you like best.
Now you know why it’s important to think about design placement for fandom bags. Is this something that you had thought of before reading this article? Also, which of the three designs do you like best and would have chosen for yourself? Let me know in the comments below.