Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesI can’t walk down the street anymore without seeing someone with a canvas tote. They have become the default choice for the environmentally conscious and have also provided fertile ground for graphic designers, illustrators and other creatives. I think I have at least 10 of them but only one of which I actually purchased. They just keep appearing either as gifts or freebies, which makes me wonder how earth-friendly they actually are if enough people have similar tote-bag-to-person ratios to my own. A couple years ago, Dimitri Siegel wrote an article on the Design Observer blog about this phenomenon and noted, “Just as the remarkable efficiency of the plastic bag ended up making it a menace to the environment, graphic design’s ability to generate options and choices may turn a sustainable idea into an environmental calamity.” It seems that sustainable design is not limited to just the materials that are used but also to the endurance of the design itself.
Bloomingdale’s brown-bag system may be made of paper, but the design has retained its elegance since being introduced in 1973. The small, medium and big brown bags were designed by Massimo Vignelli, who also designed the store’s logotype. The first of the series to appear was the “Big Brown Bag,” which was specifically requested by the linen department to “accommodate the increasingly larger … pillows and blankets that were becoming popular. The little brown bag, for cosmetics and accessories, followed naturally a year later,” according to the Bloomingdale’s Web site. Vignelli’s system may or may not have been created with a specific lifetime in mind, but its candid language and rounded letter forms create a humble charm that has transcended 40 years of fads; even when translated into a canvas tote.