Community designed handbags. Artist inspired, community shared. Together we can take a story that is significant to you and express it in a designer art bag. The community impacts which designs will become a Significant Journey bag by voting for their favorite. The artist whose design is selected for a limited edition series receives a royalty fee. Significant Journey also gives back a portion of the sale to help aid microloans for women to start their own business.
What's In Your Bag?
Great attention to detail is placed in every Significant Journey bag. The materials are researched for fair trade practices making sure they protect human rights and the environment. We use Toray Ultrasuede® for the base of our bags. We believe Toray Ultrasuede® is the best material on the market for handbags surpassing any other fabric for luxury, appeal, performance and ease of care. Unlike leather, no animals are harmed in production and it uses 100% recycled ultra-microfiber. Toray Ultrasuede® is easy to clean and extremely durable making it perfect for handbags.
We are dedicated to American craftsmanship and use highly skilled artisans to construct Significant Journey bags. In fact every bag is signed by the artist whose design is on our bags and the craftsman who makes it. Our philosophy is both are artisans who take pride in making Significant Journey bags tailor made just for you.
The Journey Begins With…
An inspiration or just something you would love to have your bag say about you. Here is an example of a bag designed by Kathy Lengyel. Kathy took this photo of a water lily from her garden pond as an idea for a bag.
She transforms that idea into digital art creating a peaceful artistic rendition of the water lily. She picks a denim blue color palette for versatile appeal. See Artist Submission Guidelines for design specs of each bag style.
She downloads the tote template from the Artist Submission Guidelines. The bag templates are Adobe Illustrator .ai, Photoshop .psd and .eps files. The template art is actual size of bag to help artists see how their design will look on the bag
Kathy opens the tote template in Adobe Illustrator and places her artwork in the center area. She selects the color of the sides, bottom and handles based on Significant Journey color choices. See Artist Guidelines for saving and submitting designs.
Anyone interested in designing art for Significant Journey must first join the SJ Community. From there they can access the Artist Submission Guidelines which tells them all the policies and procedures. This is not a handbag design contest, it is an opportunity for talented artists to get their work on a handbag. Significant Journey reviews all art and only post designs for voting that fit the company's missions and values. We let the community have a say on what designs are placed on a Significant Journey bag. Only members of the SJ Community can access the Share Stories & Designs area and vote on the design they like best and would consider buying.
The artist's design can be reproduced digitally as a textile print or finished in embroidery or applique. When the artist creates a design they inform Significant Journey how they would like to see the bag created. Significant Journey will review the art and give their recommendations. Not all artwork is suitable for embroidery. Below is a sample of both digital textile print tote and embroidery/applique tote from the same design. Now that you see how much fun this can be, take a look at how you can participate.
