The Zanzibar Bag
We love happy accidents and this bag is one of them.
In 2018, we took on a pro-bono branding project with The Liberty Project in Mozambique, a non-profit working with vulnerable and exploited women on their journey toward independence.
We were supposed to travel there to celebrate the work together and help implement the brand we had developed. Bags were packed, materials were loaded, the team was ready and twelve hours before our flight, violence spread across the country and we were told to cancel. It was a huge disapointment, but instead of staying put, we chose to keep going as a team and make the most of the time we’d set aside.
And that’s how we ended up in Zanzibar.
Our existing tickets took us through Tanzania and Zanzibar became the next best option. The days that followed weren't planned. We wandered through fishing villages, spoke to families we met along the way, and let curiosity shape our time there. One afternoon, a fisherman invited us into his home for a meal. His boat was moored outside, and its sail immediately caught our eye. We asked if we could buy it.
He said yes, we brought it back to Abu Dhabi with us. And then... nothing.
It sat in our warehouse for years. Not because we forgot about it, but because some materials carry too much meaning to rush into a project. We knew it had another life in it; we just didn't know what it was yet.
This year, we finally cut into it.
Meet “The Zanzibar bag”.
Made from the original sail, with offcuts of leather and solid wood, the bag is designed as a portable workspace. Its slim, flat profile carries small calipers, markers, samples, notepads, and everything else that travels with a designer as they move from one project to the next. The canvas is left largely untouched, keeping its natural texture and the marks it gathered over time. A diagonal section of the original orange sail runs across the front and continues inside the flap, while a simple leather handle is held in place by turned wooden discs.
Every member of our design team now has one, part bag, part memory, part story.
What once crossed the Indian Ocean now continues a different kind of journey. Here, in Abu Dhabi.