A number of months ago I stumbled across a blog that featured photographs and lists of the things that people carry with them each day. Everyday Carry is simple in principle, viewers send in photographs showing what items they carry on their person on a daily basis and the photos are posted for everyone to see and discuss.
Everyday Carry or EDC, to quote the description given on their site,
Everyday Carry, or EDC, generally refers to small items or gadgets worn, carried, or made available in pockets, holsters, or bags on a daily basis to manage common tasks or for use in unexpected situations or emergencies. In a broader sense, it is a lifestyle, discipline, or philosophy of preparedness.EDC is seemingly becoming a trend amongst some people and it is being taken very seriously with enthusiasts upgrading their carry to be prepared for any circumstance. Looking through the entries on the site I began to develop an interest in the concept and despite the affinity towards carrying guns (it is an american site) it was very interesting from a designers point of view to see what people were carrying with them on a day-to-day basis.
I thought I'd do one of my own. An industrial design student's carry. I decided to go beyond the normal format of showing your personal carry and delve deeper into what I have in my bag as a designer. This moves onto another trend of "What's in your bag" or WIMB where people show the contents of their bag and often the bag and the owner. This allows a very interesting insight into what people all over the world use every day. WIMB is a growing trend also and is very relevant on flickr with groups dedicated to it here and here along with a very specific group for users showing what they keep in their camera bags which is especially interesting to me as a photographer and a photography equipment nerd.
I did the photo above around the time when I originally discovered the Everyday Carry blog and I blogged about it at the time albeit on my own blog (which is suffering now since I am updating the Curve blog!) I am including some of the write up from my last blog after the jump. . .
Recently stumbled across this blog EVERYDAYCARRY … (when i say stumbled across, I didn’t actually STUMBLE across it, I think I was actually reading ZITE at the time (which is awesome by the way) and there was a featured post from EDC there). Anyway, browsed through this blog a bit, noticing everyones attraction to knives and guns… but ignoring that over compensation it was very interesting to see the things that people carry on a day to day basis and what they consider preparedness. Especially as an industrial designer this was interesting. Anything to do with people’s habits and things that people do with products and what products they use interests me. But anyway, I realised I was quite similar in terms of preparedness as people on this blog. I have previously done a “What’s in my bag” before, a while ago…here. Thought i’d do a new one, going along the theme of EDC and thinking about the posts on EDC where most people post only things they carry in their pockets or on their person. I have divided the image up and have a section of on my person and then the rest in the bag. I had the camera set up so i shot a quick video of assembling everything into a nice neat order.