The Buzz re-design was one of the most challenging pattern-crafting
tasks I’ve taken on recently. Customers asked for a new Buzz that functioned, fit and looked as much like the old Buzz as possible,
but with space enough for a *much* bigger laptop. Imagine for a moment
that you are an interior designer, and a client wants you to re-model an 800 square foot studio apartment and turn it into a 1200 square foot three-bedroom flat. That’s sort of how I’ve been feeling with this one: “make it bigger but only on the inside.”
Simply enlarging the whole thing bigger wasn’t going to work, since it would very quickly start to look too big on one’s back and no longer have the comfortable fit of the Buzz. To make it taller and yet still carry like the original Buzz took some topological twisting
and pinching, including a major re-shaping of the shoulder strap and a completely new internal “boot” for the laptop. In the end it was many small tweaks that worked: and that’s the New Buzz.
– Tom
