The Blog

Mexico City, March 13th 2009 (GMT -6h) – Here I am, finally, on the tierra del Tequila, after a 12 hours chaotic flight spent in the middle of a group of french rednecks. Although the flight was ok, the temptation to bail them out over the North Atlantic Ocean was really hard to resist…  but I managed to make it there and even to survive the Mexican customs!

So I’m now here standing in front of the luggage carousel, waiting for my suitcase together with the other 450 passengers of my flight…

Despite the fact that we have accepted nowadays the need to traverse shoeless, beltless and beverageless through airport security, most of us still can’t stave off baggage carousel gridlock by bringing along anything other than a black roller bag. I’m among the guilty who assumes that my beat-up Samsonite stands out due to a few strands of green yarn I’ve affixed to the handle.

But all this is about to change with MyDotDrops, an innovative concept to customize your luggage. Using the snap-on microdots that come with the bags, you can send a message to TSA and your fellow travellers that says you love, among other things, America, martinis or aliens.

Customization goes like that:

1st, you choose the base color of your case:

2nd, you start your own design (unless you are already happy with one of the designs proposed on the website):

3rd, you save your design and check out (or only save it if you want to rework your design, ad other designs or check out later):

here are some designs I did this afternoon (quite addictive to do your own 15×11 pixels drawings!):

As if that’s not enough, each purchase is accompanied by a DIY toy by French company Artoyz. With several styles of suitcases, an exclusive toy and lots and lots of dots, you can really make a personal statement.

Let’s just hope that the guy who loads and unloads your luggage won’t like it as much as you do…

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links: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/05/pixels-go-mad-the-celebration-of-pixel-art/

I don’t want to buy a Mydotdrops suitcase, but I want to know more on how to easily identify my suitcase in an airport baggage carousel: http://www.ehow.com/how_2143398_identify-suitcase-airport-baggage-carousel.html