Your research task this week is to evaluate the success (or failure) of your self-initiated project and to consider its relationship to your own personal practice, interests and creative identity.

Think about what worked, what didn’t work and what you would do differently next time.

Evaluation: CozyCarry

Looking back on my project, I think CozyCarry was a real success in capturing what I wanted it to represent, a sense of home, comfort, and familiarity that travels with you. It started as a personal idea, something rooted in my own experiences of travelling and feeling homesick, and it grew into a design that feels true to me both as a person and as a designer.

One of the things that worked best was how well the idea aligned with my values. I’ve always been drawn to simplicity and emotional design, and the CozyCarry reflects that perfectly. It’s multifunctional, practical, but still soft and personal. The nostalgic influence, inspired by early 2000s childhood blankets, gave it a warmth that connected directly to the theme of home. The research I did around backpackers really helped solidify the concept too. Knowing that two-thirds of backpackers are 20–25 years old, and that 45 million trips are made every year, confirmed that there’s a genuine audience for something like this.

The design itself came together really naturally. I’m really happy with the colour palette, the white base with peach trim feels clean, calm, and gender-neutral, but still warm. I think it balances that feeling of home comfort with a sense of travel really nicely. The practical features like the sand pockets, quick-drying fabric, and foldable structure all add to its functionality, which was important to me. The name, CozyCarry, and the tagline “Home comfort, world ready” felt like the final piece that tied it all together. It’s simple, memorable, and says exactly what the product is about.

If I were to do it again, I’d want to spend more time testing materials and making a full physical prototype. Some of the fabrics I looked at were either too heavy or not soft enough, and I’d like to explore sustainable options that still feel comforting. I’d also want to test the design with real backpackers, seeing how they use it, what features they actually value most, and how it could be improved from a travel perspective. I think that kind of feedback would make a big difference.

I did struggle a bit with trying to include too many functions at once. The multifunctional idea is what makes the product unique, but it was easy to overcomplicate things. Next time, I’d probably simplify a little, focusing on the blanket’s emotional role first and letting the extra features come second.

Overall, I’m really proud of how CozyCarry turned out. It’s a product that reflects who I am as a designer, thoughtful, emotional, and practical. My work often circles around ideas of home, identity, and comfort, and this project feels like a natural extension of that. It’s something I could easily imagine developing into a real brand in the future.