Onyx Backpack | Winner Designs
Onyx Backpack by Ana Golubic Brozovic

Onyx Backpack

Bronze A' Design Award Winner 2025

Ana Golubic Brozovic's Onyx Backpack demonstrates accomplished synthesis of functional accessory design and refined visual presentation within the contemporary minimalist material culture tradition that privileges essential form, honest materiality, and understated sophistication over ornamental excess or ostentatious display, positioning the work within broader aesthetic movements toward essentialism, conscious consumption, and design restraint that have characterized progressive European and East Asian design philosophy throughout recent decades, the designer appears to engage thoughtfully with leather goods heritage while translating traditional craftsmanship vocabularies into contemporary minimalist formal language appropriate for urban professional contexts that demand versatility, durability, and quiet elegance, the compositional strategy employed in this presentation reveals considerable sophistication in product communication methodology, utilizing architectural elements as geometric framing devices that establish visual hierarchy while the human figure provides essential scale reference and lifestyle context that transforms pure object documentation into aspirational narrative suggestion, the dual circular portal openings function as both formal compositional elements creating bilateral symmetry and conceptual metaphors perhaps suggesting threshold, passage, journey, or transition themes inherent to luggage and travel accessories, the material selection and surface treatment demonstrate technical facility and understanding of leather's expressive range, the deep carbon black hue offering timeless versatility and professional gravitas while the pronounced granular texture provides tactile interest and visual depth that reward close examination, the minimalist formal vocabulary evident in clean geometric volumes, restrained detailing, and absence of superfluous ornamentation reflects design confidence and material honesty, allowing the inherent qualities of well-executed leather craftsmanship to communicate value without reliance on applied decoration or brand signaling, the vertical zipper closure introduces functional clarity and provides subtle linear accent that emphasizes the backpack's vertical orientation while the visible strap system suggests ergonomic consideration and wearing comfort, the chromatic restraint demonstrated throughout the composition reinforces the minimalist aesthetic positioning, with the cool-to-neutral palette establishing sophisticated visual coherence and allowing material texture and form to assume primary communicative roles, the powder blue garment selection proves particularly effective in establishing gentle chromatic contrast against the onyx leather while maintaining overall tonal harmony, the lighting approach favoring soft ambient illumination without dramatic shadow modeling reflects contemporary product photography conventions that prioritize material authenticity and surface legibility over theatrical drama, this work invites viewers to contemplate relationships between functionality and aesthetics, between essential design and excessive ornamentation, between personal objects and identity expression, and between traditional craftsmanship heritage and contemporary minimalist sensibility, how might the accessories we choose to carry daily reflect deeper values regarding material culture, conscious consumption, and the integration of utility with aesthetic refinement in contemporary urban existence?

The multifunctional design packed into a clear, simple shape is what makes the Onyx backpack unique and timeless. Onyx is expertly crafted from smooth leather and free from any additional heavy details. In the centre of the rectangular shell is a zipper that follows the whole length of the backpack. Two adjustable handles are strategically placed and can be turned so that the zipper faces the back of the person wearing it. This way entrance into the backpack becomes hidden and protected. The backpack becomes a safe and protected little cave.