Need a messenger bag?
Seagull Bags is a small Columbus-based company that makes (what else?) bike messenger bags and accessories. I've wanted to get one of their bags for a while, since the satchel that I currently use is designed to carry vinyl records, and can't easily hold the stuff necessary for a work commute.
Well, this story actually started last year(!). While browsing the Seagull Bags website, noticed that they didn't have any sort of "preview" feature for ordering their custom bags online. I had been tinkering around with Flash for a few months, so figured I might be able to offer some sort of a trade - "programming a bag preview widget in exchange for a messenger bag" sort of thing. I also already knew Dan McKewen, the owner of Seagull, through church, so I already had an "in." Well, Dan liked the idea, and I started mucking around, trying to create a Flex app that would be a suitable order form replacement. I actually got pretty far, in spite of my lack of knowledge regarding Flex. What held me up was that I needed some good photos of messenger bags to use in order to create a "preview" of each custom bag. Dan promised me some, but he was always busy, and the project got pushed to the back burner.
Fast forward to July of this year. Out of the blue, Dan said that he had photos for me, and the project lurched from the grave. It had been so long since I'd touched any sort of Flash/Flex, I didn't want to keep trying to build on what I had previously created. Since my current job had me doing a lot of Javascript and jQuery, I decided to re-build the order form using Javascript. Javascript also had the added bonus of being accessible to Apple's iOS devices.
There were a few delays (such as me trying to publish my first iOS game and the birth of my daughter), but the form eventually got done! I think it works pretty well, and gives you a decent preview of what you're getting before you plunk down some of the cold, hard-earned. Check it out at the Seagull Bags site.
UPDATE: They just posted a picture of my bag on Facebook. Awesome!
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