I never gave much thought to the aesthetics of my backpacks; in fact I traveled with the same battered book bag for almost twenty years until it fell apart. But the folks at Eastpak think quite a bit about the art of the bag.

For the 3rd year running, Eastpak has given both established and up-and-coming artists the challenge of reimagining a blank backpack for their Artist Studio charity project. Over the course of the past year, 56 artists, in 14 countries, on 3 continents reimagined the humble, Eastpak Padded Pak’r ® utilitarian travel bag.

Now that the project is completed, the bags are available for sale, with all proceeds going to Designers Against Aids. You can see all of the backpacks on the Eastpak project site or visit their Facebook page.