Creative entrepreneur Lisa Robertson has been inspired to
design a collection of hands free bags after years of fruitlessly searching for
an attractive replacement for the ugly belt bag she had worn to keep her
valuables safe during travelling.
Now Lisa has quit her job as a commercial director in IT and
is concentrating full time on her Lisa Lemon hands free bag venture. And she’s
just begun a £5,000 crowd funding appeal to launch her first collection.
“For many years when I’ve been out and about travelling,
when I needed to either keep my hands free or keep my precious belongings close
by, I used a rather ugly old belt bag,” said Lisa, from West Bridgford, near
Nottingham. “After looking around for an alternative I found there was nothing
on the market and that’s how Lisa Lemon hands free bags was born.”
Her initial design, in two different colours, is now
available, but Lisa has just started a crowd funding appeal to launch her
collection, with two new designs added to the range, plus accessories. She
hopes to raise £5,000 from the Kickstarter appeal which has just gone live and
will run for 30 days.
“You need more than one design for a collection and I am
delighted to have added two more to the range, plus some accessories,” she
said. “With the help of backers, I hope to produce my first collection of bags
and accessories for both men and women.”
The stylish bags are made in the Midlands, from luxury Italian
vegetable tanned leather, and are designed for the savvy traveller, the
fashionable festival-goer or anyone who’s out and about and needs to keep their
personal possessions safe.
“Lisa Lemon hands free bags are gorgeous, expertly
crafted, leather bags which fit snuggly around the waist,” explained Lisa. “They
are not designed to be discreet or hidden away. They are statement bags, happy
to be in the limelight.
“Each bag has an internal phone pocket and clip to keep your
keys and Lisa Lemon accessories safely attached inside your bag.”
Recent statistics show that each day over 400,000 incidents
of pick pocketing occur around the world and the internal clip and accessories
ring will give some peace of mind when you're out and about, added Lisa.
After studying graphic design in Derby, Lisa worked for a
number of design agencies in Nottingham, including a spell co-running her own
agency with a partner. She has also mentored design businesses and graduates
from creative courses at Nottingham Trent University. More recently she has
been on the commercial side of business, working in IT as a commercial
director.
“I always had this yearning to go back to doing something
creative,” said Lisa. “Someone said to me ‘you need to do something that feeds
your soul’ and that resonated with me.”
Lisa has had some excellent feedback from those who have already
used Lisa Lemon hands free bags.
“A group of girls from West Bridgford took one to Leeds
Festival and they thought it was great,” she says. “A friend took one to
America and said it was invaluable. She described it as being like her third
hand. I used mine on a visit to Australia and it was perfect. I wasn’t
stressing about having my bag stolen. All my valuables, like my purse,
passport, phone and tickets were attached to me, which gave me peace of mind.”
The first bags in her range, in orange and purple, are
described by Lisa as statement bags. Of the three new bags, two, in blue and
tan, are smaller and softer, and can be worn in a variety of ways. The third is
large enough to carry a mini tablet. It’s made from soft brown leather and can
be purchased with or without the belt.
Kickstarter is a way to fund creative projects, which allows
people to pledge money to project creators to help support their ventures. The
idea behind the initiative is not new – Mozart, Beethoven and others used
similar schemes – but now crowd funding is being given a boost by the internet,
with thousands of projects launched every year. Funding on Kickstarter is
all-or-nothing and projects must reach their funding goals to receive any money
from those who have pledged to help.
Lisa’s Kickstarter appeal for Lisa Lemon hands free bags offers
pledges from £5 which will entitle backers to a thank-you and exclusive
discounts on future products, up to £123 for a textured brown leather bag, with
internal phone pocket and clip together with a textured brown leather belt with
smooth leather inside, which can be worn with the brown hands free bag or as a
belt.
To find out more about Lisa’s Kickstarter bid visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/224065690/lisa-lemon-hands-free-bags-launch-the-first-collec
She has worked with a range of creatives in Nottingham to
compile a video, which was shot around Nottingham Trent University, and to
create a portfolio of photos. Video production film and edit was carried out by
Julius Ayodeji, Nottingham Trent University course leader in BA (Hons) Art
& Design Media Practice, third-year BA (Hons) Art & Design Media
Practice student at Nottingham Trent University Matt Mahjouri, with studio product
photography by Honey Read Photography, Nottingham.
Lisa’s website is http://www.lisa-lemon.com/
Press release issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk
