Markus & Daniel Freitag (designers)
Markus (born 1970) was trained in visual communications as a part of exhibition design and had worked in commercial display. His brother Daniel (born 1971) was trained as a graphic designer. Using old truck tarpaulins, used car seat belts and bicycle inner tubes in creating their bags they established FREITAG in 1993 in Zurich, Switzerland. They created products which are each unique and totally new in design, and it all began with finding aged material which possessed flavor and some quirky cutting. In 1993 the prototype of their first model F13 was accepted in the collection of the museum of design zurich and in 2003 the same model was accepted into New York’s MoMA design collection. They again drew attention in 2006 when they used old cargo containers to build their 26m tall flagship store in Zurich. The brothers, who love to surprise people and make them happy, amazingly get along well with each other and their various projects which they work on together are getting lots of attention.
FREITAG
FREITAG is a bag brand out of Zurich, Switzerland. Using old truck tarpaulins and other recycled material they create handmade bags that are unique and unlike any other. Currently they produce over 40 products including bags, wallets and soccer balls. They have 5 directly-run flagship shops (Berlin opens in May 2009) and their products are sold in 350 retail partners worldwide. FREITAG was established in 1993 by the brothers Markus & Daniel Freitag. Today there are about 75 employees plus a large-scale warehouse & factory and offices in Zurich’s industrial zone. FREITAG was introduced to Japan in 1996. From the beginning to today, FREITAG does not use advertising, even in Switzerland or Japan, but uses the product itself and the people who use them to get their concept across.
Website: http://www.freitag.ch/