Essentials was created to complement Daniel Eckler's Kickstarter campaign for a better backpack. It worked. With 25 days to go, the campaign had received over $53,000 CAD in funding compared to the goal of $20,000.
The backpack, developed by Mijlo, is designed to be sustainable, timeless and simple. The Essentials website focuses on these traits as well. Eckler notes that "it was important to us to come up with a creative way to showcase the amazing contributions from our talented friends".
So they spoke to their friends and asked a hundred global creatives to take photos of their essentials, the items they couldn't live without. The caveat was their style had to be as timeless as the bag they pack it in.
The site is responsive and built with HTML5, CSS3, web fonts and, of course, JavaScript. Data-* attributes are used to dynamically pull data into the page to ensure the user never has to leave the page but without the overhead of the information all residing in the DOM.
Words: Rick Clark
Rich is head of interactive at KMP Digitata. He's the founder and curator of HTML5 Gallery, and editor and author for HTML5 Doctor. This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 251.
