Sometimes people keep the bag longer than the product it carried. Whether they’re paper sacks to carry products home from a store, promotional totes for a brand or event, or fashionable handbags, personalized bags are more common now than ever before. Both environmentalists and marketers love them for the very same reason… they’re reusable.
But if you want your bag to be saved and remembered, it needs a stellar design. That’s why we went through our community of freelance designers and selected the best choices for bag & tote design. It doesn’t matter if you need a design for cloth, fabric or paper—these ten designers below have it in the bag.
How to get the best bag design
—
Typically, to hire a designer, you review the candidates and chose the one you like best. But for something that relies so heavily on visuals like bag & tote design, you might want to see a few options before deciding. That’s when design contests work best.
Design contests work like this: First, you describe what you’re looking for in a quick brief. Then, freelance designers from all over the world show you concepts based on what you wrote. After that, you pick your finalists and give them some feedback so they can fine-tune their submissions. Finally, you choose the one you like best. If you’re still unsure of what you want your bag or tote to look like, a design contest lets you see which ones you like.
Learn more about bag & tote design contests –>
However, if you already know what you want your bag design to be, you can just look below and choose a designer who matches your style.
The 10 best freelance bag & tote designers to hire in 2021
—
-
5
-
T-shirt
-
Logo design
-
Illustration or graphics
-
Sticker
-
Logo & brand identity pack
-
Clothing or apparel
-
Other clothing or merchandise
-
Other art or illustration
-
Logo & social media pack
-
Stationery
-
Product packaging
-
Postcard, flyer or print
-
Other design
-
Merchandise
-
Business card
-
-
Product label
-
Poster
-
Logo & business card
-
Cup or mug
-
Brand guide
-
-
9
-
Logo design
-
Logo & brand identity pack
-
Card or invitation
-
Logo & social media pack
-
Illustration or graphics
-
Other art or illustration
-
Logo & business card
-
T-shirt
-
Product label
-
Clothing or apparel
-
Social media page
-
Other design
-
Postcard, flyer or print
-
Other clothing or merchandise
-
Merchandise
-
Logo & brand guide
-
Product packaging
-
Other packaging or label
-
How did we choose these as the top bag designers?
—
Bag design is more than just printing a picture on a bag. Some require business-focused design, others require fashion expertise, and all require getting the right size on a restrictive space. Unless your image is designed specifically for a bag or tote, you’re going to lose some of its effect in the end.
With that in mind, we chose the designers above based on a set of criteria attuned particularly to bag design. Here’s what we looked for:
1. Design quality

First of all, at 99designs we vet every freelance designer that joins our community, regardless of their specialization. An expert from our team reviews their portfolio to gauge how well they apply conceptual thought, technical execution and knowledge of design principles. Our staff then assigns the designer one of three levels.
- Top Level
- Mid Level
- Entry Level
Each designer’s level is shown in their portfolio, so you can easily see whether you’re looking at a frontrunner or a newcomer.
2. Bag or tote design experience
What makes a designer good at bag and totes? In a word, experience. On top of overall quality, we also looked at each designer’s history in bag design, selecting only those who ranked well in past bag design contests and who received excellent client feedback.
3. Professionalism
Being a good designer is more than just being good at design. We listened to what previous clients had to say and chose only designers that communicated well throughout the design process, met deadlines and were reportedly good to work with. These are just the bare essentials to be considered one of the best.
Are you ready to hire an extraordinary freelance bag or tote designer?
—
If you’ve ever gotten a bag too beautiful to throw away, you know first-hand the importance of bag design. If the ten best freelance designers above didn’t match you vision, you can still search through our pool of top designers for the style you envision.