Vintage Over Digital: Alumnus Dan Cohen’s Voyager CD Bag Merges Music and Fashion

Bucking the trend of streaming music platforms and contrary to what one might expect of a member of his generation, musician Dan Cohen ’25 prefers listening to his favorite artists on compact disc (CD) and record players.

His research and experiences convinced Cohen he wasn’t alone among his peers, and for his yearlong thesis project, Cohen turned to two of his passions—music and fashion—to devise a stylish, portable and wearable CD player, coined the Voyager CD Bag.

“This is a response to Gen Z’s growing fascination with tangible, nostalgic technology,” says Cohen, an industrial and interaction design major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

“The world we live in is so screen-saturated and these new products can make you feel like you’re mindlessly using them. A lot of my peers are overwhelmed by this impersonal experience of digital screens. We want to sit down and have a more authentic experience while enjoying a sense of ownership, connection and intentionality.”

Since arriving on campus, Cohen noticed many of his peers skipped Spotify and Apple Music for the comforts and enhanced auditory experience associated with playing vinyl records and CDs.

Cohen says there’s something personal about interacting with your music instead of mindlessly going from one digital track to the next. And in a day and age of device overload, using a CD player provides an authentic, tangible listening experience.

Cohen’s crossbody CD bag fuses retro technology and modern style, allowing the user to step back in time and enjoy their favorite music thanks to a fully functional CD player that is skip-proof and water-proof. Down the road, Cohen would love to market and manufacture the Voyager CD bag, hoping to tap into a large audience that also enjoys vintage music technology that is both portable and convenient.

Embracing Market Research to Understand the Audience

Before Cohen’s vision became a reality, he studied the wants and needs of his intended audience to better understand the potential interest in his CD bag. He relied on a key lesson taught in his industrial and interactive design classes.

“Industrial design is about much more than just making the perfect product sketch. We’re taught to love the research aspect, to learn more about who you’re designing for and their experiences as a user. To truly know the people you’re designing this product for, you need to ask the right questions,” Cohen says.

Conducting market research to gauge the interest in his wearable retro technology, Cohen first interviewed industry professionals like Adam Carr ’02, director of industrial design at Bose Corporation, and Sean Christy, an industrial designer at McIntosh Laboratory Inc., a company that crafts high-end home audio sound systems.

Then, Cohen sent out customized surveys to two different groups of participants: those between the ages of 18 and 29, and those age 30 and older. He learned that while a majority of respondents enjoyed listening to CDs, they didn’t like the inconvenience associated with traditional CD players, and they craved a product that was both portable and looked trendy.

Convinced that his thesis was viable and would meet a need, Cohen set about designing his prototype.

A Passion Project Realized

Inspired by the Walkman and the Discman, Cohen wanted to create a prototype of a musical and stylish accessory that a user would want to bring with them everywhere they went.

When it came to the aesthetic component, he roamed the buildings and spaces on campus, observing trends to figure out which items his fellow students viewed as must-haves whenever they left their residence hall rooms and apartments.

“Bags are the big fashion craze. Everybody carried a bag with them everywhere they went, and I realized the best way to go was to insert or mount a CD player on the bag,” Cohen says.

The finished product? A fashionable grey bag with a zipper running across the top for the main storage section and an adjustable black strap. Mounted to one side is a sleek black CD player with a headphone jack and a zipper storage pouch for holding multiple CDs.

“People I shared the bag with were so excited at the prospect of a portable CD player bag,” Cohen says. “I had this vision of what I wanted it to look like, and I was very fortunate to create something that matched my vision.”

He says the biggest lesson he learned from the project was to trust himself. “While there were definitely some ups and downs along the way, this was my passion project and I’m proud of how everything turned out.”