When a luggage maker approached Romero Britto with the idea of putting his colorful artwork on a set of high-end fashion luggage -- at a time when both air travel and luxury spending were on the decline -- the South Florida pop artist had no doubts about how the market would react.

Britto, a South Florida painter, sculptor and designer known for his colorful, pop art pieces, has a track record of using jovial designs to help companies sell products.

The idea that people tend to spend more money when they're happy was not lost on Heys USA when the Miami company made the decision to adorn four sets of hard-side luggage with Britto's bright, high-gloss art about a year ago, Heys CEO Harry Sheikh said.

The luggage company's Britto Collection, unveiled at Britto's Miami Beach gallery this month, features a rainbow of candy-coated colors with hearts, butterflies and flowers sprinkled between sharp black lines.

Sheikh said the feel-good mood of the design has helped push sales of the luxury collection despite the current state of the U.S. economy with its high rates of unemployment and financial uncertainty. A four-piece set of the Britto collection retails for $1,060.

``This has really taken our brand to a whole new level,'' he said. ``We are now selling into accounts like Neiman Marcus. They put our name next to Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci -- that's major development for our brand. We've never seen anything like this in the past.''

He said there was a good chance the collection would be featured in Bloomingdale's stores later this fall, a major achievement for the 9-year-old company.

In contrast to the high-end design approach that Heys USA is adopting in the recession, at TravelPro in Delray Beach, designers are focusing on providing lightweight luggage at affordable prices.

The company recently released the Maxlite line, which it dubbed its ``lightest and most affordable collection to date.'' With this line, TravelPro is looking to establish itself as a budget-friendly luggage option, said Scott Applebee, TravelPro's vice president of marketing.

The idea is to tap into the market of frugal consumers looking to save on baggage fees and overweight charges. The company's 22-inch Maxlite piece weighs 7.6 pounds and can be reduced in size and used as a carry-on. It retails for about $120.

TravelPro has been actively marketing its collection of duffel-style carry-on luggage to travelers as well, Applebee said. ``More people are using carry-on luggage to avoid the airlines' checked baggage fees,'' he said. `` We are addressing this need by offering four carry-on models with Maxlite, including a unique carry-on sized rolling duffel bag.''

Heys is also looking to cash in on the market of light travelers, although its CEO says the company had focused on lightweight luggage long before airlines began raising fees. ``Heys is synonymous with lightweight luggage,'' he said.

The company's Xcase, a hard-side rolling piece launched in 2004, only weighs 5.4 pounds and is partly responsible for the young company's rapid growth during the past decade, Sheikh said. Another Heys product, the eScale -- a handle-shaped portable device that tells travelers how much their luggage pieces weigh -- has been selling rapidly since airlines upped their overweight baggage fees last year.

Heys is hoping its Britto Collection will help the company establish itself as a brand with revolutionary designs and a new outlook, company spokeswoman Marcy Schackne said.

Although the design team was thrilled with the colorful line, the company had a few qualms about launching a $1,000 luggage collection in the middle of a recession, Sheikh said.

In September, the company launched the Britto Collection exclusively on eBags.com for a month and got a glimpse of market reaction.

Peter Cobb, the founder of eBags.com, said the response was immediate and strong, something he attributes to the ``exotic'' style and spirited attitude of the design.

With 43,000 different pieces on the eBags.com website to choose from -- most of them plain black, customers are finding that Britto's collection provides them with a refreshing alternative to mundane solid-colored luggage, Cobb said. Two of the individual pieces sold well enough to make the site's ``best sellers'' list in mid-October.

``The interesting part was it's not a value priced line at all,'' he said. ``It's got a challenging price point. In these times, you could say the price point could possibly deter some purchasers, but I think it's so unique and well done, that people are willing to pay the price for unique luggage.''

Britto said he hoped that by putting his art on luggage, he'll be able to bring smiles to people all over the world. ``I do understand that there is so much [negative] stuff going on in the world, but I don't want to repeat that in my art,'' he said. ``I want my art to inspire people to carry on every day. I hope that my art can be like music to people's eyes.''

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