Around the World in Seven Vehicles
Great design ideas build great brands, a principle embraced by Honda with their latest design concept to promote driverless vehicles.
The idea is simple: design a driverless vehicle capable of ferrying passengers in style around the world, tracing mankind's migration from the plains of Africa up to Asia and across the ocean to North and South America. The designers, led by Map Project Office and Morihiro Harano of Mori Inc, quickly realised that this epic journey cannot be made in a single vehicle. Instead they designed seven vehicles, each tailored to a specific type of terrain. We particularly like the Safari Drifter, a camper van lookalike complete with a roof-mounted viewing platform which can be attached to a hot air balloon for a more elevated view. Even creature comforts are catered for, hence the hammock at the back of the Island Hopper amphibious vehicle and the integrated hot tub of the Tundra Sled which, rather improbably, is powered by a team of husky-like wheel / drones.
These fun and fantastical designs, brought to life with stop-motion movies created by Petr Krejci and Ogle Models, may seem whimsical but nevertheless serve to showcase futuristic technologies under development at Honda, including driverless vehicles, fuel cells and drones. Above all, they inspire us to dream about the future, which is what great design can do.
Links
http://mapprojectoffice.com/work/honda/
http://www.oglemodels.com/honda-great-journey/
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Product Inspiration
Furniture with imaginative designs and interesting inspirations make wonderful talking points. The Chubby Chic armchair from Diesel Living, Twine coffee table from Casamania and Toadstool sofa from Missana all tell their own stories.
The Lampscape suspension light from Frederik Roije, the Mini Mikado floor light from LZF and the Cave table lamp from Moustache are similarly evocative of their inspirations.
Inspired by travelling? You will no doubt enjoy the Cosmic Lunar sugar jar and spoon set by Diesel Living, the Superbag backpack by Nava and the Mini Speedy Le Mans toy car from Playforever.