Honda: Great Journey | Map Project Office | London (UK) | By Lee Fleming

London's strategy-based industrial design consultancy Map Project Office (MAP), founded in 2012 by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby with Design Director Jon Marshall have recently worked with Creative Director Morihiro Harano to imagine future vehicles for Honda that use their latest technology and capture the spirit of the brand.

Aptly titled 'Great Journey', the collaborative project looks to imagine a comfortable and modern exploration of the planet. Human beings are instinctively mobile. We can trace our roots to the continent of Africa, where, millions of years ago, our ancestors began what archaeologist Brian M. Fagan calls "The Great Journey." It was a migration north into Europe, across Asia, and on to North and South America. A journey of over 50,000 kilometers.

The goal of the Great Journey project is to reimagine this journey, and propose how it could be made today using the latest technologies for human mobility. It was conceived as a journey of adventure that would also allow for the development of prototype vehicles that could travel virtually anywhere on the planet. Mori and MAP identified that travelling through grass plains, deserts, mountains, sea, snow and jungle couldn't be achieved by one vehicle without compromises to comfort and pleasure. Instead the journey was separated into seven stages with respective vehicles for each; allowing Mori and MAP to tailor vehicle design for each terrain and consider the needs of the environment for pleasurable travel and living. Models were made by Letchworth-based Ogle Models brought the project's designs to life while Petr Krejci helped create film sets representing the terrains.

To view more of MAP's work visit their website. Photography by Petr Krejci.