Map is the embodiment of the modern creative consultancy; a team of designers and makers whose work blends seamlessly with cutting edge digital tech. In 2012, Map became the latest addition to the Barber & Osgerby and Universal Design Studio family, being co-founded by Edward Barber, Jay Osgerby and their studio director, Jon Marshall.
Since then, Map has worked with a wide range of clients from Google, Panasonic and Yamaha through to start-ups such as SAM Labs, BeeLine and Hackaball. Marshall’s vision for the practice has come out of his grounding in industrial design, materials and model-making.
At B&O, he helped develop projects including the London 2012 Olympic Torch and he has taken his 12-strong team into some interesting collaborations that reflect a change in client demands over the last few years for creating tangible objects and artefacts, as opposed to screen-based projects. “A lot of our work is about making technology, or things that are about progress, feel familiar,” he says.
From the Kano computer kit and the Insensi family phone system, to the recent series of films Map made for Honda looking at the potential of automated vehicles – a workshop and materials store at the heart of the space the company shares with the other studios enables them to think and make in the same building. Map’s thoughtful, timely and brilliantly-executed work adheres to Marshall’s own assertion that “the role of design is to provide function, but also to delight people”.
BELOW: Recently released video featuring Honda’s seven concept cars, designed to travel over a variety of terrains
