Making of TOMO - Transportation Design Project | IED Torino

Tomo is the thesis project produced by the 13 students of the two-year Master in Transportation Design at IED Torino, a venue of the network that has attracted young people from all over the world and educates them to become the designers of the future.
Just like in an automotive design centre, the Japanese company asked students to work on a brief, Honda next "fun" driving, with the aim of designing what they think should be the ideal means of transport for young people in the next six years. Months of planning and extensive research on key values like friendship, fun driving and respect for the environment led to the creation of Tomo, an electric concept car halfway between a smart device and a mobility tool that combines the needs of free time leisure outside the city with the demands of working in an urban setting. A vehicle of this type, designed to be a faithful companion of its user and able to adapt to his or her wishes and needs could only be called Tomo – friend in Japanese – to underline the image of a vehicle that contains everything that the user needs in everyday life, inside and outside of the city.

TOMO’s design (length 3997 mm - width 1893 mm - height 1556 mm - wheelbase 2690 mm) is the result of a research oriented towards the product, its functionality and its youthful appearance. In Tomo the traditional barriers between the exterior and interior of a vehicle exist physically but are conceptually eliminated: the coupé volume and the functions of a mini pickup are in fact “masked” by an external appearance that is both fashionable and youthfully urban. The interior is therefore designed to offer experiences in line with the easy, friendly setting of the screens, steering wheel and head-up display on the windscreen. The exterior, on the other hand, is shaped around these functions, becoming almost an empathetic, identifying a wearable device that adapts to the urban or suburban setting. Tomo was designed for a new market segment where age doesn't count. It aims to attract the interest of new generations who increasingly have a non-traditional occupation, who want to experience their car in a fun and useful way. These are people for whom the environment, ecology and sustainability are fundamental values to build their futures on.

Honda selected the design of Ricardo Alejandro Campos Ortega (Mexico) for the main concept idea exterior, and the work of Rudraksh Banerjie (India) as main concept idea interior, which were both then further developed together with the other students of the Master in Transportation Design for the 2017/18 scholastic year: Tanmay Madhukar Chavan (India), Michele Corneliani (Italy), Shobhanjit Das (India), Alexander Marcel Fröse (Germany), Xiaole Ge (China), Ramón Emmanuel Hernández Cortés (Mexico), Tianchen Huang (China), Sameer Aminullah Khan (India), Saketh Nalla (India), Jay Shrikant Nibandhe (India), Yu-Jie Wang (Taiwan).

The Master in Transportation Design of IED Torino is coordinated by Alessandro Cipolli with the collaboration of Davide Tealdi, IED lecturer, and under the supervision of Luca Borgogno, Design Director Automobili Pininfarina, IED Transportation Coordinator.

Tomo was built by EDAG Italia
Technical sponsors: AM Costruzione Modelli, Clinic Car Italia, Freeland.car Srl, OZ Racing, Pirelli.
Istituto Europeo di Design thanks Honda for the fruitful partnership conducted with passion, enthusiasm and a constant presence.

The main idea behind Tomo was inspired by a manga story created by the Master students in Transportation Design a.y. 2017/18.

More info:
http://www.cardesignschool.it/
https://www.ied.it/sedi/torino
https://www.ied.edu/profession/ied-an...