Behind the Scenes at Toyota Logistic Design Competition 2018
We hope you’ve noticed by now, but we’re currently running the third edition of the Toyota Logistic Design Competition. A lot of effort went into planning, designing and building it, so we’d like to highlight some details that we are especially proud of.
Everything started with the competition theme – package delivery. The two previous competitions carried “tow tractors, industrial machines in need of a makeover” and “forklifts, like you’ve never seen them before” as a theme. But this year, the topic is one that’s transforming the world of logistics and also how we as consumers think about shopping. Because we are no longer buying exclusively in physical stores: we can find more and more answers to our needs in online shops, boosting the concept of e-commerce. This creates problems that so many of us experience: one being packages arriving late because of traffic, so that is why we want to see some fresh solutions.
Once we had defined this topic, we worked on the competition poster that we sent out to 135 design schools all over Europe. The poster is a schematic overview that describes the theme in a simplified way, showing different ways of transport, new and old for packages as well as people. In the center there’s a warehouse overflowing with packages that need to find their way to the customer, wherever they might be.
What might not be so obvious about the graphics is that several of the vehicles hold a special meaning. For example, the Shinkansen train is a nod to our Japanese roots, the Hanover tram represents the city of the award ceremony and the cars are Toyota classics (Hino, Hiace and Supra, which is also a personal favourite of one of us). And let’s not forget our own material handling icons, the classic BT lifter hand pallet truck and the Toyota Tonero engine-powered counterbalance forklift truck.
Based on the poster, we started to build our competition site step by step, complete with custom animations like the hot air balloon drifting in the breeze. Finally, we created a Virtual Reality 360 animation that brings the 2D elements from the poster alive in 3D and all angles. We are excited to be incorporating VR into our design process, so using it in the competition was an obvious choice.
If you haven’t seen the video yet, be sure to watch it on Youtube. It’s even better if you are viewing it on mobile or with a headset. And if you are a European design student, we’re looking forward to seeing your solution to the package delivery challenge! It’s very easy to submit your entry, simply click here.
