The Map Of Life;

An Illustrated Journey

Forrest Gump said that life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. He got that right, making it one of the most popular movie quotes of all time. Life is rich and varied (well it should be, if you're doing it right) and we are subjected to the bad segments as well as enjoying the good.

Recently following a rather traumatic bout of 'life', two married friends of mine decided to take three months off work to travel the world; giving themselves a break from recent stresses and living life to the fullest. You never know how long you may have left and if you can embark on exploration and adventure right now without risking your financial future, then you should definitely take that bull by the horns rather than wait for a future that may never transpire. Carpe diem as they say.

As well as the physical journey they'll be indulging in a mental journey too, in that it's also going to be a time to reflect on career and life choices and explore potential new directions while they simultaneously explore the beautiful flora and fauna of Bali and other distant lands.

Rather inspired by their journey I speculated on how I've always enjoyed looking at maps, and indeed as an adult have travelled fairly extensively myself, thus suddenly decided to draw a 'Map of Life'. The Map of Life is an illustrated map that visualises some of the trials and triumphs that many of us encounter on this thing called life.

I've showcased below the illustrated map scene, and it's product applications within the Taylor Two online gift shop.

I will also leave you with an extract from one of my favourite poems, which is IF, by Rudyard Kipling.

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 

    And treat those two impostors just the same; "

Hopefully the scenes in the map are fairly self explanatory. They represent what many of us experience over our life time. The full wraparound design is available on the hip flask shown below and available to buy online.

My favourite segment of the illustrated map scene is 'Adventure Bay' and therefore this section has been printed onto a badge.

Here we see our sailboat embarking on an exciting new journey, hopefully not fraught with too much danger, for you see I could not resist adding in a Cyclops from The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, one of Sinbad's many adventures at sea.