Turning Bern into a boulder topo, frame by frame
For the World Climbing Championships 2023, Mammut made a film about a part of climbing history that rarely makes the record books: urban bouldering in Bern. Less a sports film than a look at city culture.
For this documentary, I built the visual language: illustrations and hand-drawn titles, grainy and bold. The drawn layer backs up the film's argument and gives the project an identity of its own, on screen and off it.
The city as a topo
Every climbing area has a topo, and so does Bern: an unconventional city map with every climbable spot numbered. Bridges, facades and towers are sketched like boulders, each line marked in red.
The legend says it all: fakultativ verboten.
Chalk on the footage
On the stills, the drawings climb along. Chalk lines trace the moves across concrete, and handwritten notes jump in here and there, adding movement and a layer of 90s graffiti.
Of all the buildings you see, how many do you touch?
The film came out for the World Climbing Championships in Bern, and the drawn layer went with it: from the screen to the posters and the event. Made by hand, for a film about using the city by hand.
Film: Hannes Tell, Alice Martin, Lando Pföst. Photography: Hannes Tell, Andera Vescovi, Fabian Arnold.
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Giving creativity a bold visual language