Climbing chalk brand that appeals to a new generation of climbers.
Problem
Too many climbing brands feel similar when there is an opportunity for more expression.
Solution
Create a brand that feels unique and which climbers can use in the gym or in urban environments.
Many climbing brands position themselves in a way that is meant to appeal to the outdoor experience. To juxtapose this, Baneful Oni utilizes a digital aesthetic that feels more at home in the gym than in nature.
The brand system for Baneful Oni features many different icons that climbers can understand despite appearing abstract at a glance. The feeling of the icons is meant to emulate warnings that appear on signage and screens.
A clothing design was made to create a more complete brand image. With clothing options, fans of the brand are given a wider range of ways to represent themselves that extends beyond the climbing gym.
The back of the clothing features an intersection of street and cyberpunk aesthetics. Purposefully, the clothes do not necessarily reference climbing in an obvious manner. This was done to allow the wearer an increased number of contexts in which the attire should feel appropriate.
The website was designed to keep the cyberpunk inspirations in mind. The imagery is meant to reflect the pop-ups on a screen to contribute to the more mechanical feeling of the brand in contrast to other climbing brands' natural feel.
One key aspect of the design process was adding in a large amount of extraneous details that are not meant to be interpreted by the viewer as much as they are meant to contribute to an overall feeling.
This Persona was crafted to focus the project towards a target audience. This is a brand for enthusiastic climbers who want to show off their personality.
I wanted to look at the Black Diamond brand of chalk for the analysis. I feel like it has a similar modern feel, but the brand as a whole didn't meet all the criteria I was looking for in the Baneful Oni branding.
