BLOC ARCHIVE


Bouldering is an esoteric sport with a rich history, wide-ranging vocabulary, unique cultural references and complex numerical systems used to categorize climbs. Bloc Archive is a community project focused on sharing climbing content with an emphasis on the details, and a social platform bringing attention to bouldering related art, design and culture.


The brand’s visual identity draws inspiration from boulders with bold, rigid typography, organic iconography and an earth tone color palette. Video overlay templates provide a system for communicating the technical rating, style and location of bouldering routes from different climbers. 


 
Bloc’s word mark needed to feel heavy and substantial. After rounds of type exploration, Kubik by Good Type Foundry was modified to create a word mark that represented the massive scale of boulders and small, intricate handholds. 

Next, I developed iconography to represent the various traits of the climbs themselves. The icons were developed in an organic, mirroring the hand-drawn notes scribbled in guide books for various climbing areas.



Production Type’s Stratos was selected as the primary template typeface for its legibility at small sizes and rigid form.
The phrase “Ascension To Detail” aptly summarized the aspirations of the project and was added as a sub-line.




Video overlay templates for climbing footage for feed