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ABOUT THE PIECE
Halden had just finished a two-million refit and the main hall still felt like a warehouse. Grey panels, grey floor, grey ceiling. Members trained hard in a room that gave them nothing back.
We painted the full height of the climbing hall — a forty-foot ascent of stylised rock, rope and figures that climbs alongside the real routes. The brief was energy without noise. It had to lift the room without competing with the holds a climber needs to read.
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THE TRICKY PART
Painting around a working gym is its own discipline. Halden would not close, so we worked the four hours between the early session and the evening rush, six days a week.
Every colour had to be chosen against the route-setting tape so nothing confused a climber mid-problem. We mapped the mural to the wall panels first, painted in vertical bands from a rope rig, and held the palette to five colours so the composition still reads from the far end of the hall.
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HOW IT LANDED
The hall reads as one room now instead of a shed with equipment in it. Members climb past the mural every session and still look up at it.
We delivered the forty-foot hall mural, hand-painted lettering through the locker rooms, and a scaled colour system Halden now uses for signage and kit. Membership enquiries rose through the following quarter, and the club has since booked a second piece for the entrance.
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See More Work
