The world renowned Torelló Mountain Film Festival asked us to create a graphic campaign for their 27th edition. Our approach asked attendees to question the narrative surrounding the ecological issues in Alaska and the Yukon.
Cinema has a long history of unearthing stories, both old and new, so we decided to tell a story to the attendees of this year’s festival – the reality about what is happening in the North American regions of Alaska and the Yukon.
This territory has been in danger for many years but the Pebble Mine project in Bristol Bay presents a new danger – threatening to extract the area’s natural reserves of oil and minerals.
The project’s goal is to build a gold and copper open pit mine but ecologists claim that constructing it in an area known for its high frequency of earthquakes makes it an environmental disaster waiting to happen. With the potential to pollute the water in the Yukon river, in turn it would destroy one of the richest freshwater salmon habitats in the world, having a devastating effect both on the ecological balance in the region and the local economy and culture. This is simply too high a price to pay.
In order to communicate this complex but timely story, we created a visual identity via a series of gold coins which – if produced in the real world – would have a negative effect on nature. Each design features a different species that relies on the salmon population to exist – asking further questions rather than providing answers. Ultimately attendees to the festival went away with a greater understanding of the situation and a deeper appreciation of the problems being faced in Alaska and the Yukon.
#stoppebblemine @savebristolbay
Special Thanks to
Meghan Barker from Stop Pebble Mine
Ezequiel Pini from Six&Five
Fundació Festival Cinema de Muntanya
Oriol Morató
Bloc Multistudio Comunity
Paula Rodriguez
