This infographic visualizes the fun and often complicated journey of finding the perfect bouldering shoe. As a newcomer to bouldering myself, I faced several challenges when buying my first pair of climbing shoes. It became clear that there were many more factors to consider than I initially anticipated. To make the process easier for other beginners, I created this infographic as a guide to help navigate these decisions. The target audience is beginner-level climbers focused on bouldering. It’s designed to be displayed as a poster in climbing gyms or featured as a full-page spread in sports magazines.
Mockup of the final version of the poster
I began by brainstorming and outlining the content for each section. For the visual style, I chose an informal, doodle-like aesthetic to keep the design approachable and playful. This led me to start the initial sketches on paper, a departure from my usual digital-first process. Exploring this new approach allowed me to rediscover the joy of traditional sketching, which brought a fresh perspective to planning the composition. Once the hand-drawn version was complete, I transferred it to Procreate using an iPad and Apple Pencil. Here, I made adjustments to color, layout, and text to improve clarity and enhance the friendly tone, while staying true to the original concept.
Here's the before and after:
Paper version
Digital version
The central character—a friendly climber—was adapted from a previous illustration I created for a friend’s article on mountain sports. I refined the character’s design to suit the needs of this infographic and updated the color palette to complement the overall style.
First version of the climber character
The following video is a time-lapse recording from Procreate that showcases the back-and-forths of the process and the evolution of the digital graphic from start to finish.
Video of the process: from paper to digital on Procreate.
In the future, I envision this infographic being used in real-life settings such as climbing gyms or specialty equipment stores. I believe it has the potential to guide beginner climbers in a fun and accessible way, making the process of finding the right bouldering shoe smoother and less overwhelming.