Red Bee creates typographic campaign for Wimbledon

The consultancy began working on the project about eight weeks ago having previously worked with BBC Sports on other projects.

Joe Lee, creative head at Red Bee, says, ‘We needed a piece that would stand up against all the other sport that’s on at the moment.

‘Everyone’s talking about a “Golden Age of men’s tennis” – so the brief was to look at the proposition that this was probably the most competitive Wimbledon in the last 30 years.’

The campaign shows the key characteristic of each of the top men and women players, demonstrating what could set them apart  and potentially result in their winning the tournament.

It shows the players playing characteristic tennis shots, with their bodies overlain with text that describe their playing style, past wins or traits. The animated typography follows the players’ anatomical movements as they are shown playing in slow motion.

All the typography was created by hand and rotoscoped manually, down to each racket string or strand of hair.

Lee says, ‘One of the great things we have access to is a massive archive of amazingly shot footage as the tournament is now shot in HD and with phantom cameras, so it’s very filmic in look and feel. We wanted to work with those clips to showcase the very best attributes of those players and what sets them apart.’

He adds, ‘It’s something quite different – we’ve seen that graphic approach in print but not really in film.’

The spots will be shown in the run-up to Wimbledon coverage, which begins on Monday, and runs throughout the tournament, which ends on 8 July.