Forme x Barryland
Barryland is the world’s only theme park entirely dedicated to the Saint Bernard. Twenty-two thousand square metres in Martigny, in the Valais – a project run by the Barry Foundation, guardian of a 300-year-old legacy deeply rooted in Swiss heritage. When the park closed its doors for a full year of construction and reopened with a new building and a completely rethought visual identity by agency Forme, the reopening was more than an inauguration. It was an event.
To accompany it, Forme commissioned Imaginastudio: two films, two phases, one director. Julien Nicaud signs the entire project, from the quiet teaser to the grand announcement. Two formats, two tones, one figure at the centre: the Saint Bernard. Majestic, endearing, slightly unpredictable.
Phase I plays the intimate and sensory card: short capsules made for social media, where the iconic animal is groomed like a star, in near-meditative silence. Phase II takes the opposite approach. Full creative freedom for Imaginastudio, bold concept: let the dogs tour the museum before the humans arrive.
Two complementary films. One prepares the eye. The other opens the doors.
A campaign in two acts
The context
After a year-long closure for construction, Barryland was relaunching more than a venue: a promise. Agency Forme, tasked with the full rebrand, commissioned Imaginastudio to create two films to accompany the reopening: from teasing to official announcement. A two-stage brief, with two very different intentions.
Before the opening, nothing is said. Things are shown. Hands brushing, a hairdryer, a bow tie being tied. The Saint Bernard prepares, in silence, like a star before their premiere. Short capsules, tailored for Instagram and TikTok, that play on curiosity without ever revealing too much too soon.
Once the doors open, the register shifts. Full creative freedom for imagina.studio: we proposed letting a dozen Saint Bernards tour the museum before the humans arrived. A broader film, somewhere between elegance and gentle comedy, where every shot tells both a place and a character.
Teaser
Concept
Image
Son
Fashion ASMR capsules that transform a grooming session into a ceremony. The Saint Bernard isn’t a dog being prepared; it’s an icon being revealed. The tone is deadpan, the execution meticulous. Somewhere between luxury advertising and a fashion shoot, with just enough humour to let it breathe.
Ultra-tight framing, soft white light, almost clinical. Each capsule opens on a barely identifiable detail: a flank of fur, a paw, a muzzle. The reveal builds shot by shot, until the final full-length frame. The Saint Bernard looks at us. With dignity.
No dialogue. The rustle of fur, a brush stroke, the hum of a hairdryer. A tactile, meditative atmosphere borrowed from the ASMR world, slowing the scroll without demanding attention.
Designed to work alone or as a series, the capsules are optimised for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. They were also deployed as e-panels in public spaces.
Phase II - Corporate film
For Phase II, Forme gave us full creative freedom. The brief: announce the opening. We could have made an institutional film. We chose to start from the project itself.
The new Barryland was conceived, from its very architecture, as a place built for dogs. Not a museum where Saint Bernards are attractions. A space designed around them, so they feel at home, where humans come to join them in their world. That idea became the film: let the dogs explore their home before anyone else.
A dozen Saint Bernards, Barryland medallions around their necks, wander through the rooms of the new building with a curiosity that is equal parts solemn and endearing. Julien Nicaud brings a slow, considered direction that follows the rhythm of the dogs as much as the architecture of the space. The camera follows, watches, pauses. One tilts its head before a portrait of its ancestors.
This isn’t a guided tour. It’s a claiming of territory. And an invitation.
