about me
Bela Müller represents passion and expertise in cartography, storytelling, and motion design. He has honed his diverse skills through an impressive career that has taken him to a wide variety of media and organizations.
His explanatory videos have garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, while his work for Swiss television has reached an audience of millions through documentaries and news reports. As part of the NGO Genocide Watch, Bela Müller specializes in the visual representation of conflicts and uses his expertise to promote genocide prevention worldwide.
With a unique mix of creativity, technical know-how and social commitment, Bela Müller combines the rare combination of geolayer expert, Blender novice and passionate storyteller.
Resume
1997
Born
Birth in Bern, 3 months early but otherwise good
until 2019
Diploma
Fachmittelschule
"Fachmittelschule" and "Soziale Fachmaturität" in Solothurn.
2020-23
Diploma
Journalism
The great joy of studying during Corona has certainly enriched my journalism studies at the ZHAW. Over the three years, I took various courses, including data journalism, CMS, OSINT, organisational communication, journalism, writing and more.
I also had the opportunity to spend a semester abroad in Nairobi in 2022.
until 2023
As part of my professional orientation, I completed various jobs, internships and community service assignments and gained insights into a wide variety of working environments - from working as a teaching assistant in an asylum centre to kindergarten teacher, activation in an old people's home, kitchen assistant and community service assignments in a heroin dispensary in Zurich.
2023-24
During my journalism studies at the ZHAW, I taught myself GEOLayers 3 and After Effects, which surprisingly enabled me to start working as a visual designer at SRF. During my internship, I was quickly integrated into the daily news routine and created numerous explanatory videos, in particular animated maps - including with Google Earth Studio for SRF documentaries. I really enjoyed working under tight deadlines.
After the internship I was kept on, but couldn't stay any longer for budget reasons. Since then I have continued to work as a freelancer.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Since 2023
I have been working as a freelance motion designer and mapmaker since 2023, realising animated maps for various media projects. In addition to my freelance work, I have been a member of Pax Helvetica since 2023 and a mapmaker for Genocide Watch since 2024. In these roles, I combine my journalistic experience with my passion for visual processing and geopolitical analyses.
Work experience
Visual Design SRF
Arbeitserfahrung
als Freelancer
Expertise
I specialise in map animations with GeoLayers 3 and am adept at working with Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Illustrator and Photoshop. I also have knowledge of QGIS, the Google Earth Engine, Google Earth Studio and Blender and have experience in the preparation and conversion of geodata.
My journalism studies gave me additional insights into OSINT and CMS and trained me in research and fact-checking. I am also proficient in the Microsoft Office package with Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
Interests
I have a great thirst for knowledge that drives me to constantly learn and discover new things. My interests include satire, news, geography, politics, history, music, neurology, psychology, sociology, economics as well as video and map animation. I also have a great affinity for the African continent and the southern hemisphere in general.