I love good graphic design. Did you ever used to browse in academic book shops and just wet yourself at Corporate Logo Design books as a kid? No? oh, just me then, ahem. Anyhoo, BJJ academy logos and patches are like corporate logos and a good design should reflect the ethos of the club as well as be recognisable and reasonably aesthetic. Like a tribal tattoo or heraldic war shield, academy logos help foster a sense of belonging and group togetherness and maybe bring fear to your opponent. Well that's the theory.
The original Gracie Brothers (Helio side of family) logo is a design classic. The big triangle shaped 'G', the little sporty men, the ability to tweek it with whatever text you want around the edges. Design-wise, it is perfection.
Some variations on the triangle theme from (clockwise top left) Royce, Rickson, Royler and the Gracie Sports range of clothing. Not sure the Royler one works at all, it's a bit cobbled together, but the Royce one is pretty cool, resembling an eye or tornado.
The original Gracie Brothers (Helio side of family) logo is a design classic. The big triangle shaped 'G', the little sporty men, the ability to tweek it with whatever text you want around the edges. Design-wise, it is perfection.
Some variations on the triangle theme from (clockwise top left) Royce, Rickson, Royler and the Gracie Sports range of clothing. Not sure the Royler one works at all, it's a bit cobbled together, but the Royce one is pretty cool, resembling an eye or tornado.
Not to be outdone on the big triangular 'G' theme, the other side of the Gracie family - Carlos Gracie Jr's Gracie Barra, has a similar logo, plus a cute Tasmanian Devil type character!
The club I train at belongs to the Roger Gracie network. The official logo (far left) was basically a big G that was not too Barra, not too Gracie Bros more somewhere in the middle which I suppose reflects Roger's family ties. But it was changed recently to the centre image, all soft curves and touchy-feely interlocking shapes - very sci-fi in my opinion. My club, Mill Hill RGA, preferred to retain the spiky 'G' and merge it with the old trad JJ war face logo (far right). It's pretty cool.Here are some more really cool BJJ logos:
From top left going clockwise: Taiwan BJJ - beautiful logo, merging Yin and Yang, grappling figures and a triangle; Carlson Gracie Team - fighting dogs, very much evokes their spirit; BJJ Scotland - a very cool manga style wolf; Beijing BJJ - Chinese dragons are always cool; Impact BJJ - cute kids paw print patch...I want one!!!!
Of course if ever I form my own club, I'm sure the logo could be something like this...
Meerkat BJJ logo is ABSOLUTELY vicious man!!! Let me know when that happens and I'm definitely up for the shirt!!!
ReplyDeleteYo Sey, I think that the Royce Gracie "Eye" is similar to the new BJJAGB; in that it is 2 Jujitsuka in a traditional Gi style hold, viewed from above; well that's what sensie Dixion said when we spoke about it. It looks prety much identicle to me. As for me, I REALLY like the MJJ logo, you just know you have to do some T's.
ReplyDeleteHaha, thanks guys, but wait until you see my next post. It'll contain chicken drawings.
ReplyDeleteI see now, the Royce Gracie design can be viewed on two levels. First, as a swirly 'R' but also as you say, overhead view of two grapplers.
Love this type of post!
ReplyDeleteI think it would be awesome to have a gallery of jiu-jitsu logos and / or shirts. It would make a very cool book for a coffee table (if you're a BJJ nerd).
I took a stab at something like that in this video. (Could've done better but it was not a lot of work).
Anyhow, again: cool post!
Some real cool t-shirts designs in the video, especially around 1:08 "Team Mach Real Fighter" showing a fearsome man-beast and Manga typography.
ReplyDeleteSince publishing this post I've seen a dozen more very cool BJJ designs so I'll be doing a follow-up at some point.
Cheers!
Have you seen judes one? thats my favourite so far... that and the one me and Nick made for the club ;)
ReplyDelete