Meerkatsu Art: ADCC 2013 Angry Panda

ADCC this year was held in Beijing, China, over the weekend. Tatami Fightwear had several of their sponsored athletes attending the event and asked me (at the last minute!) to design a special rashguard just for the fighters to use in Beijing. The result was this angry panda pictured above. Some of you may recognise the design from an earlier incarnation...

The above version is a poster I sell on Redbubble - you can purchase my designs on the website as posters, prints and postcards.

I wanted to make a number of changes to the red panda to make it more impactful as a rashguard design so I basically redrew it all. I had to do it with one day's notice as Tatami had to get the artwork sent over to their factory in Pakistan immediately if it was going to make it in time for ADCC. With just over a week until the tournament, time was ticking!

Luckily, everything went smoothly. The factory printed the samples in one day then couriered them over to the UK whereby Tatami asked their Dutch representative, grappler Laura Hondrop (photo below) to pack them all in her suitcase and deliver them to the rest of the athletes in China!

By the way, the photos of the fighters were all taken by Gracie Magazine reporter Erin Herle who is also someone I helped create artwork for. More about her project in a later report.

The other Tatami Fightwear athletes that wore the rashguard include JT Torres and Pablo Popovitch.

Thanks to Erin for allowing me to use the photos above. If anyone wants to read about how the ADCC went, here is a summary report by MMAMania - Day 1 and Day 2. By all accounts, this year's event was full of the usual drama, upsets and spectacular action that always occurs at this premier submission wrestling event.

I hear 2015 will be in Manaus, Brazil.

Looks like Tatami Fightwear are now offering this rashguard for sale on their website.



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