WMA Poster Series

This was a concept at re-vitalizing martial arts branding in the United States. Martial Arts are immensely popular in the West, but one problem that seems to constantly occur is that people are not informed about the martial arts they claim to love. They care about the violence, the flair, the talent, but not the history. They also seem to not want to go and read long biographies on each of their favorite martial arts either. Thus, a solution that would teach the viewer a bit about the fighting style they see without them noticing they are learning more information was created. I sort of subtle, visual story telling in the form of branding for a tournament.

Inspiration was drawn from Japanese poster design where they often utilized the overlap of shapes and color to symbolize connections. Each fighting style combines 3 elements that make up the martial art from a historic standpoint. Water is the the symbolic representation of the Crane style of Kung Fu, the Amazonian palm is indigenous to the ecosystem of Brazil (which birthed Capoeira), the anatomy of the elephant and the authority of the Hindu God Garuda make up the foundation of Muay Thai, and the the Tiger is the widely known symbolism of Taekwondo. Further symbolism dives into the Religious background of the chosen martial arts and how they all revolve around some type of symbolic trilogy. That motif of a religious trilogy is echoed in groups of 3 in several ways: #1: The 3 visual silhouettes that signify the history of the arts. #2: the 3-sided triangle that creates the border of the date of the tournament. #3: the typography that makes up the 3 corners of the posters. #4: the contours of the position of each of the silhouettes creates an implied triangle which hits on the trilogy yet again.