school logos

[J. Pickard]

I've seen some old posts on here about individual school logos apart from major styles but it's always been about how "cool" it looks or just asking if anyone has a logo/patch outside of their governing organization. What I want to know for those schools that do is what does your logo/patch mean? For those that created yours why did you design it the way you did? Is there a specific meaning to the colors and symbols? Is it just an aesthetic choice?

I'll start. Our logo was created by our school founder in the late 80's and is filled with symbolism because even though he is a martial artist in practice, he is a philosopher at heart. The mountain is a volcano symbolizing growth from within. It is in the middle of a body of water referred to as "the sea of experience", this symbolizes experience honing and the individual shaping oneself through experience. This can also symbolize an importance to pressure test your knowledge and to let go of things that may not add value; as waves crash against a mountain in the sea it washes away all the weak parts of the mountain that couldn't stand up to the experience leaving only the strong parts behind.

So what about your school logo/patch?

 

[skribs]

My TKD/HKD school had a yin-yang symbol in red and blue (with white dots), and the words "Taekwondo" and "Hapkido" written in Hanja. I don't know that there's an underlying meaning to the logo.

My BJJ school just has a black circle with the school name in the center, and "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu" across the top and bottom (Brazilian on top and Jiu-Jitsu on bottom). Except for the text and a pattern around the outside, it's just a black background with white text.

I believe the TKD school I went to as a kid just had the circle part of the Korean flag with a silhouette of someone doing a side kick. Other schools I've looked at in my area just have logos that are more based on their name. For example, a school with Dragon in the name having a dragon; a school with Star in the name having stars, etc. That was my plan as well, was to make it Wolf Pack Taekwondo, and have the center of the logo be a monochrome wolf (before I discovered it might conflict with local school mascots with where I recently moved).

 

[J. Pickard]

My TKD/HKD school had a yin-yang symbol in red and blue (with white dots), and the words "Taekwondo" and "Hapkido" written in Hanja. I don't know that there's an underlying meaning to the logo.

My BJJ school just has a black circle with the school name in the center, and "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu" across the top and bottom (Brazilian on top and Jiu-Jitsu on bottom). Except for the text and a pattern around the outside, it's just a black background with white text.

I believe the TKD school I went to as a kid just had the circle part of the Korean flag with a silhouette of someone doing a side kick. Other schools I've looked at in my area just have logos that are more based on their name. For example, a school with Dragon in the name having a dragon; a school with Star in the name having stars, etc. That was my plan as well, was to make it Wolf Pack Taekwondo, and have the center of the logo be a monochrome wolf (before I discovered it might conflict with local school mascots with where I recently moved).

Interesting, you don't see too many wolves in martial arts logos. Why a wolf?

 

[skribs]

Interesting, you don't see too many wolves in martial arts logos. Why a wolf?

That was part of the reason. It makes me unique.

I think the two most common animals in Taekwondo school names are tigers and dragons. Tigers are solitary, and native to Asia. I wanted something that reflected more of a team dynamic, and Wolf Pack embodies that. It also brings it a bit more home for us, since wolves are much more common in America than tigers are. Dragons are mythical creatures. I personally prefer European-style dragons (bat-like) to Asian-style dragons (snake-like), and my personal opinion is that it borders on cringe.

A lot of schools just go by the teacher's name. My given name is very common and would be a horrible search term. My surname is difficult to spell and so would also be a horrible expectation for folks to search. "Wolf Pack Taekwondo" would be easy to remember, and probably only yield one result.