To many people, a logo is a very personal and private matter. We hold it near and dear to our hearts and display our affiliation and commitment with staunch pride and zealous enthusiasm. We cheer on our contemporaries and share an immediate familial bond with our predecessors and successors. In our darker hours, we turn to it for support and guidance and when all is right in the world, we gladly drop all of our past squabbles in exuberant celebration and party under it like there is no tomorrow.
To a martial artist, the logo represents home and family. It represents where we meet others who experienced the same growing pains, the same lessons, and share similar opinions on training. The logo illuminates the only place where we can truly be ourselves.
To a martial art studio, it not only connects the time-tested fraternity of training but it also allows outsiders to recognize and associate themselves with our beliefs and values. Prospective students see the logo and immediately know if our training favors tournament fighting, esoteric principles and Daoist teachings, or if we like elaborate drawings of dragons and tigers.
A logo needs to be strong and static so as to endure any setback, yet also dynamic and flexible so that it can grow with major transitions. It is the visual representation of our hearts and we put a lot of time, energy and love into keeping it safe and secure.
Therefore, it is vital that a logo holds all the elements of the studio and can withstand every trial and tribulation...even the loss of the founder. With every ending there is a transition to a new beginning. This is a wondrous and happy transition. It is a chance to start anew and wipe the slate clean of past faults and problems. When a studio loses its founder there are many concerns and fears. Often, we mourn even though no one has died.
This transition marks the beginning of a new life, not the ending of an older one. A younger generation is now given the opportunity to step into the foreground and assume responsibility for creating history. This younger generation will often seize the opportunity with zeal and enthusiasm and inject their views while maintaining the spirit of the past. New traditions are made. New innovations are tried. And the success of the studio is maintained.
Having the strength and commitment to start and see a studio to success is difficult and there are no substitutes for the experience and scars that the instructor received along the way. However, the deepest cut may come when we have the courage walk away and trust our teachings to another.
It is impossible to go through any major life transition without some kind of change. To get something we need to give up something. To go to college, we have to leave high school. To get married, we have to give up the dating scene. To have a child or a studio, we have to give a lot of our time, energy and money. When going through a major studio transition, changing the logo is a nice way to pictorially mark it. It creates an immediately recognizable change and can embody both the past and the future. Throughout this painful transition, looking at the logo will help us remember the golden years already set in stone and look forward to the glorious future that we will dynamically create.