Delaware Systema is a martial art studio in Wilmington, Delaware that teaches the Russian martial art known as "Systema".

The client envisioned a logo that "represents the warrior spirit such as combat skill, strong spirit, and healthy body."

In designing the Delaware Systema logo, I had to dive a bit into the art of Systema. How it differed from other martial art and the history behind it. Using my research, and the client's vision, I crafted a logo that fit exactly what they were going for.

After sketching out possible solutions, I came to a decision to hand stipple shade a historic Russian warrior helmet. The stipple shading is a technique where the illustrations shading is made up entirely of small dots. This really gave the logo a historic, rugged feel.

The text included in the logo is inspired by a Russian Cyrillic hand of the 1350's, which I also stipple shaded to fit the overall style.

The end result turned out better than expected, and it looks great on a t-shirt as well!