On the weekend of May 7-8 the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championship returned for its first in-person event after a 3 year hiatus. It is the also the first Championship I was not personally involved in, though my work was represented by the custom designed medals used to award champions. I’ve designed 100’s of custom medals and other awards throughout the decades I’d worked with Tiger Claw inc. the parent company of TC Media, publisher of Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine.
This medal represented a new approach to creating and designing them. Reinventing my approach to medal design was something I engaged in every couple of years. In honor of the return of the TCEC/KFMC let me share with you the process of designing a medal from 2016.
Why 2016?
The 3D tiger that was involved. It’s still a Tiger Tuesday.
The clay mock-up served as a proof of concept. After approval, of the concept, a digital mock-up was created from which a 3D model could be extruded and then printed.
One of these 2 3D models was sent over-seas for mass-production. Along with the order were the tech-specs and associated digital image files I’d created. The results were large, heavy and could almost be used as a bottle opening (those front teeth)