Onyx Eagle Claw
Turning evolving, sometimes conflicting client requirements into an agreed, workable visual identity.
At a glance
- Problem
- Develop a cohesive martial arts identity from a brief that specified the imagery but left important relationships and meanings unresolved. As designs made those gaps visible, new and sometimes conflicting requirements had to be reconciled without losing the project's direction.
- My role
- Lead research, discovery, and identity design; translate complex feedback into requirements, guide decisions, resolve interdependent design problems, and deliver a complete, documented system.
- Result
- A fully resolved, client-approved identity that reconciled evolving requirements, captured the intended philosophy, and provided a practical system for independent use.
The Challenge
Onyx Eagle Claw is a visual identity for a school teaching Eagle Claw Kung Fu and Wu Tai Chi.
The client arrived with imagery in mind: a yin-yang, a photo of a Golden Eagle, a photo of himself, and the school’s name. He wanted a strong, traditional martial arts identity, with the eagle and practitioner opposing one another at similar scale and visual weight.
What the brief didn’t fully establish was how those elements related to one another beyond their general appearance.
I had enough direction to begin, but important requirements emerged as the client saw his ideas take shape. Some conflicted with earlier instructions or decisions he’d already accepted.
Context & Constraints
The hardest part of the project was not any individual drawing problem, but the dependency between them.
The eagle, practitioner, yin-yang, negative space, and typography all affected one another. Changing a figure’s position could disrupt the surrounding geometry; adjusting an intersection could change the balance of the entire mark.
Relationships
The eagle and practitioner shared a tight space within the yin-yang. Changing the scale or position of one altered the balance of the others.
Geometry
The traditional S-curve and circular field needed to remain legible even where the figures interrupted them.
Fixed figure
The client’s exact technique and pose were non-negotiable, so the surrounding system had to adapt around them.
No element could be adjusted in isolation.
Establishing what had to stay fixed
The original brief provided a photograph of the client to be translated into a silhouette. I researched Chinese graphic traditions and developed the figure’s distinctive styling, interpreting clothing and anatomical details into a cohesive illustration.
I preserved the technique and worked around it. When the photograph didn’t provide enough clarity, I requested a better reference of the same pose rather than compromising its accuracy.
I also researched yin-yang symbolism and orientation, asking whether either carried specific meaning for his practice.
Approach
Giving feedback some direction
This identity was personally important to the client, and a broad “What do you think?” wasn’t going to give either of us the feedback we needed.
I designed the Round 1 presentation to explain what we were evaluating, which decisions mattered at that stage, and what could wait. I guided his attention toward the overall concept, symbolic relationships, and how the identity would function.
After reviewing it, he told me:
“I am glad I did because the purpose of this phase would have been missed on me.”
Turning reactions into requirements
Round 1 made the client’s ideas tangible, giving him something concrete to respond to.
He wanted stronger downward movement in the eagle, a more open composition, and a recognizable circular yin-yang that preserved its traditional structure.
I organized that feedback into three priorities for Round 2: restore the yin-yang’s geometry, strengthen the eagle’s descent, and open the composition while preserving the required pose.
During Round 1, for example, I asked whether Wu Tai Chi could occupy a subordinate position in the identity. The question wasn’t directly answered, and the client accepted a design with that hierarchy.
Exploration
Making subjective feedback something I could test
Some feedback began as a feeling: the eagle needed more predatory energy, the composition needed to breathe, or a particular intersection didn’t look right.
My job was to identify the design variables behind those reactions.
For the eagle, I tested rotation, wing sweep, head direction, height, and negative space. A stronger sense of descent wasn’t simply a matter of moving it upward or rotating the illustration. Each adjustment affected the figure’s movement, its relationship with the practitioner, and the balance of the emblem.
Some approaches strengthened the downward motion but weakened the confrontation. Others created more space while disrupting the relationship between the figures and the yin-yang.
Preserving the yin-yang
The yin-yang presented a different problem. The figures needed to interact with it without destroying its recognizable circular structure or traditional S-curve.
I separated its underlying geometry from the overlapping figures. That allowed me to preserve the intended form while deciding where interruptions could occur and which boundaries needed to remain visible.
The goal wasn’t to outline more of the circle. It was to preserve enough structural information for the eye to complete it.
Moving from Round 1 to Round 2
Round 2 brought those studies together. I refined the eagle’s movement, opened the composition, clarified the yin-yang, and presented comparisons explaining the changes.
But the next feedback revealed that some of our assumptions about the identity’s meaning and hierarchy were still incomplete.
Decision-Making
When new requirements change the problem
After Round 2, several consequential requirements surfaced that hadn’t been fully established in the earlier brief or reviews.
I’d asked about the yin-yang’s meaning and orientation before Round 1. The client had also emphasized preserving its circular structure during the first review. But only now did he explain its role as the philosophical foundation of his entire practice.
Wu Tai Chi presented another gap. Despite my earlier question about its hierarchy and his acceptance of the initial treatment, he now clarified that it needed much greater prominence. Eagle Claw Kung Fu and Wu Tai Chi weren’t simply two offerings listed under the school name; their relationship was fundamental to his practice.
Other feedback concerned the eagle’s physical proportions, the interaction between the figures and the yin-yang, an awkward boundary crossing the practitioner’s body, and a shift toward a monochrome identity.
Understanding the request behind the request
The client’s concern about the eagle’s size illustrates the difficulty.
The original brief explicitly required two opposing figures of similar scale and visual weight. Now he wanted the eagle to be physically smaller and more realistic—but without losing its power or presence relative to the practitioner.
“Too large” could have meant physically disproportionate, visually dominant, or symbolically overemphasized. Each interpretation would have led to a different solution.
Our discussion established that the concern was physical scale, not the eagle’s authority. The difficulty was preserving a sense of equal power between figures that could no longer occupy equal physical space.
That affected much more than their relative sizes. Movement, placement, contrast, negative space, and the interaction with the yin-yang all contributed to the balance. Reducing the eagle without reconsidering those relationships could weaken its presence or create new problems elsewhere.
The discussion also clarified something the original brief hadn’t expressed: the eagle and practitioner weren’t opposing forces in the philosophical sense. The eagle represented the natural inspiration for the martial arts system, and the practitioner represented its human realization.
Making the requirements explicit
Rather than proceed with another collection of isolated edits, I asked the client to explain how the symbols and disciplines related to one another.
I organized his responses into a model we could validate:
Yin-yang — Foundation and governing principle
Eagle — Origin, blueprint, and inspiration
Practitioner — Human expression of the practice
From that understanding, I consolidated the remaining requirements: correct the eagle’s physical proportions while preserving its authority; refine the figure and yin-yang intersections; give Wu Tai Chi appropriate prominence; and establish a monochrome primary identity.
Execution / Implementation
Resolving the identity as a whole
Round 3 required the composition to be reconsidered as an interconnected system.
Reducing the eagle’s physical scale changed its visual presence, the available negative space, and its relationship with the practitioner. Refining the intersections affected the yin-yang’s legibility and the distribution of contrast. The practitioner’s technique remained fixed, and the styling I’d developed needed to remain recognizable.
I worked through variations in the eagle’s span, rotation, position, and relationship to the practitioner, refining the geometry and silhouette details until the elements worked together.
Building an identity that could adapt
I developed a family of configurations for different applications: the Standard Lockup, Emblem, Circular Lockup, horizontal and stacked wordmarks, simplified versions for limited space, social assets, and a Micromark.
Each addressed a different combination of scale, available space, and information. The detailed emblem could carry the identity in prominent applications; a narrow header or tiny icon required a more selective approach.
I also created separate Standard and Reverse artwork. Rather than simply recoloring the original mark, I made optical adjustments so the reversed version retained its intended balance.
Final approval
Round 3 presented the resolved identity, logo family, color treatments, and illustrative applications together.
I requested final approval before preparing the completed package and Brand Reference Guide. The client approved the identity, allowing the project to move from design refinement into delivery.
Delivery & Handoff
Making the identity usable beyond the presentation
Before finalizing the files, I confirmed the school’s official name as ONYX EAGLE CLAW, rather than the longer version including Wu Tai Chi. That decision kept the documentation and asset naming consistent.
I organized the logo suite and digital assets with clear file names and appropriate formats.
The Brand Reference Guide
I created a comprehensive guide explaining how to select, apply, and maintain the identity.
It covers the logo family, color and typography, artwork restrictions, licensing, and supplied files. Its guidance on progressive simplification explains when to use the full lockup, emblem, wordmark, or Micromark.
The guide also documents the distinction between Standard and Reverse artwork and includes an Asset Library and Quick Reference for finding the correct files.
Supporting next steps
After delivery, I also helped the client evaluate possible branded materials, including vendors, garment options, sizing, placement, and appropriate artwork configurations. I offered to review vendor proofs before production.
Outcome
What began as a collection of requested elements became a cohesive identity rooted in the client’s martial arts philosophy. I reconciled competing requirements through custom-drawn figures, deliberate movement, and carefully balanced positive and negative space—bringing the elements together without sacrificing the character of the design.
Reflection
OEC demonstrated the limits of even a deliberate discovery process.
I asked about symbolism, orientation, and hierarchy early, but some requirements couldn’t be fully expressed until the client saw an interpretation of his ideas. Others emerged after earlier directions had already been accepted.
I couldn’t eliminate those unknowns. I could manage their consequences by structuring reviews, distinguishing surface-level requests from underlying needs, evaluating dependencies, and confirming consequential decisions before rebuilding around them.
The project also reinforced the importance of defining scope. I provided additional documentation and guidance because I saw how much value they could add. In future engagements, I’d be more explicit about what was originally agreed, which enhancements were worth proposing, and when additional work needed its own scope.