Back at the end of May I was working on some new design ideas. The Jiu Jitsu World Championships were coming up at the beginning of June and I really wanted to take my daughter to check it out. While working on some ideas for a new design and thinking about the upcoming tournament, thoughts of the pyramid came up. I know most Jiu Jitsu brands had already done some type of iteration of the pyramid design and I wanted to somehow make it different. Being that I live here and Long Beach and have got to experience all that this beautiful city has to offer I wanted to bring the things I appreciate and enjoy the most about it and tie it into this design. While working on the design I started to see the resemblance of the Polynesian tri lock design which wasn’t my intention at all. This gives it an island feel which ended up working out weII. It added to the layers of meaning behind the design. The Pyramid is located on the California State Long Beach University campus and is where indoor sports like basketball and volley are played. There’s no professional sports teams located here in Long Beach and so CSLBU carries the flag for the city of Long Beach. On a side note, I can remember back in the early and mid 90’s when the University of Hawaii and CSLBU had two of the best teams in mens and womens volleyball teams. They were the two best teams at the time. I used to wonder why there were a bunch of locals wearing Long Beach gear whenever the teams would play at the Stan Sheriff Arena in Hawaii. Turns out there’s a big polynesian and local contigency that lives out here in Long Beach. I never thought I’d become one of those who would eventually call Long Beach home twenty something years later. While I was still living in Hawaii I had dreamed of one day coming to the Pyramid and watching the IBJJF World Championships. Some of my teammates I trained with had came and competed and talked about how fun it was and that they’d like to make the trip back. Little did I know that I would end up moving here and visiting the Pyramid multiple times for various events. This new design idea made a lot of sense on so many levels and has helped me to tie Shakas and Alohas and my love for Long Beach together.
I’ve since created a few visual ideas as well as videos for this new design to see how the design looked up against a background. For the background I chose the flora and fauna I see when walking around my neighborhood. Long Beach is lush with trees, plants, and flowers throughout the neighborhoods. All vibrant in color and unique in shape and stature. After the big rains we had early in the year, they have all blossomed and awaken from the winter slumber and drought we’ve had for quite a long time. While choosing this background I thought of all the things most visitors and tourist might not see when in Long Beach. I wanted to share all the beauty that Long Beach has to offer once you get outside of the city and into the neighborhoods.
More to come as the new Aloha From Long Beach design evolves. Stay tuned for an upcoming project using the new AFLB design! Mahalo for supporting your local mom and pops shops!