EMBASSY MMA

A BRAND CONCEPT FOR AN MMA PODCAST

CONCEPT / COMBAT SPORTSCOMPLETE

The project

Embassy MMA is a brand concept for a combat-sports podcast, given the identity of a publication rather than of an event: a masthead, a bill, a tale of the tape and a numbering system, in bone and ink with no illustration. It has not been pitched, sold or produced.

Client: Embassy MMA
Year: 2026
Role: Brand concept
Services: Identity, Art direction, Broadcast package
Status: Complete

Broadcast

The holding card before an episode starts: EP/023, THE EMBASSY STARTING SOON, set huge in black on a full red field, with hosts, episode, topic and handle on a rule along the bottom.

The fight breakdown scene: two fighter portraits at the outer edges, three small camera panels along the top, and a tale of the tape down the middle comparing record, height, reach, age and stance.

The same breakdown with the cameras dropped: two fighter frames, their names at scale, and the tale of the tape running the full width beneath them.

The panel scene: one large active-speaker frame on the left, two stacked guest cameras on the right, and a red NOW DISCUSSING block naming the topic.

The panel scene with one guest: the active speaker large on the left, a single guest camera on the right above the topic block, and a rail of the show's handles beneath it.

( I )

The masthead

A podcast about combat sport, set as a publication. One face at two scales, two rule weights, bone stock, and nothing drawn that a rule and a number cannot say.

FIG. 05.1THE MASTHEAD
The whole identity in one object. The qualifier sits on the masthead's own baseline — EMBASSY MMA is the name, not a title with a category under it.

A PODCAST · EST. 2026 · CONCEPTThe fight, read the way a paper reads a fight.

FIG. 05.2THE FOUR CLAIMS
What the identity argues, which doubles as the four sections of the guideline it would ship with.

An MMA audience consumes analysis — records, reach, stance, tape. That is editorial material, and it has been dressed as a fight poster for thirty years.

A hairline separates rows of a table. A six-pixel rule separates one artefact from the next. Nothing is drawn that a rule and a number cannot say.

A bill is printed on stock. Pure white under a black masthead reads as a lightbox; a warm off-white reads as paper, which is what a fight card has always been.

Helvetica at poster weight for the masthead, and a mono for every figure. The restraint is the whole argument — a condensed display face would be the concept conceding the point.

( II )

The format

Every episode is one fight, broken down. The card carries the number, the division, the two corners and the runtime — and nothing else, because a photograph of either fighter would be the show borrowing authority it has not earned.

FIG. 05.3THE EPISODE CARD
A template with its slots open. What a brand hands over is the frame, not one filled-in instance of it.

NO. 01LIGHTWEIGHT

RED CORNER

BLUE CORNER

RUNTIME—— MIN

RECORDED——

FORMATTALE OF THE TAPE

FIG. 05.4THE TALE OF THE TAPE
Six measures, two bars each, drawn outward from the centre — the corners are measured against each other, not against the page.

TALE OF THE TAPERED ◀ ▶ BLUE

REACH · IN

HEIGHT · CM

STRIKES LANDED / MIN · SLPM

STRIKING ACCURACY · %

TAKEDOWN DEFENCE · %

AVERAGE FIGHT TIME · MIN

( III )

The running order

Weight classes are the sport's own index and they are already a type ladder — eight steps, each with a hard number attached. The identity counts in them rather than inventing a sequence of its own.

FIG. 05.5THE EIGHT DIVISIONS
Standard limits. Nothing here had to be made up, which is the test a numbering system should pass.

01FLYWEIGHT125 LB

02BANTAMWEIGHT135 LB

03FEATHERWEIGHT145 LB

04LIGHTWEIGHT155 LB

05WELTERWEIGHT170 LB

06MIDDLEWEIGHT185 LB

07LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT205 LB

08HEAVYWEIGHT265 LB

( IV )

The room

One moving image, and it is the only thing on this project that is not type. A cage in an empty arena coming up out of black under a single beam — it runs dark to lit and stays lit, because a cage does not un-light.

FIG. 05.6THE CAGE
Plays through once on arrival and holds its final frame. Under reduced motion it is the lit frame, never the dark one.

EVERY ARTEFACT ON THIS PAGE IS DRAWN LIVE. NOTHING HAS BEEN PITCHED, SOLD OR PRODUCED.

More work — the rest of the index.

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