{"id":3379,"date":"2014-12-01T14:23:35","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T14:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shop4martialarts.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3379"},"modified":"2016-11-07T23:14:57","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T23:14:57","slug":"interview-with-bong-abad-of-gawakoto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shop4martialarts.co.uk\/blog\/interview-with-bong-abad-of-gawakoto\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview With Bong Abad of GAWAKOTO"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had the great fortune to chat with Bong Abad, artist and owner of martial arts brand Gawakoto<\/strong>.
\nIn the interview, we find out how the eye-catching designs are created, Bong’s favourite piece of Gawakoto apparel and a sneak peek of an upcoming Gawakoto product!<\/p>\n

\"bong-abad-gawakoto\"<\/p>\n

How did your brand Gawakoto come about?<\/strong>
\nIt started as just a name for a virtual studio that I wanted to put on my daughter\u2019s self-published children\u2019s book. Gawakoto is a phrase in Filipino \u201cgawa ko \u2018to\u201d which translates to \u201cI made this\u201d. It\u2019s also a homage to Chris Carter\u2019s (X-Files creator) production studio. I\u2019m a big X-Files fan.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen your work from portraits to comic book style superheroes and your Kalabaw artwork. Which type of artwork\/subject do you enjoy creating the most?<\/strong>
\nI like every type of art from pencil drawing to digital painting. I\u2019ve done them all, maybe not to a \u2018black belt\u2019 level but I\u2019ve experimented a lot. I love comic book art, and my main influence are comic book artists. So, you can say that it\u2019s my favourite type of art.<\/p>\n

Portrait drawings are just experiments for me, using different kinds of technique in doing them. As of late, I\u2019ve been doing them with ballpoint pen. This is because I recently discovered this Japanese artist called Shohei Otomo. He makes awesome ballpoint illustrations.<\/p>\n

What tools and methods do you use to create your artwork from idea to complete print-ready design (i.e. pens, pencils, photoshop?)?<\/strong>
\nMost of my \u2018doodles\u2019 are done in my head and from those, I pick my favourite and put it on paper. Despite the advances in making art these days, I\u2019m still using traditional tools especially when conceptualizing designs.<\/p>\n

Pencils, brush pens, white-out pen and eventually Photoshop or Illustrator, depending what it is for and the effect I want to achieve.<\/p>\n

What inspires your designs?<\/strong>
\nMostly comic books and art itself, in general. I read a lot of comics and that my imagination go wild. There are so many similarities between comics & Jiujitsu, so when I design I always fuse the two together.<\/p>\n

\"save-the-earth-gawakoto-rashguard\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favourite piece of artwork and apparel you\u2019ve made?
\nThat\u2019s a hard question. Maybe, the \u2018Save the Earth\u2019 series. I can\u2019t choose just one. That\u2019s because I put a lot of meanings & symbolisms into those illustrations. I was asked by my collaborator (Kato of Art Junkie Tokyo) to do some illos which will incorporate Japan\u2019s Nuclear disaster, MMA , Jiujitsu and superheroes. With that, I created 3 illustrations with superheroes battling nuclear powered-supervillains in Jiujitsu\/MMA\/wrestling scenarios.<\/p>\n

What would you say separates your brand from the others out there?<\/strong>
\nI do what I\u2019m passionate about — Jiujitsu & comic art. My stuff is quirky & colourful. Martial arts is hard enough as it is, and there\u2019s no need to show people that you are the toughest guy by wearing the scariest tee.<\/p>\n

What does it feel like to see people around the globe wearing your designs?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s awesome! Kinda gives me a sense of accomplishment and further inspires me to do more. I really appreciate all the support from our customers.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re the only artist I\u2019ve seen who\u2019s created artwork inspired by Filipino martial arts. Why do you think other martial arts outside of Muay Thai and BJJ are hardly catered for?<\/strong>
\nKali is not that popular despite a lot of movies that use it in their fight choreography. There\u2019s no uniform for it too, unlike BJJ. You train Kali with ordinary, everyday clothes.<\/p>\n

I make them because I train FMA and I\u2019m Filipino. I am proud of my heritage.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve done quite a few collaborations with other artists. What do you look for in an artist with whom you wish to collaborate?<\/strong>
\nWhen I started the brand, I had this dream of collaborating with my idols. Having been able to collaborate with the likes of David Mack & Katsuya Terada was a dream come true for me. I still pinch myself now.<\/p>\n

I admire any kind of art, however, the brand established itself as a comic-book art- inspired brand so any eye-popping (comic book style) visuals would do \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Can you give us a sneak peek of any new product or design you have in the pipeline?<\/strong>
\nGawakoto Kalabaw Republic Black Gi, consisting of a 450gsm Gold Weave jacket and 10oz ripstop pants.<\/p>\n

\"gawakoto-kalabaw-republic-gi\"<\/p>\n

Are there any upcoming competitions or expo shows where you\u2019ll be showcasing your brand?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ll be relocating in the US in December, so at the moment, I don\u2019t have any plans of attending any competitions or shows. But I\u2019m hoping, I would be able to attend the Worlds and BJJ Expo next year.<\/p>\n

You currently sponsor some athletes in the martial arts scene. Can you tell us a bit about them?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t have much, and I want to keep it that way. We have three BJJ blackbelts, a judo black belt, a brown belt, a purple belt and a blue belt. I made a trump-like card of them here<\/a><\/p>\n

Do you currently train in martial arts?<\/strong>
\nYes, I recently got my purple belt in BJJ and also train in FMA.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favourite martial arts movie?<\/strong>
\nThe Bourne Identity, but technically it\u2019s not a martial arts movie. So, it would be Enter the Dragon.<\/p>\n

Thank you very much Bong for your time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can find out more about Gawakoto<\/strong> and check out their fightwear on their online shop<\/a>, and follow them on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter @Gawakoto<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had the great fortune to chat with Bong Abad, artist and owner of martial arts brand Gawakoto. In the interview, we find out how the eye-catching designs are created, Bong’s favourite piece of Gawakoto […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,433],"tags":[22,362,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-3379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brands","8":"category-interviews","9":"tag-bjj","10":"tag-gawakoto","11":"tag-kali"},"yoast_head":"\nInterview With Bong Abad of GAWAKOTO - Shop4 Martial Arts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shop4martialarts.co.uk\/blog\/interview-with-bong-abad-of-gawakoto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview With Bong Abad of GAWAKOTO - Shop4 Martial Arts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We had the great fortune to chat with Bong Abad, artist and owner of martial arts brand Gawakoto. 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