He won’t suit up in the locker room, won’t crack the scoresheet and won’t even set foot on the ice, but on Saturday evening as the Nashville Predators host the Arizona Coyotes, Drew Nguyen will make franchise history.
Nguyen, a local designer and artist, created the Predators first-ever Asian & Pacific Islander logo and jersey ahead of the club’s second annual API Night, which will mark the start of the Lunar New Year.
A Music City native and an Asian-American man himself, taking on the bold, new design for one of the cornerstones of the Nashville community felt like a perfect opportunity.
“I grew up in this city, and a lot of my career has been based in this city and to work with a big pillar of Nashville’s identity was super awesome,” Nguyen said. “It's such a cool, full-circle moment and it’s very humbling. And I think it speaks to how Nashville is just made up of all sorts of unique people and kind of makes you realize how much Nashville has grown and how much I’ve grown alongside it.”
To celebrate the Year of the Dragon, Nguyen’s logo transforms the traditional Pred Head into the famed mythical beast.
“The dragon is very symbolic imagery within Asian culture, and not even just Asian culture, but globally as well,” Nguyen said. “Dragons appear everywhere in some shape, way or form. And that in and of itself is interesting, because the point of this logo and the timing of API Night coincides with Lunar New Year, which is also celebrated amongst Asian communities all over the world. And I felt that [the dragon] was a really interesting tie, and something that a lot of people could relate to.”
