Meet the local artist behind the Calgary Flames' South Asian Celebration logo

The Calgary Flames are set to host their first-ever South Asian Celebration Game on Saturday, unveiling a unique logo for the event designed by a local artist.

The Flames will celebrate South Asian culture when they take on the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, March 30, at 8 p.m.

The team showed off a celebratory logo earlier this week, created by local artist Zoe Harveen Kaur Sihota.

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Sihota said she was “absolutely in awe” the first time she saw her design printed in real life on the Flames’ gear.

“It’s so incredible to see it on paper and on my iPad when I was designing it, but seeing it in person it was a completely different feeling to see this come to life and on a beautiful, gorgeous yellow jersey,” Sihota said during an interview with CTV News Calgary’s Ian White.

The logo will appear throughout the Saddledome during the game, and on the Flames’ warm-up jerseys.

The Calgary Flames South Asian Celebration Game jersey. (Source: Calgary Flames)

Sihota hopes the event will help South Asians in Calgary feel empowered.

“They’ve done different cultural nights throughout the past couple of years, so seeing South Asians celebrated this way is just a huge milestone for the city,” she said.

Sihota is a first-generation Canadian whose parents moved here from India. She said her logo and the celebration are helping give her parents a sense of pride and belonging in the city.

“They’ve grown up in Calgary and they love the city, and so to be able to fuse both cultures – western and South Asian – it’s just really beautiful for them to watch,” she said

“I mean growing up, they didn’t have that type of representation, so now seeing what’s out there, it’s really important to them.”

There are three core elements incorporated in the logo, according to Sihota, including the patterns celebrating the heritage of South Asian cultures and unity.

“I really wanted to include different patterns representing different cultures and, you know, create that sense of unity and community,” she said.

The other core elements include a peacock, which represents beauty and grace in many South Asian cultures, and the shapes on top of the flaming C invoking South Asian architecture.

Each colour incorporated in the logo also has its own meaning.

“We included maroon, which is the colour of strength and resilience, saffron which is the colour of bravery and courage, green which represents agriculture in a lot of South Asian countries,” Sihota explained, “and then of course red, the colour of power and what it means to be a Calgary Flame.”

A limited collection of South Asian Celebration jerseys has been produced and will be a part of an online auction that opens on March 30 at 10 a.m., and closes on April 6 at 5 p.m.

Fans can bid on the jerseys, signed by the Flames online through Elevate Auctions.

Retail items featuring the logo will also be available in CGY Team Stores at the Saddledome.

In-game festivities

The pre-game presentation will include several leaders from the South Asian community, including Sihota, Dampy Brar, the co-founder of APNA Hockey; Raghav, a musician and Calgary Flames South Asian Community Ambassador and Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

DJ Joash Charles will kick off festivities during warm up, while dancers from the Nachda Punjab Bhangra Academy and Dhol drummers from Calgary’s Finest Dholis will perform as fans enter the building on the main concourse.

A photo station will be set up behind section 213 where fans can have their picture taken with performers.

Fans attending the game can also immerse their taste buds in South Asian culture, with the Coca-Cola Test Kitchen behind section 227 featuring cuisine from local restaurant Saffron Street.

Other food offerings will also be available to try around the Saddledome.

The first intermission will feature a minor hockey showcase from APNA Hockey, a South Asian-based hockey program that started in Alberta.

During the second intermission, there will be a traditional Bhangra dance performance from the Nachda Punjab Bhangra Academy and Calgary’s Finest Dholis.