Client: Atlanta United Football Club
Role: Designer, Illustrator
Contributions: creative direction
Soccer culture is rich with tradition and expression. A fun piece of that culture is the gear, which includes scarves emblazoned with a team’s branding. Atlanta United offers their own scarves, focused on special moments throughout the year, and their Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month scarf honors people in the AAPI community.
From Southeast Asia to the Dirty South
The design of the scarf draws inspiration from Laos and Southeast Asia.
For the front of the scarf, I wanted to focus on the Atlanta United logo and use ornamentation to emphasize the branding. Laos is known for its silk textiles, so I referenced a lot of fabric from traditional sashes and skirts. The pattern is actually based on pieces from my mother’s collection. The use of red and gold is prevalent in Laos and I love that it aligns with United’s color palette.
The back of the scarf was inspired by sak yant tattoos, which were originally used by monks and warriors for strength and protection. They’re seen on kickboxers today for the same reasons, and I wanted to embrace that sentiment for our club’s own form of combat.
Many of the tattoo designs feature an animal, so it felt fitting to use the phoenix to represent Atlanta. When the tattoos are given, chanting is done to bind the blessing to the skin. “Atlanta” and “United” are translated into Lao and written below the phoenix illustrations. I wanted to parallel the blessings of sak yant chants to match day chants.
My mother worked on the translations and I like to joke that this is our first collaborative project.
