Muster Mahjong

Gather Your People

Muster Mahjong started with a love of Mahjong, but it was never going to be just another Mahjong set.

From the beginning, the idea was to create a brand around what happens because of the game.

People gather.

They stay awhile.

They talk, laugh, compete, eat, drink and inevitably argue about whose turn it is.

Phones get forgotten.

Stories get told.

And an ordinary afternoon or evening becomes something you look forward to doing again.

That's the philosophy behind Muster.

Gather Your People.

Why Muster?

The name came before much of the brand.

To muster is to gather.

And the more we thought about what we wanted to create, the more appropriate that word became.

Because the real value of a Mahjong set isn't what happens inside the box.

It's what happens around it.

We live in a world where staying in touch has never been easier, yet actually spending uninterrupted time together can somehow be surprisingly difficult.

There is always another notification, another commitment, another thing that needs doing.

We say, we should catch up soon.

Then weeks pass.

Mahjong gives the catch-up a purpose.

"Come over. We're playing Mahjong."

Suddenly there is a date, a table and a reason to gather.

That is the space Muster wants to live in.

A Different Kind of Mahjong Brand

We have enormous respect for the history and tradition of Mahjong.

We're not trying to reinvent the game.

We're interested in reimagining the experience of owning and playing it.

Muster is colourful, tactile, expressive and deliberately a little different.

Our sets are designed to be taken places, played with and talked about.

We want them at kitchen tables and girls' weekends. On holidays and verandahs. At Sunday sessions and Friday nights. At someone's house when four people intended to play one game and suddenly realise it is midnight.

They should feel premium without feeling precious.

Beautiful, but made to be used.

And personal enough that choosing your set is part of the fun.

Your Set Should Have a Personality

One of the ideas behind Muster from the beginning was that a Mahjong set didn't have to be completely fixed.

Why shouldn't it reflect the person who owns it?

That thinking shaped the way we're building Muster around collections and interchangeable designs.

Winds, Dragons, Flowers and the One Bamboo give us wonderful spaces for creativity while the suits and structure keep the game recognisably Mahjong.

Some collections will have stories behind them.

Some might be playful.

Some elegant.

Some unexpected.

You might love an entire collection exactly as it is.

Or perhaps the Dragon from one collection speaks to you, while the Flowers from another are completely your style.

The idea is that over time, your set can become exactly that.

Yours.

Build it. Change it. Add to it.

And keep playing with it.

Our First Collection Had to Mean Something

That philosophy is why we started with the Warrior Collection.

We could have launched Muster with a collection based purely on colour or aesthetics.

Instead, I wanted the first collection to have a reason for existing.

The Warrior Collection grew partly from my own experiences and from feelings I suspect are pretty familiar to many women.

The different versions of ourselves we become over a lifetime.

The times we trust ourselves and the times we don't.

The courage it takes to change direction.

The lessons that only seem obvious after we've lived through them.

The strange freedom that comes with getting older and becoming a little less concerned about whether everyone approves.

Those ideas became a mythology of their own.

The Dragons became Luna, Virtus and Gaia — intuition, courage and wisdom.

The Winds became one woman at four different stages of becoming — The Awakening, The Rising, The Reckoning and The Sovereign.

And our blue Kingfisher became the One Bamboo and The Witness to the entire journey.

It's a story hidden inside a Mahjong set.

And that is exactly the kind of thing we want Muster collections to do.

Designed Differently

There is another important part of the Muster philosophy.

We make our tiles differently.

Muster Mahjong tiles are 3D printed using premium materials. That isn't simply a manufacturing choice. It is part of what makes the concept possible.

Traditional mass manufacturing rewards sameness.

Digital manufacturing gives us the opportunity to do almost the opposite.

We can create in smaller runs.

Experiment.

Develop new collections.

Customise.

Change individual elements rather than redesigning an entire set.

Create pieces that might be far too niche to justify traditional mass production.

It lets Muster sit somewhere between a game, a design object and something you collect.

And we love that.

We don't necessarily want everyone to own exactly the same Muster set.

Premium Doesn't Have to Mean Formal

We also wanted to challenge another assumption.

Premium can sometimes become synonymous with don't touch.

That's not Muster.

Our tiles should feel beautiful in your hand. The box should be something you're excited to open. The details should feel considered.

But then we want you to throw the set in the car and take it somewhere.

That is why portability has been part of our thinking from the beginning.

A Muster set should be equally at home on a beautifully set table as it is packed for a weekend away.

Because a Mahjong set that is too precious to travel with isn't going to do a particularly good job of gathering your people.

Why Mahjong? Why Now?

Perhaps there is a reason Mahjong feels so right again.

So much of modern life is frictionless.

Tap.

Swipe.

Stream.

Scroll.

Mahjong isn't.

You touch it.

Shuffle it.

Build walls.

Draw tiles.

Watch other people.

Learn patterns.

Make decisions.

Wait.

Talk.

There is a ritual to it.

And importantly, there are other humans sitting across the table.

Muster isn't anti-technology. Quite the opposite—we use modern technology to make the sets.

What interests us is using that technology to create something that encourages a very human experience.

Technology making the object. People making the moment.

There is something we really like about that contradiction.

The Product Isn't Really the Product

Yes, we sell Mahjong sets.

But that's not really the thing we're trying to create.

The thing we love is the anticipation.

Someone sends the message to the group.

Mahjong Friday?

People say yes.

Plans start forming.

Someone sorts the food. Someone brings drinks. Someone hasn't played for six months and announces that they will need reminding of absolutely everything.

The day arrives.

The box comes out.

The tiles hit the table.

And there is that little feeling:

Tonight's going to be good.

That's Muster.

The tiles are simply what brought everyone there.

Gather Your People

We want Muster to become a brand people collect, customise and make their own.

There will be new collections.

New stories.

New artists and ideas.

Different ways to build a set that feels like yours.

But the philosophy underneath it shouldn't need to change.

Use the good things.

Open the box.

Invite people over.

Take the set with you.

Teach someone new.

Get competitive.

Stay longer than you intended.

Create traditions without necessarily realising you're creating them.

Because one day you probably won't remember who won that particular game.

But you might remember exactly who was sitting around the table.

That's why we're building Muster Mahjong.

Not simply to make beautiful Mahjong sets.

To give you another reason to gather your people.

Muster Mahjong

Gather Your People.