Let's Mahj-On!
Role: Research, strategy, pitch, production, lighting design, photography, post
Client: Let's Mahj-On!
Scope: 34 shots, nine tile sets, multiple accessory products, two shoot days
Produced while employed at Bill Lusk Co.
The brief
Let's Mahj-On! needed better website photography for a growing product line in a growing category. The objective was to replace the existing imagery with a unique visual system that can scale with the brand. The starting point was this category's primary demo, age 40+ women, with a fast-growing secondary segment of women ages 17-25 entering through trendy aesthetic and social-media discovery. Both segments care about the visual identity of the game, the gathering as an event, the tiles as objects, and the table as a setting. The photography needed to do two things: hold up as clean e-commerce product imagery while also signaling the culture the brand is part of.
The pitch
I brought two core visual strategies to the client.
One, a formulaic hero shot. Rather than the category-standard grid hero image, each set would get a signature stack: 12 to 14 select tiles arranged in a highly repeatable, beautifully lit composition that highlights the set's personality and tile quality. This shot should be instantly recognizable as a Let's Mahj-On! image and meaningfully more engaging on a product page than the alternatives.
Two, a human presence. I pitched introducing hands, arms, and styling cues (fabrics, jewelry, nails) into the in-game environments to anchor the game's social bedrock. An alternative approach of motion-blurred hands and arms was also pitched to keep the emphasis on the game itself, while still incorporating the human element.
The client approved the hero concept and elected to keep the tabletop work product-only. We adjusted the shot list and moved forward with four images per set:
1 - Formulaic hero stack
2 - Overhead knolled arrangement, composed to crop cleanly for both main and secondary suits
3 - Overhead curated pile with intentional styling
4 - Styled tabletop arrangement mid-game with matching mat and props
The system
Two production decisions shaped the speed and consistency of everything that followed.
For the overhead knolled shots, I designed a taping system with a right-angle jig and built a digital overlay in Capture One to match the approved format. The tape made each tile group monolithic, making adjustments a breeze, and the digital overlay let me confirm alignment in real time. This saved us valuable time across the nine sets compared to laying in each tile individually, and provided carbon-copy accuracy.
Each tile shot, the formulaic hero, the knolled grid, and the curated pile, would have been served best by its own color-matched seamless. Schedule and budget didn't support that many paper changes across nine sets, so I opted for a cool gray seamless instead. Enough tone to push in either direction in post and neutral enough to eliminate color contamination on the glossy surfaces. This one decision provided a solve for budget, schedule, and color flexibility all in one.
tabletop
The in-game environments gave each set its own world. Matching playmats, props, snacks, and drinks, every tabletop was styled to feel like a real game in progress. All photographed in a way that let the tiles remain the subject without flattening the scene around them.
Seven of the nine sets received the full tabletop treatment.
bonus work
We finished the planned shot list two hours ahead of schedule on day two, which gave us room to add coverage on two of the brand's hero accessories: the MAHJ carry tote and the scalloped acrylic tile racks. Both are now live across the site.
Delivery
Thirty-eight final selects across nine tile sets and various accessory products.
The hero stacks now anchor the Mahjong Tile Sets product page, and the accessory shots run across the Shop Accessories landing. The client was happy. I was, too. There's a version of this kind of project that becomes a grind across two long days, but this one didn't.
Let's Mahj-On! is online at letsmahjon.com
