Theater Mu was founded in 1992, and so for our 30th Birthday Bash merch, Connie Xiong and Yunha Seo of KNOCK Inc. created designs full of ‘90s vibes and Asian American joy. Both used similar '90s palettes of pastel neon, but each designer infused their own memories and experiences to create completely different yet cohesive illustrations. 

While Xiong’s design will be available via T-shirt, crop top, or tank top throughout the 2022/23 season, make sure to order yours by Jul 31 to get it in time for Mu's 30th Birthday Bash on Aug 21. As for Seo’s artwork, they become stickers, and the only way to get them—for now—is to win the fun fair games at our family-friendly Birthday Bash. (As a heads up, you’re only seeing five out of the seven sticker designs!)

Check out the details behind the designs as Xiong and Seo talk about notebooks, throwback K-pop, anime, and more.

CONNIE XIONG

Art director/designer, KNOCK Inc.

The T-shirt inspiration: The ‘90s is such a fun time, but I was mainly inspired by my family’s birthday parties in the ‘90s. Though I was too young to remember, my parents and relatives would always capture special moments like that with their camcorder for us to rewatch when we were older. I wanted to show an assortment of items that are nostalgic from our childhood such as anime, the classic cookie tin/sewing kit that our grandmas have, as well as things that would appear or be gifted at a birthday party like the Gameboy, vintage cake, and fruits. These are all fond memories that I remember from my childhood. My favorite icon is the maneki neko! I drew inspiration from my favorite anime, Sailor Moon—hinting at Luna and Artemis!

Worthy ‘90s throwbacks: For fashion, I’ve been loving scrunchies (so much healthier for your hair) and oversized straight jeans (SO comfy). For TV shows, Sailor Moon has always been my favorite. I’m currently watching the reboot (Sailor Moon Crystal) on Netflix.

YUNHA SEO

UX Designer, KNOCK Inc. | @lost-crayons on IG

The Sticker Inspirations: When given the ‘90s theme prompt, I was naturally thinking about my younger days as an Asian kid in a mixed-racial environment and in an American institution. I was immediately drawn to the composition notebook: a universal symbol of the American educational institutions. My teachers, like many others I would imagine, gave out stickers for job-well-dones, which I steadily collected on the cover of my notebook, eventually filling the space. I envisioned the composition notebook to be the American experience and the stickers decorating the notebook to represent how we create meaning and memories as Asian Americans in America. … Although the final design focuses on the stickers [versus an image showing the whole notebook], my intention still carries in that I aimed to create something innately Asian but American as well—representing the Asian American experience.

‘90s Tunes: I find myself coming back to the ‘90s K-pop every now and then! There are two reasons for this: 1) the younger generation of K-pop groups has gone through several waves of “back to the ‘90s” concept promotions in the past few years, and 2) I grew up listening to ‘90s K-pop as that was the only instant music access (CD-ROMs) I had for a large chunk of my childhood (time before Spotify and YouTube where you had access to all the music online and anytime).