Creative directing Lunar Gala’s 30th anniversary fashion show.
With over 1,000 attendees annually and over 150 people behind the scenes, Lunar Gala is the largest annual fashion event in Pittsburgh and one of the largest CMU student clubs. I co-creative directed the 30th anniversary show, crafting the narrative and visual direction and leading a team of over 60 members across print, motion, web, photo, cinematography, and set design deliverables.
Creative Direction
Time: August 2025 - March 2026
Role: Co-creative director with Garrett Lee
Team: Web head, Serena Cai, print heads, Melissa Qin and Sonya He, motion heads, Deeptika Mandha and Isabel Fleck, set heads, Joy Leung and Yuktha Vemela, and photo heads, Erin Hsu and Chieri Nnadozie.
BRAND REFRESH
Lunar Gala has grown a lot in 30 years. It started as an event hosted by the CMU Taiwanese Student Association, and it’s now one of the largest student clubs and a celebration of the arts at CMU. The logo hasn’t changed in over 13 years, so we made some minor refinements to the iconic “LG.” Then we used the logo’s new grid to create a set of zodiac illustrations that honor the Lunar New Year and Lunar Gala’s origins. We also illustrated a LG30 logo mark for special use cases.
SHOW IDENTITY
To celebrate the 30th anniversary, we chose to explore themes of nostalgia. We named the show Fable, defining fables as the stories and lessons that we carry, pass down, retell, and reimagine.
The window motif was drawn from the intricate patterns of traditional Chinese garden walls. We deconstructed our window design into 4 parts, allowing us to rebuild patterns and frames across the show in surprising ways.
Each act had a tonal shift, exploring the tension between the stories we’re told and our dreams beyond. Act 1: Follow explores a blind trust in the stories you’re told, Act 2: Wander ventures into a desire to explore and imagine other futures, Act 3: Trace navigates the conflict of honoring one’s roots and traditions with forging new paths, and Act 4: Discern, allows for resolution and acceptance of the past, present, and future.
A 2 month social media campaign started teasing the show and was the first touchpoint for show attendees with the brand.
We worked with the print team to create show posters, banners, teaser posters, a program, and merchandise.
1 month ahead of the show, we launched the Fable website, designed and built by the web team. The site introduces the Fable theme, teases looks from the show, and redirects to ticket sales.
Explore the site here.
The motion team designed custom backdrops for each fashion collection, inspired by the themes of the looks. Motion deliverables also included act animations to set the scene for each of the 4 acts, title cards, show countdowns, and more. The backdrops were designed for a three-panel LED screen that models walked out from.
The window module design was extended into the show itself via a 14-foot tall set design that framed the models as they walked the runway. The bright white paint allowed the set to transform and reflect the lighting of each line.
The photography team directed photoshoots of each fashion collcetion ahead of the show, along with capturing photos during the show.
Creative directing the Lunar Gala creative team was one of the most challenging, but rewarding experiences of my college career. I’m endlessly grateful to my co-CD Garrett for being the best partner through many many late nights, and to our creative sub-heads, Melissa, Sonya, Chieri, Erin, Serena, Yuktha, Joy, Isabel, Deeptika, Maddy, and Erik, for their creativity and dedication.
And to every one of our creative team members who gave a year to this team and show, this would not have been possible without you.
Lunar Gala has been a huge part of my life since joining the print team as a freshman, to leading the print team my sophomore year, and now creative directing as a junior. I have so much love and gratitude for the club, and the creative community it has given me, and I am so inspired by everyone I worked with whether it’s models, lighting designers, stage managers, fashion designers, or creative members.