Designer Melody You has gone viral for making album receipts of Asian artists

Melody You is a graphic designer whose viral album receipt designs have caught the eyes of top Asian artists like Steve Aoki, TOKiMONSTA, BTS, Rich Brian, Beabadoobee, Higher Brothers, BLACKPINK and more.

What initially started off as an advertising design study ended up exploding on the internet with mass reposts on Twitter and Instagram.

Like many others finding creative ways to pass the time under home quarantine, the Boston University graduate turned her focus to design and continued creating a series of receipts with itemised tracks from music albums. Minimal yet effective, she continuously received further requests to cover more album listings and a range of genres.

Her realisation that online music content was at an all-time high during lockdown helped her initiate the @albumreceipts and observe online interaction while applying her knowledge from her university course in Portfolio Development.

Since her first upload to the @albumreceipts page, it has gained 90,000 followers, direct shoutouts from musicians and proposals for brand partnerships. Each receipt artwork has a crumpled texture aesthetic, almost as if it’s a fresh receipt pulled out of your pocket with a neat itemised tracklist, duration of each song placed as pricing per track and the subtotal as the full album runtime. Probably the only kind of receipts you’d actually enjoy reading.

With a total of 67 designs, some receipts have received a staggering 82,000 likes. As viral content is difficult to predict with so much content to digest online, a simple concept like album receipts proves relatable.

In celebration of Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month, Melody collaborated with digital artists Mariah Ao (@pinkart.jpg) and Karen Xiao (@doodlesbykaren) on album art receipts specifically for six Asian artists. Melody’s co-designer Ao has long been inspired by showcasing art centred around Asian performers and the music business symbolising a kind of success that traditional Asian parents normally do not recognise or adhere to.

Being Chinese-American herself, she is committed to the series. “There are so many talented Asian artists in the music industry that I would love to spotlight on my Instagram account, so I don’t expect this collaborative project to completely stop in May — I would love for this to be an on-going series,” she said in an interview with Bandwagon.

You continues to emphasize the importance of shining a light on Asian artists and heritage as a segway for her large audience to access more of this music culture. As for future design plans? It’s looking bright as Melody further develops into product prints and designs beyond receipts.

Take a look at some of the images below:

Image by Melody You via Album Receipts

[via Bandwagon]