Meltybrains? - You

2022

Designed by Ronan Kelly and Mark Gilligan at RKMG

Mask Illustration: Mateusz Nowakowski

Categories: CD / Vinyl / Cassette

Industry: Cultural

Tags: Music / Typography

'You' is the first album by Irish band Meltybrains?

A melting pot of influences from footwork, drone and j-pop with krautrock, psychedelia and prog – the band describes the album as being 'for you, from you and of you'. In a direct nod to the album title, we created a limited run of mirrorboard outer sleeves which reflect the viewer. The title of the album is die-cut into the sleeve, revealing the detailed artwork beneath.

For the main artwork we wanted to represent the band's enigmatic sound by creating a series of beautiful objects that represent each track. Each one is proportionate in detail and size to the song it represents. For the front cover we extruded the waveform of each song into a series of 3D, ornamental objects rendered in glass. The photorealistic quality of the refracted glass is contrasted with a flat, dithered back cover in black and white. We tried to retain a glassy quality by diffusing points on the letterforms behind the objects as if they were emitting light.

Another point of contrast is revealed when the listener opens the inner gatefold. Meltybrains? often employ liberal use of colour in their live shows and visuals so we wanted to capture this, in addition to the blank mask which has also become synonymous with the band's live shows. Throughout the artwork, the counter of every letter 'o' is removed to create a solid form. When applied to the lyrics printed on the inside it creates a level 'ordered chaos' which we felt matched the band's energy and outlook on their music and process.

We also made artwork for 4 tracks that were released as singles which were used on social media, including animated visuals for each song.