Going Viral w/ House Party

The project that went viral: House Party

You’ve probably seen this poster before.

It’s everywhere—pinned, reposted, resold ever since we made it in 2020. And yet, chances are, you had no idea it came from us. This is House Party—our most recognisable project.

Not because it’s credited to After Hours, but because it’s been endlessly recreated by the ‘greats’:

Shein
Temu
Adobe (as a template, naturally)
Etsy
And anyone on Pinterest armed with Image Trace and a dream

We get DMs weekly from people spotting it in the wild.

It’s practically a sport at this point: Where will House Party show up next? On a Shein tote bag? A shirt for a record label? Or, as our friend recently informed us, plastered on the wall of a café in a small town in Virginia (we have photo evidence of all three, DM us).

Going viral was always the dream. Just… not like this.

And who do you even complain to (other than you, dear reader)? Who do you report it to? What are the actual consequences? Does ownership still matter, or is it just another thing we’ve traded for “reach”?

Here’s where we’ve landed:

Stop sharing our work (could be unrealistic).
Play them at their own game. We could start making our own posters, prints, and templates—take back the narrative and, at the very least, some of the profits. (For context: it’s already selling for $13 a pop on Etsy. On Temu, it’s going for $5 and has sold over 6,500 times. Math’s not my strong suit, but that looks like a juicy return).
Turn off the internet entirely.

If you’ve got better ideas, our inbox is open.

Anyway, those are Jasmine’s musings for today. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for letting me spiral.

Until next time.