Brat summer is over—nobody is even talking about it anymore. Which is my favorite time to reflect on a subject! I chalk its success up to being a right-place, right-time phenomenon, but we can still learn a lot from the process and goals behind its memetic rise.
Brent David Freaney, the designer who developed the identity alongside Imogene Strauss, was interviewed in the New York Times and described how the team wanted to capture the energy of the album itself, represent the irreverent feeling of summer, and make sure it couldn’t be associated with anything else. They succeeded after a five-month-long design process and testing 500 different shades of green.
With that, here’s my free advice on creating something impactful and memorable—but no guarantees it’ll reach brat fame:
- Capture the energy. So much of communication design is visually representing something that can supplement a bigger, more detailed idea, while being clear on its own. When designing, ask yourself, “How should this make an audience feel?” An album cover is an ideal format for this.
- Resonate with a moment. Things change quickly, and being nimble enough to acknowledge and adapt to change is important. Could the brat album cover have worked if it was released in mid-February?
- Be unique. My favorite of them all: Create something that is distinctive and easily identifiable. Sometimes that can be simple; more often it looks simple but involves months of work and hundreds of shades of green. No matter how seemingly simple or complex Charli XCX’s album art is, or whether the team spent five months or five minutes, it’s unmistakably brat, and unforgettable to all who see it.
I suppose my big thing with brat, at least when it comes to graphic design, is don’t try to “do brat.” I’m pretty sure that’s not brat.
