brat but it's a graphic design analysis

also, it's green. i forgot to mention, it's green.

also i forgot some image credits: google fonts for the image for monolinear stroke and monotype for the image of high stroke contrast.

[LinusBoman]

This one is going to split the audience - you'll either know all about this or this will be totally over your head. I wanted to put together a quick and short video, so apologies if this was a bit too jargony to follow. I think I could have made a much longer video to explain a lot deeper and with more context, but honestly - I'm not convinced it would have been worth it! 😅 More short form 4:3 content coming soon, with a look at this year's Olympic pictograms, and then a new "proper" video is coming in August.

[Keetz]

Something I noticed about the text distortion was that it seemed *very* familiar- like I had seen this exact distortion amount before. So, I recreated the brat cover with a 4:3 canvas (and with the text the same height), rasterized it- and squished it to fit a square canvas. Sure enough, the distortion matched perfectly! Such a nice touch, makes it feel like a mid 2000s windows movie maker lyric video jammed into an album cover!

[TonyBullard]

The thing I love about these "I don't care" aesthetics (including the old punk stuff) is that they actually take deliberate work to make them look that way.

[u]

“You think that the album cover just fell out of a coconut tree?” — Max Miedinger (probably.)

[poundlandvodka]

THANK YOU FOR TALKING ABOUT THE JPEG ARTIFACTS everyones been blurring it wrong and its pissing me off

[OzzyII]

now this is the crossover i've been waiting for

[socalminstrel]

The "effort to make something look amateurish or like you didn't put in any effort" has such a long lineage. Even within my lifetime, there are the pre-ripped jeans or the carefully-done "just fell out of bed" hair style

[danwillis]

The ringing artifacts add so much depth. I love how the green is just a shade brighter around the letters.

[Flashv]

4:3 format is great for watching the video in picture-in-picture mode while searching the internet for brat meme

[capnceem]

Heard a guy call green Gatorade brat juice, I'm glad to know it meant something

[BaeYeou]

Ooh, 4:3 aspect ratio, my favourite!

[juanpablovallejos]

Not only did Charli choose such a bold album cover for Brat, but she also changed EVERY cover of her other albums on Spotify with the same idea, replacing the original artwork. That's another strong, innovative decision and a big f*ck you to the music industry

[NathanGatten]

Thank you for pointing out what the brat "generator" tool gets wrong, as its clearly not the same.
I oddly find the look a bit nostalgic, like it reminds me of photoshop tools of the early 2010's, and the painfullness of using them.

[janpov]

It's weird to me that no one else is mentioning it but the font used for the brat cover art is actually a dedicated existing font and not vertically stretched arial for any reasons. It's called ROM by the berlin based dinamo-typeface team. sorry for nerd talk but this should be a propper analysis!!!! hahaa jk all fun, nice vid

[MedlifeCrisis]

You have reached new levels of over-analysis. I love it.

[yeti]

You made some great points about this feeling like a human have done this opposing to the AI trend that is spreading across the music industry with more and more cover artworks being AI generated. Truly a great work from the design team, it became so iconic and recognizable in such a short period of time. I always love the anti-design design approaches, because when done right, it's still outstanding design work, even when it pisses off some people in the industry.

[mdmn-ARCA]

For something "on its last legs, " this video is honestly my first exposure to it...

[nope]

im so glad you talked about the slight blur of the text!! i feel like that just added the final touch to the cover, and it would've felt wayy different if it had been a clean vector. i love how this cover is SO intentional in its 'ugliness', down to how it is crunched and distorted to convey the pure /feeling/ of brat. like when i first saw the album i was like yeah- that's a bratty cover. it makes complete sense

[Aleph_Null_Audio]

Anti-deaign as you descroot feels like the digitally native version of the grunge aesthetic in the 90's. A lot of thise grunge fonts were messy too, though in a different sort of way.

[mikolasstrajt]

That rendering text small DPI and then resampling it to bigger size to get artifacts reminds me how we use plugins to get more lofi sound in music.