brat but it's a graphic design analysis

also, it's green. i forgot to mention, it's green.
for more nerdy stuff a few random times a year, sign up to my newsletter: buttondown.ema...
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.

[@jcut]

Loved the format! No intro no outro, pure value content packed in a nice 4:3 aspect ratio. 👏

[@sebastronaut92]

Nah this is great. I have been thinking a lot about the brat design so this really hit the spot, More analysis of current pop culture designs please!

[@boomr334]

No clue but I did take away that my aversion to stretching fonts while I muck about with editing software is sound. I feel clever but cannot really explain why.

[@oktofon381]

That was excellent. I wouldn‘t have minded a longer video, but I think you hit the sweet spot.

[@j_c_93]

I really enjoyed the video. I normally hate intros, but maybe this one needed at least a very short one, because I did not realize that it was an album cover until halfway through (and even then, I'm not sure if I'm correct). I thought it was a type of meme or something since you generally seem very tuned in to memes.

[@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!

[@MangoMakesArt]

Ayyy its flimpooooo thats actually rlly cool tho

[@piccalillipit9211]

"distortion was that it seemed very familiar-" YES it did to me, but Im not clever enough to investigate where, it just looked like part of my past life

[@manu_cnt]

WOOOOOOW

[@internetshaquille]

Okay now this is Julia

[@roliletea]

Jesus Christ on a plastic sign, what a surprise to see you here!

[@sussvarman]

my crush on net shaq did not need to get bigger and now i learn he likes typography???(shaq im free friday this friday the 26th the 26th of jul

[@SOOKIE42069]

oh oh

[@queztocoaxial]

You are, after all, the Amanda Bynes of whether to use chartreuse in your designs Oh, wait...

[@Yershykhin]

Here I am drinking brat juice and watching brat design analysis!

[@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.

[@drewmagoo1]

It's actually a bit ironic that it's trying to look like it was designed by an amateur, but it took probably weeks of meticulous deliberation by a NYC design firm to create this for a music star worth 10 million dollars. This "fuck the establishment" aesthetic was created by what I could only call the wealthy establishment in relation to my own life experience. It leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

[@-nomi.-]

Which is genius, because the album is about the image you try to present against the reality of who you are and what authenticity is supposed to be.

[@-nomi.-]

@@drewmagoo1 Probably right but it's not meant to be a fuck the establishment thing.

[@Tetrapharma]

@@drewmagoo1 It's just the work of one man designer Brent David Freaney

[@harrylane4]

@@Tetrapharma who runs, let me spell it out for you… a design firm. In New York City. It’s called special offer inc and it took one google to realize that my previous belief about the album cover was wrong

[@poundlandvodka]

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

[@108u9]

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

[@FrederickStark]

we've come full circle boys. time to wrap it up

[@danwillis58]

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

[@BaeYeou]

Ooh, 4:3 aspect ratio, my favourite!

[@yael9455]

I was thinking “wow, this looks amazing fullscreen on my ipad” lol

[@TheKoentje1994]

Such wonderful face shots of the Linus of aesthetics!

[@kidthekiddo8996]

my ipad agrees lol

[@faye7199]

i love it

[@OzzyII]

now this is the crossover i've been waiting for

[@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.

[@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

[@Flashv28]

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

[@nikilaj]

help that's what i was doing

[@capnceem]

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

[@stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369]

lols

[@MedlifeCrisis]

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

[@SianaGearz]

This is not over-analysis, it's the exact right amount of pointed pedantry.

[@aze4308]

great video! i love the shorter videos, and the 4:3 aspect ratio is nice!

[@yeti1221]

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.

[@mikolasstrajt3874]

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.

[@krissp8712]

I just fell out of a coconut tree, thank you! 🥥 🥥🥥

[@Simonrosseel]

I mean at least you exist in the context of everything that came before you right?

[@ratewcropolix]

@@Simonrosseel no they just fell out of a coconut tree did u not listen to what they said

[@Light_Dies_07]

bro did NOT just fall out of a coconut tree 💀💀 ❌❌❌

[@sabr_inappropriate]

@@Light_Dies_07bro exists in the context of all in which bro lives and came before bro 💀😭🙏🏽

[@juanpablovallejos8762]

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

[@ztdz]

damn i didn't see it, thanks dfor sharing this! i love the fact she really did it

[@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.

[@mdmn-ARCA]

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

[@ThePlacehole]

welcome to the world of shit design trends?

[@M4TCH3SM4L0N3]

​@@ThePlaceholemore like, welcome to the world of memes! Especially now, they tend to be highly specialized to small subgroups, and by the time they go "mainstream" enough to get noticed by other communities, it means the subgroup that birthed it is ready to abandon it for something new.

[@YOEL_44]

​@@M4TCH3SM4L0N3 I want to go back to the days of trollface and the roflcopter, this is an unhealthy specificity for what is suposed to be a viraly spread social movement.

[@KikiAelita]

@@YOEL_44 I agree. What was cool about the memes back in the day was that they were in fact pan-internet culture. Now they're a 'meme' in the way whatever was popular at your high school specifically was a 'meme'... but the next county over had no idea.

[@M4TCH3SM4L0N3]

@@YOEL_44 I hear you: I personally miss when the personal internet was geocities/angelfire, IRC, and ICQ, and memes were a distant sparkle in the eye of AYBABTU and Flash Animation comedies. That being said, I think that the days of trollface and roflcopter were similarly insular, except that the overall population of chronically online people was vastly smaller and, ironically, more diverse. As social-media consumer internet continues to take over, capitalism finds newer and newer ways to isolate us into our tiny little echo chambers, because that stimulates the dopamine that keeps us clicking the longest. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[@floral_boi]

Ahhhh this is the best intersection of all of my interests lol. I'm also a graphic designer and I was just talking to some coworkers about the impact/analysis of the brat design/memes. So good, thanks so much for so much detail!

[@DavySolaris]

Fucking love the artwork (and album) and your analysis of it is spot-on. It's just the right cover for the album, they fully understood the brief.

[@nope8977]

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

[@bepkoyt]

tbh i just thought it was Arial Narrow, but yes there seems to be a subtle difference between that font and how it's shown on the cover

[@sandwich2473]

never heard of brat before this video, and I'm not all that super duper into graphic design outside of thinking all the different kinds are pretty cool but I thought this was really insightful and informative!

[@proboffensive]

this is SO linus 💚💋

[@HorsesOnYT]

i love this channel

[@clout123]

"I hope you enjoyed that nerdy dissection". Always, dude - that's what I'm subscribed for. :)

[@NoomiSense]

What struck me about the design is how SO MANY people get the green wrong in the overlays on memes and references. This green (which CNN laughably called chartreuse) just brings me back to my first mobile phone in 2001 that had this slightly desaturated slightly lightened lime-green backlit screen.

[@serasvictoria3115]

I also love that it's simple but consistent, so it made an impact - great way to show some people that you need to look at strategy, not complexity, and sometimes simple things resonate better with us.

[@jeynarl]

Okay, so I know Arial may be prosaic, but it definitely has a soft spot in my heart doing stuff in aerospace engineering at a few companies where we used either Arial or century gothic on just about any technical document, drawing or part marking under MIL-STD-130

[@wanraitelli]

i love hearing a fellow designer nerd-talking about the design of my fave album of the summer! Thank you for this vid!

[@SetsunaTheFandom]

I never expected an analysis about this cover but I'm bumpin' that

[@bugginonthewall]

this was a brat summer indeed

[@jacoL8]

video just uploaded and boomers are already shitting on something they don't understand...anyways... great video linus!

[@Ludix147]

It's similar to the thing that youtubers do where they show the clap at the beginning of the video, don't try to hide their microphones, include some behind the scenes in the video itself. It gives the product a certain relatable DIY feel. It is interesting that this has not happened that much with music so far!

[@csmcrckrs]

Equivalent in the world of music would be a drumstick count in at the start of a recorded song

[@jemiller226]

@@csmcrckrs Or leaving the click track in. Gods help us if that becomes a trend LOL

[@royareyzabal823]

@@jemiller226 I will always claim that one (I didn't knew I had it on and I just liked it ☠)

[@soup_rah]

Love this video and learning new things - i love both short and long form videos from you!

[@janpov5160]

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

[@qwertyuiop.lkjhgfdsa]

i have never before heard of this the internet as a cohesive thing doesnt really exist and even on the same platform there are a billion different bubbles that might literally never intersect and i think this is a solid example of that. this is _'the meme of summer 2024'_ for some people sure but it definitely isnt where i frequent

[@brantelope5257]

That’s so brat

[@frtzkng]

"digital brutalism" is something i didn't know exists but i'm glad it does

[@dcarbs2979]

This type of (typo)graphic design and origins of brutalism has been around for at least 100 years, beginning soon after WW1. It's closely related to the architectural movement of the same name. The main aim: zero decoration.

[@iPodnanoManInSweden]

I also would like to highlight the agency behind the cover: Special Offer Inc. They are based in New York and, judging from their instagram, seem to be influenced by simple, normal, everyday "ugly" typography found all around the city - stuff you'd see printed on the back of a van or on a window of a small neighborhood business. Great video as always though!

[@jeff__w]

“…you'll either know all about this or this will be totally over your head.” I didn’t know anything about it but your explanation, as always, was crystal clear. One writer on the “savvy” financial/economics blog I read was horrified by “amateurishness” of the political candidate’s new site, knowing nothing of Charli XCX or her album-and was politely (too politely, perhaps) set straight in the comments-so it’s really good to have some solid graphic design analysis behind the look of the design.

[@dotnothing5620]

I feel like you could have done more with this. I was ready to hear a lot more about it.

[@piccalillipit9211]

*SHOW THE IMPERFECTIONS OF THE HUMAN PROCESS* I'm a semi-professional tailor of bespoke men's historical suits, I fret about my imperfections ... ... my clients LOVE them. I have toyed with the idea of artificially adding them, like a mismatched button or a "pieced" pannel - but I DK, maybe that is cheezy

[@whiteheavn]

this is a really good design analysis man

[@Noodle_Druid]

love the burn on arial, especially since the company I work for insists everything is written in arial

[@eponymouscharacter]

I’m not a designer, so I appreciate the succinct and clear explanation of this cover that I was really wondering about. I particularly like the point of it looking like it’s made by a human and not AI.

[@FreddieRansom]

ever since charli revealed she got inspired by gregg araki's smiley face opening credits, i've loved the cover even more than i did before

[@BaghaShams]

Enjoyed this very nerdy dissection but still looking forward to a new proper full video!

[@MattMcIrvin]

This album cover was excitedly described to me by my GenZ daughter before I actually saw it, and she didn't specify which way the text had been stretched so in my mind I imagined it had been stretched horizontally instead of vertically, and that image was striking enough that the actual cover still slightly surprises me. Reading discussion of the design, I realize that a key thing about it is something that didn't even occur to me: there is no picture of Charli XCX on the cover. This is something that's completely normal, if not universal, for male artists (consider The Beatles' White Album), but women are always pushed to put pictures of themselves out there.

[@VikrantPatankar13]

love the aspect ratio of your video

[@dannyglam2132]

When I initially saw the album cover I immediately thought of making “away messages” on AIM. You only had a selection of default colors and fonts to choose from. I feel like she was trying to evoke that.

[@Clepston]

I think this formula for 5-ish minute “short form content” is really working, or at least it is for me. I really appreciate your perspective and getting a look into the world of graphic design, but my main problem with the channel is going months without anything new to chew on.

[@EllaGP22]

I love the aspect ratio of this video!!

[@cemmy410]

So what is the thing we're analyzing here? An album cover? It's just green with one word? A little bit of background information at the top of the video would have gone a long way here 😅

[@thefieldsofdawn]

Love the 4:3 ratio

[@Dschoanig]

the album cover is also inspired by dyi designs for raves :)

[@ReubenCornell]

I was literally waiting for your take on this. Knew it would be coming.

[@ring_raitch]

Imo this really speaks as an homage to Internet counterculture musicians... I'm getting Bill Wurtz, for e.g. and general early KZbin vibes like the Nyan cat, runrunrun kid, it is Wednesday, he man what's up, etc. KZbin poop was all about this wild compression and distortion as commentary too. Its such a simple but specific callback to the 2012-2016 Internet vibes, while also retaining the counterculture feel that points forward and speaks to youthful rebellion. I love it 😅

[@lolkthnxbai]

I find it so interesting how much that early 2000s "crunchyness" is the best I can describe it, in the lower MP and resolutions of the era being viewed today watching a 360p video in 2024 look is returning. In the way we millennials who grew up near the tail end of the film era still go for that "film aesthetic" the younger generation is doing much the same except their "film" is old Panasonic DV camera's and early 2000's sony cybershot handhelds.

[@mimosa5174]

I would also add that the aesthetic of something“done poorly/quickly” but for such a big release really fits with the attitude of a stereotypical brat. I thought it was an incredibly smart cover. You can’t make something this stupid without being very smart.

[@Hemo-Dyn]

Thank you very much Linus. This analysis will work wonders to get me laid.

[@hedgeearthridge6807]

In the professional sphere of business you see brat design absolutely everywhere. Except it's not intentional, it's just people legitimately not knowing any better and of course just picking Arial for everything because it's what everyone else does. That's the secret of the business professional world, everyone is in over their heads and has no idea what they're doing, and we just wing it. If you've ever been to a powerpoint presentation, you've seen it. Also the opaque "Business English" everyone uses that's just using big technical words to make euphemisms for everything, is part of that too. You can't tell the bosses something is broken, or risk sounding uneducated, so you gotta say you're having "technical difficulties" even though everyone knows you mean "it's broken". So if you ever end up in the corporate sphere and feel imposter syndrome, it's ok, everyone is afraid and has imposter syndrome 😂

[@Kristian.Ofsteng]

Kinda reflects the music itself. It harkens back to the sound of the 2000s, with low-fidelity home-recorded music done on raw distorted analogue synths and stuff by smaller bedroom producers at the time. I love that sound Charli has adopted. It all may come across as low effort to someone from those days, but nowadays achieving that look and that sound is getting harder than it used to be because AI, without you asking for it, is automatically trying to help you out on your music production software or on your image creating software. It's challenging to make "low effort" images like the brat cover.

[@rita2506]

I’m loving the 1:1 video ratio

[@amrenmurray]

It also looks like really subtle use of unsharp mask was also used to bring out the edges of the letters more against the background.

[@hisham_hm]

haven't even watched it yet but: (1) love the subject (2) not enough magnified antialiasing artifacts in the thumbnail

[@mimasweets]

Loving this squarish video format.

[@PurplySkye]

this video was a banger, good shit!

[@jell0goeswiggle]

I have no idea what brat is but I love hearing the analysis so it was all good.

[@saidthesquatch]

Thanks for the deep dive! I've considered writing a paper or something on this trend for my bachelor's. 😅

[@EdgarsDrusts]

You can read an interview on NY Times with the designer - Brent David Freaney. They went through 500+ shades of green, and it was designed as 100x100px and then just blown up.

[@danielhughes441]

Every video I love more than the last! ❤

[@Srrrokka]

Oh wow I didn't know that they made the "graphic design is my passion" meme into actual graphic design 😂

[@Respectable_Username]

"This is an old meme that's probably dead by now" Me who's never heard of it before now:

[@cpt_nordbart]

I only use rainbow WordArt for anything.

[@GerryIsNear]

I don’t know what brat is, but this video gives me the impression it’s like the “graphic design is my passion” meme, but intentional?

[@rabbitos]

graphic design is my passion 🐸

[@AliasA1]

Love the commentary, but it'd be nice with some more examples of the things you talk about? I'm not in the know, so I was struggling to imagine the elements you discussed without pausing it and trying to look it up, and then wondering if I was looking at the same thing you were because it's hard to tell which results are part of the aesthetic and which results are just random designs related to the word "brat"

[@bakunawa-wu2zh]

I remember the emperor's new clothes with this design.

[@Azzyy444]

trying to add a deep philosophical context behind the brat album cover is hilarious to me because she literally just did it because she can, there was no deeper meaning behind it

[@CthulhusDream]

This is all news to me lol, had never heard of a single thing you mentioned. Guess I am the old now

[@eldrago19]

"internet brutalisn" is my new favourite phrase.

[@Zveebo]

It has been very funny seeing all the ernest boomers completely missing the meme and trying to tell Kamala her team has terrible design skills. Nice analysis as always Linus! I really like these videos that capture a passing moment of design aesthetic - quite a useful reference point for the far future (ok next year) when everyone has forgotten what this was all about.

[@wutzerface77]

Been loving all the 4:3 recently btw

[@TaxPact]

i wouldn't call this anti-design genre as "anti-design" but just brutalism or anti-simplistic design. it's still a design, just unusual.

[@barryswigart1432]

Im old enough and offline enough to have no idea what this video is about.

[@mintcervida6372]

That’s pretty brat tbh

[@maraj49]

Jesus Christ this is so good

[@asuka7309]

chronically online designers are gonna eat this up

[@AlexanderPrussak]

the 4:3 (?) aspect ratio makes these so much cozier, organic (fitting the frame more to his portrait) and sophisticated looking in a good way, but maybe it's also just to appeal to ipad users. i quite like the micro trend of having queer aspect ratios

[@SunnyIntervalsORG]

Video suggestion: Design analysis for campaign artwork for US presidential candidates.

[@royareyzabal823]

it would be pretty interesting to see how the design team behind Kamala's campaign worked with this reference

[@perspicaciouscritic]

Well, that's Pantone's Colour of the Year 2025 sorted: Pantone 3570-C aka Brat Green.

[@yamayoani9020]

There is a nightclub in Berlin that had the same logo and branding as the brat album.

[@rentboyjack]

FYI the style ref for it was the opening credits of Smiley Face by Gregg Araki, special offer smashed the whole graphics and rollout

[@samuelkellock]

I've built my KZbin recommended brick by brick

[@Arturino_Burachelini]

Arial - hated by designers, beloved by financiers

[@schnitzelsemmel]

CharliXCX would be so mad at you calling this the "I don't care" aesthetic hahahah

[@alveolate]

that design no-no of not distorting font textboxes is new to me! are there entire lists of these sorts of things? are they passed by some supreme court of design geeks? asking for a brat

[@royareyzabal823]

you could check the book Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton and Principles of Design by Wucius Wong, they cover greatly all the principles of graphic design. Actually check any Ellen Lupton book, she's great, I adore her. Great educator and great person, she really gave me her passion for graphic design and typography with her book. About Wucius Wong, he goes in GREAT detail about everything design, specially design made in computers. His book touches on 2D principles and 3D principles. Go wild reading, these are really good books for starters.

[@Aurelius511]

Look up "logo design guidelines". For example, for the Spotify logo. They are literally instructions on how to use and not use a logo, and have a section "logo misuse" where there are some hilarious examples of a distorted or a badly altered logo.

[@Rex-u5v9w]

I think it's supposed to give off the vibe that someone sat a pissy teenager in front of the computer and told her "you're not getting up until you come up with an album cover" and she made this as a fuck you to them, which feels to me like the aesthetic of the whole brat thing. Not only that, the brat green is one of the default colors on MS Paint. It's deliberately the minimum effort required to make a cover: pick a random color from the palette, add some text, stretch it a bit from the corner because fuck moving the mouse all the way to the font settings, boom, album cover, now let me go have fun. I can think of at least three students I've had who would totally pull this.