Brat is…What, Exactly?

"For years, both Charli and her critics seemed distractingly obsessed with her position—the darling of the underground who either would or could not graduate to Main Pop Girl. Then something shifted, and it hardly seemed to matter. She had something they didn’t. She was cool.” (Pitchfork)

Is Kamala Harris "brat?" Since 2020, she’s stayed in the background behind Biden, on the outskirts of the limelight. Yet now, she has effortlessly transformed and sashayed her way right into our feeds with an unburdened, electric-green intensity and a zany aunt energy. This transformation is partly — if not mostly — thanks to Charli xcx’s branding brilliance. But how did these two fully-famous yet somehow-still-unexpected starlets climb the ladder of fame yet again? 

The Brat Visual Identity

The brat visual identity is simple yet striking: an arresting shade of green (Pantone 3570-C) coupled with a subtly pixelated black font (Arial Narrow). This combination is jarring and a little confusing; the blurriness almost looks like a mistake. Charli likened it to Pop Art because it delicately toes the line between what is or isn’t considered ~fine~ art. Album art is typically a photo of the artist, yet Charli eschewed normality and instead went for this pared down anti-design. She intentionally made it feel unfashionable: “It had to be really untrendy and uncool. Because there’s nothing worse than vibes. Boo to cool vibes. Hate that.” (Billboard)

Beyond [uncool] vibes, Charli’s career has been guided by her synesthesia, or her perception of music as color. In a 2013 interview, she said that she only likes music that looks black, pink, purple, or red, and hates music that looks green, yellow, or brown. These preferences are now on full display in her catalog; following brat’s release, she transposed the brat aesthetic onto all of her previous album covers. The only difference: the older albums utilize her most-loved colors, while brat’s artwork stands alone in its green ugliness. Why would she choose a color/design that she views as so ugly?

The Unconventional Appeal of Green

That particular shade of granny-smith green isn’t ugly to everyone, nor has it always been considered ugly. In 2003, my L.L. Bean backpack was a nuclear hue of lime green, so it bright nearly glowed in the dark. While it definitely wasn’t the backpack color of choice for any of the other kids at my school, the simple fact that L.L. Bean (!!) even thought to offer it as one of its colorways is evidence enough of the color’s hold on the burgeoning indie sleaze era. And it was exactly this neon-tinged inclination that Charli sought to evoke in brat. The album is meant to be as unapologetic and wild as the Y2K era, with its mean girl-esque celebrities who went for unhinged, drunken nights out and got [truly accidentally] caught in the flash of the paparazzi’s cameras. They weren’t untouchable enough to be flying on a chartered plane yet – you could still run into them at the airport, but no, they won’t talk to you. 

The Essence of Brat

That sort of unbothered vibe is exactly what qualifies as brat. It is coolness without needing approval. It’s at first overlooked but ends in total obsession. It somehow needs no explanation (that would be totally uncool). 

It’s also a brand of coolness that isn’t hollow either. In brat, Charli weaves together complicated musings on grief, friendship, jealousy, anxiety, ambition, fame, and motherhood — all sprinkled amongst the club kid vibes. The album is as multifaceted as it is committed to having a good time. It also emerged in a sea of emotionally-driven, meticulously produced (and sometimes monotonous) albums. Charli ticks all of those boxes while tossing us a wink and dragging us by our elbows into the sweaty club to have some fucking fun. Her album is so good because it offers up refreshing takes on life’s complexities without getting consumed by it all.

Kamala Harris: The Political Brat

Kamala’s coolness is not about superficial approval but about a deeper quest for what lies beyond authenticity. We’ve seen her run for president before and we’ve also seen her play second fiddle to the world’s no. 1 nice guy. We’ve even watched her mess up (sometimes embarrassingly so) yet she’s still willing and able to laugh at herself along with us (crucial). Above it all, she’s the best answer for the ridiculous circumstances that we’ve been presented with. We are, in fact, enthralled by her entrance onto the scene today, regardless of what we thought about her yesterday. 

Like Charli, Kamala is next tasked with finding a way to thread together a bunch of very familiar elements and make something remarkable. The final product needs to be brat.

“What this all amounts to is a viral marketing stunt that any presidential candidate would pay millions for, but one that no strategist or ad agency could create. It’s all entirely organic, forged from the fires of a truly bizarre and unpredictable time, and the feeling that a little chaos might be exactly what American politics needs. For once, it really does seem like we can become unburdened from what has been. And perhaps Kamala Harris will be laughing all the way to the Oval Office.” (Vox)

As Harris moves forward, she’ll want to channel this brat energy into an equally powerful campaign, meeting the demands of the limelight (literally lime) with something more unifying and significant. The vibes — thank you, Charli — have brought us to Kamala’s doorstep; now it's time for her to meet the moment. 

Thanks for reading!

I’m Anne Marie, a designer and diy-er who lives in Philadelphia. I primarily work with large and small brands on their marketing/design but I also do video/motion graphics. You can see the work that I’m hired to create on my website. Connect with me on LinkedIn and reach me directly at: annemarie [at] amlindemann [dot] com.