Charli XCX ‘brat’ artwork designer shares creative process
Art director Brent David Freaney shares insight into the design process behind the album that defined summer 2024
The designer who worked with Charli XCX on the artwork for her 2024 album ‘Brat’ has revealed details of their creative process.
Brent David Freaney, art director at i-D magazine and creative tech company Special Offer, Inc., gave insight into the making of the album’s iconic green aesthetic at the recent Config 2026 global design conference in San Francisco. The project won Charli XCX, creative director Imogene Strauss, and Freaney the 2025 Grammy for Best Recording Package.
In a keynote speech, Freaney shared a selection of previously unseen ‘Brat’-era inspiration materials, including early drafts of the green cover that explored different typefaces and colour variations, along with other visual assets that informed the vinyl, tour, single and remix artwork. He explained that the project’s visual identity was shaped by the theme of the “death of the finished state” and the question of when a creative process is complete. Freaney also revealed that the final blurred ‘Brat’ cover was caused by an export error of a low-res screenshot.
“I think it’s a misconception that from design one to two, three, four you need to be getting better and better, and closer to the thing,” he shared. “Sometimes you’re just exploring more and learning and trying to define what you don’t want it to be, so you can understand what the boundaries are.”
“We had no idea what was going to happen to [‘Brat’] and what it was going to do,” Freaney added. “I was just really happy to have gotten Charli to a place that she was really happy with and that she felt like really represented her album in the right way.”
Watch the presentation in full below, along with some selected ‘brat’-focused clips and highlights.
Charli XCX’s next album ‘ Music, Fashion, Film ’ is out on 24th July, with visuals that have also been designed with Special Offer, Inc. The album cover is a black-and-white photograph by Aidan Zamiri showing John Cale, Marc Jacobs and Martin Scorsese in a kitchen.
Special Offer, Inc. has also designed the art and visuals for Madonna’s upcoming album, ‘ Confessions On A Dance Floor: Part II ’.
