The importance of replicability (branding lessons from Charli XCX).

Charli XCX’s radical album branding taps into the cultural zeitgeist with a simple trick: replicability. 

One color, four letters, a default lowercase font. It’s stupidly simple and meme-able. We’ve seen a number of brands parody the album’s artwork already, and why wouldn’t they? It takes all of two minutes to slap text on a neon green background, and gen z loves it.

This branding has become so iconic, everything neon green looks ‘brat coded.’ I’ve seen fans get neon green nail polish, and I’ve personally witnessed more neon green fashion this summer than I have ever before. 

This is just another example of why brands need to ‘keep it simple, stupid.’ Branding that is easy to replicate is much more likely to engage with culture at large.

Pictured: a crochet version of the ‘brat’ album artwork by reddit user oluyorum.