Upping The Anti

Charli XCX’s latest album cover is a slime green square with the title “brat” slapped on the front. The word is uncapitalised, typed out in Arial (a famously bland and ubiquitous typeface) and it’s been stretched out of proportion, skewing taller than its default height. The final “design” flourish: the artwork has been exported at low resolution, with the text appearing fuzzy and pixelated. As soon as the artwork was released, social media kicked into gear with comment after comment questioning whether this was really what one of the world’s biggest pop stars, no doubt with plenty of financial backing, had landed on for her album artwork. Some even asked: “Is this a placeholder?” The marketing team quickly capitalised on the moment, releasing a meme generator where anyone could give their chosen word the “brat” treatment.

Earlier in the year, photographer Juergen Teller’s photoshoot for W Magazine’s Best Performances issue sparked online discourse with comments including: “Why is he employed?” Teller’s style is distinctive for precisely the reasons people consider his photos “bad”: they’re candid, lighting is inconsistently exposed and his subjects are often presented with seemingly unposed or unguarded facial expressions. US graphic designer Elizabeth Goodspeed expertly unpacks Teller’s shoot, explaining how his photography for W eschews technical complexity and conventional beauty standards in order to challenge the perceptions of how celebrities and fashion icons “should” be presented in a premium publication. But why is it important to question this or to continually think of new ways to photograph celebrities?

Creativity is a nebulous concept. It’s often defined as a tendency to generate “newness” through forming or recognising ideas and alternative paths to solve problems or communicate with people in novel, entertaining and engaging ways. Creativity is a tool to defy expectations through either invention, or its slightly more accessible counterpart, reinvention. Reinvention is particularly important for a brand like W Magazine, which publishes a new issue every two months, each time having to find different ways to distinguish itself. Challenging consumers’ expectations with photography that’s perceived to be low quality becomes a clever tactic in achieving an important business objective: constant change. Teller’s shoot bestows W Magazine with the jolt of “newness” it needs to position itself at the forefront of innovative approaches to visual culture. It makes it “cool” and relevant, as it dares to be different – to be “bad”.

It’s not that low-quality design and photography is suddenly the new benchmark of creativity. The overarching reason these examples have been successful in engaging people lies in their ability to set themselves apart in their fields. Society is inundated with images – approximately 80 million per day are uploaded to Instagram alone. This doesn’t account for videos, reels or any other social-media platform, let alone images we may glance at in print, on posters, billboards, or a graphic on a stranger’s T-shirt. The world’s back catalogue of imagery is ever-increasing, especially now with the proliferation of AI image-generation platforms. 

Goodspeed explains how AI has made it simple and accessible for anyone to create visually complex images that possess “the pomp and drama of large-scale commercial shoots”. Perhaps it’s only natural that an accomplished fashion photographer such as Teller would gravitate towards the banal, to aesthetically distinguish himself from other high-end photographers, or from the rapidly growing presence of AI imagery. Or that Charli XCX would reject the polished, overproduced album artwork that has previously defined her artform.

Although these examples have generated plenty of online engagement, like any trend, this one is not for everybody and it’s certainly not for every brand. A celebrity in designer clothes standing in a cheap souvenir shop is artistically interesting because of the incongruity between the subject and their surroundings. Charli XCX is a provocateur. When you’re swimming in visuals, strangeness or a mistake sticks out – but there are plenty of ways to establish uniqueness and get noticed. The trick is to find a solution that is authentic to your brand.

Before you can defy conventions, you have to understand them. Not every brand and business has a rebellious ethos. Bentley, for example, is defined as the pinnacle of luxury. It prides itself on “pushing automotive craftsmanship to new levels”. If Bentley suddenly embraced this “anti-design” aesthetic, the results would send a confusing message. Consumers could easily equate low-quality visuals with low-quality craftsmanship, sending a wrecking ball through one of Bentley’s brand pillars and destroying brand equity. 

At 4AM, our expertise and brand-building processes ensure you stand out for the right reasons. Our recent strategy and design work for Hydroflow reflect how we work alongside our clients to devise, design and deliver a new brand direction. Understanding Hydroflow’s commitment to quality, knowledge and sustainability, we investigated ways to communicate that their offering is driven by technology and innovation. Rather than asking, “What does a plumbing distributor look like?”, we asked ourselves, “What could a plumbing distributor look like? What does innovation look like?” This led us to the creation of brand touchpoints, such as fully rendered animations befitting of a leading tech company, effectively building on Hydroflow’s future-focussed ethos.

Sure, you can use AI to generate a quick, cheap image, rather than invest in a professionally polished photoshoot – or you can jump on the “uncrafted” trend. However, in a world inundated with imagery, we are all becoming increasingly visually literate. To the discerning consumer, that generated image could stick out as a sign you’re the kind of company that cuts corners, that you’re not willing to invest in every facet of your offering. If affordability is a brand pillar, a cost-effective creative output could be a fitting solution, or maybe your brand would benefit from a “cool”, nonchalant approach à la Charli XCX and Teller. But without rigorously investigating, understanding and effectively communicating who you are, you may just alienate the very audience you’re trying to attract. After all, you don’t have to be bad to get noticed.