Sarah Reed
WorkProfile
BRAT Magazine
Web Design
Social Design
Print Design
Motion Design
As a military brat leaving her safe military environment, I found a crucial lack of community amongst young people in my same situation. Thousands of young adults start their post-military family life and enter a foreign civilian world that feels isolated, scary, and lonely.
The goal of BRAT is to harness a print and online community for those struggling with being a young adult and current or post-military brat. BRAT embraces the nostalgic, utopian aspects of life on a military base and contrasts it with the transience and disconnection a child feels when they are constantly uprooted against their will.
To be able to create a visual experience for those to connect with their military brat past was extremely rewarding. It was somewhat of an emotional release, a summation of my past, fitting into a newsprint magazine and a lengthy process book. I processed my own emotions through this project and learned so much about design as therapy, design as pure empathy, design as emotional comfort.
Starting with a printed publication, BRAT Issue One tackles the foundation of what growing up in the military was like. From parental deployments to life on base, the curated articles pinpoint nostalgic factors of life as a brat.
Military brats are known for their ability to quickly adapt and respond to their environments. In the same vein, I wanted to create a system that adapts to each medium it’s presented on, from web to social media to public advertisements.