Can this aesthetic take us back to when times were good? No. But will looking at it make us feel some kind of wistful and emotionally attached to them good old times? Yes.
Life seemed like a fever dream back in the late 2000s (in a good way)—The Y2K era had reached its peak, Apple had just released their first ever iPhone, The Sony Walkman was getting outsold by the Apple iPod, almost everyone was getting swept up by PSPs, Nintendo DS Lites, Wiis, and many other gadgets, and when everyone booted up their computers, they’d be greeted by that iconic Windows XP wallpaper showing a lush green hill with a peaceful azure blue sky.
At that time, yeah. Life felt like it was at its peak.
Fast forward to 2023— Y2K has been hitting us well in the past year. Almost everyone has been riding in the definitive “Y2K core” aesthetic, with the futuristic, cyber-obsessed, and a hint of glitter trend that took Gen Z by the neck.
Literally, anyone who has been chronically online at this time must have seen the TikTok edits, the music releases, the fashion, and many other aspects of pop culture getting eaten up by Y2K core.
Now, just as how aesthetics and trends come and go, Y2K core is now waving goodbye and ushering a new niche aesthetic that we can all associate with that exact Windows XP wallpaper (though it’s older), the first Apple iPhone interface, the PSPs, and the lens flare.
Let’s all welcome back the Frutiger Aero aesthetic.
Although the name of this exact core has just been coined most recently by Sofi Lee from the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute (CARI) in 2017, the aesthetic has made its comeback and resurgence in the most recent year thanks to TikTok creators.
@nostalg1ac0re frutiger aero #frutigeraero #nostalgia #nostalgic #nostalgiacore #dreamcore #weirdcore #kidcore #childhood #childhoodmemories #liminalspaces #backrooms #feverdream #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #fypシ #viral
@stitchedupd0ll I love my ipod <3 #fyp#foryou#aesthetic#ipod#iphone#apple#cyberfuturism#frutigeraero#futigeraero#tech#fashion#style#closet#fashiontiktok#ipodtouch
@liminalkore frutiger 🫧 #fyp #webcore #frutigeraero #aesthetic
@theadamsapple #Apple moving from the Aqua era to the Aluminium era 😎🍎 #Mac #iPhone #iPad #iPod #iMac #frutigeraero
@alygremlin APPS I USED: Shortcuts, Yidget, and Picsart (for transparent icons), then Widgetable for the decorative widget. App Icons were from an archive of all Windows Vista icons. There’s plenty of tutorials on Tiktok if you’d like to recreate this! #frutigeraero #phonetheme #wallpaper
https://twitter.com/creepypansit/status/1648652713327202304?s=20
counterpoint to frutiger aero, just heard 'metalheart' is the name for the style that's lived in the base of my skull for the last 20 years pic.twitter.com/wJznGZS3yi
— sam rolfes (@samrolfes) April 19, 2023
frutiger aero my beloved 💙💙💙 pic.twitter.com/j7H9VhKgSC
— Tokoni (@TokoniKio) May 26, 2023
https://twitter.com/literail/status/1663652343252938752?s=20
https://twitter.com/sexnmargiela/status/1660355988023652352?s=20
crazy how we really thought the frutiger aero design aesthetic of the early 00s was the FUTURE pic.twitter.com/Ags0gN63LY
— Z A Y (@thebreakfastgod) March 31, 2023
take me back to frutiger aero pic.twitter.com/auzYj2fAbJ
— clay 🪴 (@_claypot) May 9, 2023
https://twitter.com/Saphirrus/status/1663134553647599618?s=20
The Frutiger Aero aesthetic was named after 2 iconic features that make up its core: the Frutiger family of fonts and Windows Aero, the design language for Windows Vista. This particular aesthetic can also be noted in designs such as the bokeh, lens flares, glossy textures, linear (and rounded) graphics called skeuomorphs, and the use of vibrant blues, greens, and yellows.
While somewhat giving an idealistic perspective on nature and the future as a whole, this whole aesthetic presents a reality that almost everyone is trying to find at the moment. The Frutiger Aero aesthetic takes us back to the time where everything just seemed at peace, when everyone was minding their own business and not too controlled by the devices we had at the time.
No, technically we’re not saying goodbye to the beloved Y2K aesthetic (just yet), but we’re just opening ourselves to embracing this naturalistic and calming aesthetic that reminds us of when times were goo0d, and when we actually owned what we bought–like software and music–but that’s an article feature for another day.
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