Fruitiger Aero

[Monoki]

I was watching some videoes about the fruitiger aero style. It feels super nostalgic for me as 2000s kid. Its one of those styles I hope returns in some form as its super positive and "bright". Brings back fonder memories of the older internet. Do any of you feel the same? 

Ha! I've been trying to take my own spin on the style with some small projects I have. It does take me back to a time when things seemed simpler and more optimistic than they do now. and a lot of my favorite things incorporated the style: WALL-E, Mario Galaxy, Portal. Wii era gaming in general.

Also was probably around the last time I was on forums more regularly too.

[fauxclore]

I get what people are saying, about how this style reminds them of childhood. I was already a little older when the style was in vogue, and even though I adored exploring those versions of windows when they came out, the whole "Windows Vistaeness" of it is a little ugly to me right now. That doesn't take away any value, "ugly" and "beautiful" being as subjective as they are.

But yeah, it was in some way a bright way to look at technology, albeit one where corporate claws were already deep into defining what words like "good" and "beautiful" were supposed to mean. I cannot get past the whole "curated" look of the style. I don't feel the same "freedom" inherent in Frutiger Aero as I do in thinks like Cassette Futurism and the like. Which is strange, I was not around (in a meaningful way) when 80's computers and technology were used. Nostalgia is a weird thing.

[GYARU~TAU♪]

I quite like the style! Visually it employs a lot of motifs that I already quite like, and it's interesting to think about the sorts of tech designs that came to be as a result of it.

I can't speak as someone who was super conscious during all of this but the transition between large and bulky machinery to the more convenient (sometimes to a fault) designs we see in modern technology having this incredibly weird and round middle ground- almost awkward teen phase is kinda funny to me.

I get what people are saying, about how this style reminds them of childhood. I was already a little older when the style was in vogue, and even though I adored exploring those versions of windows when they came out, the whole "Windows Vistaeness" of it is a little ugly to me right now. That doesn't take away any value, "ugly" and "beautiful" being as subjective as they are.

But yeah, it was in some way a bright way to look at technology, albeit one where corporate claws were already deep into defining what words like "good" and "beautiful" were supposed to mean. I cannot get past the whole "curated" look of the style. I don't feel the same "freedom" inherent in Frutiger Aero as I do in thinks like Cassette Futurism and the like. Which is strange, I was not around (in a meaningful way) when 80's computers and technology were used. Nostalgia is a weird thing.

I definitely agree with your point here! I think as we get older and the corporate lens becomes more visible to us it makes it a lot harder to see certain revival trends as a return to a simpler, more nostalgic time. Really, the artistic freedom comes- to me anyways, in seeing how people take these long-dead styles and innovate on them in their own, personal ways that are untouched by corporate greed. It's just unfortunate that for every style that happens to become beloved, there's someone out there that will stop at nothing to commodify it.

[wolfkitty42]

I think I definitely like it a fair amount! As a kid, my family had a fish lamp. The fish "swam" around when you turned it on. It was colorful, and bright, and I loved it! These days, I think it's a cute vibe. Like, I totally want an ocean themed bathroom! Would that not be ADORABLE? I also quite like some of the transluscent plastics. I'm not sure I like them THAT much- Solid colored plastics are a little more my jam. That being said, they're pretty cool! I just want more bright colors in general.... T   w T

[Nova]

I'm not a fan of the bubbles in it, but I love how it feels like, a sort of shiny future with nature living in harmony with society.

I feel like it could live in tandem with Solarpunk, another aesthetic I fw cuz enviromentalism yes.

[Corrupted Unicorn]

Coming back to this topic with a negative rant 

I think I know what's what I don't like about this whole Frutiger Aero thing.
I don't dislike the aesthetic itself, but I find the name, and the act of giving it a name or label, pretentious.
I feel like, let's say I've been living in a little rural village where we decorate our houses with mosaic made out of broken tiles, slapped straight on the walls. For us, it's always been this way, and there's fellow rural villages that do the same, maybe with some slight variance for the eyes of experts.

And then a bus full of yuppies from the city come here, go all "oooh" and "aaaah" over my kitchen walls, take photos, maybe there's someone who tries to tear the mosaic off my kitchen wall  , and then they come back to the city and proclaim this is the new trendy aesthetic, so country-chic, and people start DIYing that on their walls, thinking it's just "mosaic made out of broken tiles". Stores sell DIY kits with pre-broken pieces, people claim ownership over the mosaic ideas because they have a distant relative from our village, and the original rural walls get overlooked when some influencer shows its spin on the idea with glitter-caked walls.

Is this necessarily a bad thing? Let me ask you the opposite question: is this inherently a good thing?

I have nothing against the younguns' discovering and appreciating things from the past, but I can't help but feel that everytime that happens, that aesthetic gets... "reducted", reduced to a simple, easy-to-signal, easy-to-market package.  Rubberhose is just monochrome black-and-white, pie eyes and white gloves. Steampunk is just corsettes, copper and gears. Cottagecore is just pretending to be Snow White in grandma's house. There's nothing left about the limits and creativity of early animation, the imagination of alternative history, or the self-sufficiency of cottagecore. If only everytime a series of aesthetic sensibilities were discovered, grouped together under a new name and revived by a new group of people, there was a proper continuation/evolution, perhaps I wouldn't feel so negative. But so far all these experiences have felt... like they turned into "touristy" versions of the original 

[boreal_cryptid]

i love frutiger aero so much. frutiger aurora, frutiger eco, abstract tech and helvetica aqua (put fishes into soap bottles and computer mouse again!!!) too. i think i like skeumorphism and colorfulness overall.

alsoo, i've found frutiger aero fanlinsting and aero webring   

my childhood OS was win98 ans winXP, but in the early teen ages - win7. and i used it for a looooong time. i really didn't want to move to win10 :(

big part of this love is nostalgia, and, to be honest, i don't mind. sometimes nostalgia make things look better than they were, but in this case? i don't really care. because i still love frutiger aero. i think i will love this till the end of the days lolz. 

when i look at it, i feel a little more alive, to be honest.
it's so bright, so fresh, so optimistic about the future... future where technology is green (eco). even though it's a corporate design, but i still love this.

modern (corporate) flat design makes me want to throw up. like... all these simplifications... i don't like it at all. even with bright colors - it doesn't work for me. when i look at it, i feel pessimistic about the future (of the tech and web) even more.
i mean, i don't mind flat design overall - especially in indie web, for example. my own website is pretty flat! but something in its corporate version is... just... bleh. 


sources: stamp, gif

[candycanearter07]

modern (corporate) flat design makes me want to throw up. like... all these simplifications... i don't like it at all. even with bright colors - it doesn't work for me. when i look at it, i feel pessimistic about the future (of the tech and web) even more.
i mean, i don't mind flat design overall - especially in indie web, for example. my own website is pretty flat! but something in its corporate version is... just... bleh. 


sources: stamp, gif

At the very least, Apple is willing to try "shiny glass" design again with their new design lanuage. With how so many companies tend to copy Apple, I'm honestly looking forward to seeing what new designs people will come up with that are "legally distinct" (actually unique :D) from theirs.