Moving away from the Frutiger Aero niche -- what now?

[Skyweaver]

I don't know how much of you have known me since ~2023-24 when I became involved in Frutiger Aero styled design, but I've been moving away from the Frutiger Aero aesthetic for two reasons:

• I'm tired of the current state of the aero community, especially with the amount of scams within the fru-aero community
• I've simply gotten tired of designing the umpteenth glossy bar. (to get an idea of what I was making then, visit https://skyweaver.nekoweb.org/designs/2024)

However, I'm kind of at a loss at deciding what I want to do instead of Frutiger Aero, and it gets even more difficult when the only commissions I get are people asking for Frutiger Aero. I'm wondering if any other artist had to switch niches and had to rebuild an audience all over again? How did you do it, especially without modern social media?

I am working on a series of redesigning a few old works from the archives, but the most radical of my redesigns I'm currently having trouble with. It's basically a new tab dashboard, except with cartoonish, Nintendo-like rendition of cloth textures rather than green glass.

[Melooon]

Hello, firstly, your FA designs are lovely, and its fine that you want to move on or try other things; but just keep that in mind, that what you've done is really nice, and worthwhile and you should be sure to save it, because it will matter again to you even after you find new things.

That aside, I can't directly answer this from a switching art style position, but I can answer it from a switching community/audience position.

For me, online communities and spaces are my art, and they are what I've dedicated my whole adult life to in various ways. For the longest time I was known for minecraft servers, I ran one community that ultimately I felt I could not grow anymore, I completely quit that and started over totally fresh with another with a new vibe. That one carried on for a long time and morphed into a few styles of community, before it reached a point where I'd out grown it, and I handed it over to another admin. (this forum/web community came along many years later and was also a fresh start)

Each time you start over is a real loss, you lose your reputation in a group, you lose your income, you lose the infrastructure you've built up. However, a hard start over can also be the most creatively freeing thing you can do, and it and often be the best thing you can do for yourself and your craft. You'll know if you're ready for a hard restart, because you'll be willing to give all that stuff up to move on. You'll also often find that in a hard reset you get the opportunity to re-assess your old work, and often there will be a lot of it you can reuse in what you move onto, in ways you never thought of before.

The alternative is more of a slow pitch shift, you start to lean into new projects and styles and gradually make them your focus. I've done this one too and it works if your pitch shift is close to your original style, it means you get to keep some of the benefits and audience you've built up. However it can also be really hard because people wont understand it, and it also means that you're not freed from the mental baggage of your older work and the expectations people have from you.

Reading your post it sounds like you're not in a position to do a slow shift because you don't know what to move onto, you just want to move on.

So, my advice is take a soft-break; just stop for a month, don't make any FA stuff, don't do commissions, find some new communities to explore. Don't think about FA, and don't think about trying to replace it. Find things to play with, do some experimental stuff because its fun, but don't post it anywhere, do it just for you. If you do that for a while, you'll figure things out better and you'll know what you want to do.

I always think of this scene in kiki's delivery service when I'm stuck 

[close]

[Skyweaver]

Hello, firstly, your FA designs are lovely, and its fine that you want to move on or try other things; but just keep that in mind, that what you've done is really nice, and worthwhile and you should be sure to save it, because it will matter again to you even after you find new things.

So, my advice is take a soft-break; just stop for a month, don't make any FA stuff, don't do commissions, find some new communities to explore. Don't think about FA, and don't think about trying to replace it. Find things to play with, do some experimental stuff because its fun, but don't post it anywhere, do it just for you. If you do that for a while, you'll figure things out better and you'll know what you want to do.

I've had an archival mindset, so I'll definitely hold on to my old works.

Also, good advice on the "soft break" thing. I do have a design class in college starting in July which may be a good opportunity to find what I like to do and just play around. As for finding a new online community, I've tried to find a graphic design community I like on forums, tumblr and bsky and damn is it sparce 0_0. I don't feel like dealing with community management for the time being as it is supposed to be a soft break anyways. I have started sketching on physical paper, though.

[MediocreMetastasis]

It sounds like you're burnt out and I agree with Melon that you need a little break.

For changing artstyles.
I've seen artists who "evolved" the frutiger aero aesthetic. E.g. orlxa.designs, their graphic design is pretty similar to Frutiger Aero but I wouldn't call it that.

examples

[close]

No offense, but I wouldn't be able to tell your designs from other people's design. Maybe try experimenting with different styles or blending multiple styles together. As an artist, I always experiment with different artstyles and adapt my current one until it's what I like.

For me I really like metal heart. It's most known for the unique fractal that is the focus in most designs. But in my opinion, metal heart is about a blend of sleek futurism with natural like chaos.

There's also Gen X soft club, Y2K, cybercore and many more graphic design styles you can be inspired from.

Maybe you can drastically change to a more flat design style e.g. brawlersworld.com

[candycanearter07]

For me, online communities and spaces are my art, and they are what I've dedicated my whole adult life to in various ways. For the longest time I was known for minecraft servers, I ran one community that ultimately I felt I could not grow anymore, I completely quit that and started over totally fresh with another with a new vibe. That one carried on for a long time and morphed into a few styles of community, before it reached a point where I'd out grown it, and I handed it over to another admin. (this forum/web community came along many years later and was also a fresh start)

wwwow i couldnt imagine having a single community let alone starting multiple from nothing how did you use black magic to make that happen

[arcus]

I suggest branching out and looking at Mac Themes Garden for inspiration. It's a great time capsule of UI design from the 90s.

Frutiger Aero is only this popular due to its commercial use overshadowing other aesthetics over time. Your designs are great and I'm sure if you come up with new designs people will enjoy them.

[Metropolis]

There's also Gen X soft club, Y2K, cybercore and many more graphic design styles you can be inspired from.

Yess i feel like branching out to gen x softclub would be a nice change of pace or maybe go in a more frutiger metro direction u know (kind of biased cause I love frutiger metro)

[rnottelovesowls]

skyweaver also made this topic on the frutiger aero archive forums. i'll sorta-copy-paste what i replied over there, because this can apply to anyone here. from the perspective of someone who ALSO makes art for work:

when it comes to trying a new artstyle, take some time to perfect it. try making it for some clients, or just for fun, and see what you (and they) think. if you're not enjoying a particular artstyle or technique anymore, there's no joy in forcing yourself to keep using it out of obligation. i'm sure your clientele will understand

i'm in the same boat. i've begun combining my typical 2D animations with live footage lately, and while i'm enjoying it (and so are my clients), it's gotten to the point where i'm enjoying the photography/footage editing more than the 2D animation. so i'm in the process of transitioning to "video collage art"; it's gradual, as it should be. you can't rush into a new style just like that

in making art for clients, what's most important is that you enjoy doing what you do. don't force yourself to create something you don't want to make. your audience will be able to tell if you're not enjoying your work 

[P.B.C.]

While I have no advice as far as rebuilding community goes, I do second that your joy in your own work should ideally come before anyone or anything else. Still, I'd like to offer this website in hopes it might help with the inspiration side of things. It's not web-assets-centric by any means, but it does host a wide variety of general information about aesthetic movements from the last handful of decades- including what organically branched off from Frutiger Aero.

Either way, I wish you luck with your future art!

[lakes]

I hope you find your niche as a designer. I can relate though. I recently wanted to change my site's design from an OS-based one to something more lightweight. I'm proud of my site's past design, but I feel like branching out more. Plus while I still like frutiger aero, it can feel kinda limiting when people expect a certain style from you. Here's hoping we're successful in our endeavors.