There is a likely chance that you’ve come to this website via the Y2K & Aero webring. If you have, you most likely know what Frutiger Aero as an aesthetic is. For those who don’t: Frutiger Aero was an aesthetic popular in the mid-to-late 2000s and early 2010s. It was primarily used in technology at that time, but was also applied in other forms of advertising. You likely have seen it without knowing, such as Windows 7 and Vista or any version of Mac OS X before 10.10 Yosemite. It primarily used gloss, high saturation, and human/earthly connections, such as commonly represented with highly green grass and realistic water. This aesthetic died off with the rise of flat design.
During late 2023, the aesthetic was popularized on social media platforms, such as “The Future We Were Promised” videos which showed Frutiger Aero images of a thriving future, and separately Aero-themed playlists. One image, shown below, was heavily used during its peak. The image consists of dolphins jumping out of the water below with happy expressions and imagery. There is one thing about the image that I find caught on–and no, it’s not the absurdity of it. The object? The unrealistic shines and glimmers.
The image with dolphins
As the trend continued, there was a new upbringing of Aero artists. The new images, yes, could contain the shine, but also contained extremely saturated objects, such as overly green grass. The art just felt overly bright, in a looking directly in the sun type of way. This is what I call Hyper-Aero, an exaggeration of Frutiger Aero.
A collage of how I see Hyper Aero (by Fish𓆟 on Pinterest)
Now don’t get me wrong, this is still on the Frutiger Aero branch and there were images that had the glare and higher-than-normal saturation, but I feel like it’s more of a 2020s thing. If I had to give a form of art that may include the aspects of it, it would be collages that give a stereotypical Frutiger Aero experience. It’s funny to say that a corporate theme from the 2000s became popular again. I bet that in the next decade, somehow Newmorphism will become popular again, which would be even crazier.
