Frutiger Aero and the Rise in Y2K Aesthetics

Frutiger Aero, a style you might recognize from late 2000s and early 2010s advertising, technology, and media, has recently come back with a vengeance. This post-Y2K look first emerged in the home screens of the Windows Vista operating system, and went on to influence several pieces of physical technology with its smooth, shiny, and brightly toned aesthetic. Frutiger Aero’s main visual components are sprawling green fields, sunny blue skies, and bright white futuristic structures flanked with swirls and bubbles of water.

But why has this aesthetic, in particular, risen so sharply in popularity after a decade of dormancy?

Y2K fashion and aesthetics have recently come back into mainstream trends after being dragged from their grave by young adults suffering massive waves of nostalgia and as a response to the sleek and minimalist styles that plagued the mid-late 2010s. As we have seen time and time again, the cycle of mainstream fashion has cannibalized itself every 20-ish years to feed a revival of its past trends, which we can see with the popular modified versions of Mcbling fashion, Juicy Couture, and Bobby Jack.

Even the current trends in tech have shifted to reflect the nostalgia for Y2K, as evidenced by the more unique colors and softer colors available to the average consumer, along with the emergence of modern touchscreen flip phones. People are desperate to go back to a more insular and hopeful era, and many are turning to their childhood memories as a source of that.

The last five years have been filled with financial and social strife, while companies are pumping out nostalgia bait for the newest generation of adults to purchase. We’ve seen revivals and collaborations of everything from Rugrats and Monster High, to Avatar: The Last Airbender and

mood rings. We are being spoon-fed sunshine to cope with our rising rates of hate crimes, depression, and the still-lingering effects of the pandemic.

With the advertising landscape in its current shape and human hopes as low as they are, we cannot be shocked that people are clinging to these childhood eras and desperately indulging in them. Escapism is often needed in struggle, and while we can argue that these indulgences are surface level, inauthentic, and everything else under the sun, at the end of the day people need to find joy in order to survive and to thrive.