A Love Letter to Frutiger Aero

Frutiger Aero is a term you've likely heard banded about the internet over the past couple of years. The term itself wasn't coined until 2017, well after the style went out of fashion. If, like me, you were lucky enough to experience the early 2000s internet then you already know what Frutiger Aero is even if you've never heard the term. Windows XP, Windows Media Player, MSN, the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS Lite and Playstation Portable all had Frutiger Aero designs. It's about bright, glossy colours and reflective surfaces. Mirror's Edge is basically "What if Frutiger Aero was a game". If it was a drink it'd be a cocktail with a little umbrella. If it was a car it'd be a clown car. If it was a person it would be the most charismatic person in the room, always happy and confident. The type of person you hate, only because you're not them.

So in short, it's a design style that was popular in the early 2000s. Who cares? I care, and actually quite a few people care. As of right now the FrutigerAero subreddit has 120,000 members. For me and I suspect many of the aforementioned, Frutiger Aero represents a place in time to when I had to fight my sister for the family PC, when I talked to friends late at night on MSN Messenger, when RuneScape was still a browser game and when my biggest problem was it's 9pm and I forgot to do my homework. As a millenial on the younger side of the generation, my pre-teen & teen years were spent on the computer. While technically my first operating system would have been Windows 2000 when I was in school, I only viewed the computer as a tool. It wasn't until a few years later when I got into RuneScape that the computer became a place to have fun, and eventually, a place to explore.

Here are a few examples of what Frutiger Aero can look like. It's a surprisingly varied genre with many sub-genres, but you'll get the idea.

Mirrors Edge early Xbox design Stock photo of water and seagulls Nintendo 3ds early Xbox design Stock photo of water and seagulls

Design is not my strong-suit, I am a more technical minded person so this shrine to Frugier Aero is a little basic. If you'd like to see other Neocities sites with Frutiger Aero inspiration, take a look at these sites. If you have your own site that you'd like adding to the list please let me know!

For me, there is a bittersweet feeling when I see Frutiger Aero. On the one hand I feel the happiness, comfort and optimism that the design is supposed to invoke, but I also feel sadness at what used to be and might never be again. 2003-2009 was a time of simplicity for me, and I think overall people had a positive feeling towards the future of technology. A feeling that I believe is now lacking, as we are now firmly in the corporate controlled internet. So I leave you with this, a quote from Andy Bernard in the office: "I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them."

With Thanks

To PetoKrisa for the foundations of this shrine's design, frutiger-aero.org for information and pictures, The Frutiger Aero Archive for more pictures, Microsoft for making most of what we consider Frutiger Aero, and you for reading!