Frutiger Aero: Putting The Playful Into Gaming
The optimistic aesthetic of video games and its permeation through culture.
Darkness seems to have steeped into much of our gaming experience today. Simply look at the top four games being played on Steam to feel this - Counter-Strike, PUBG Battleground, DOTA 2 and Elden Ring. Whether you’re getting wiped out by a stealthy snipe in PUBG or descending into the dungeons of Elden Ring to face an unbeatable boss, the grime and grit of their gameplay is only amplified by their gloomy aesthetics. Zooming out of the games themselves, our console and device designs have taken on a colder agenda. The monochromatic colours of the PlayStation 5, the minimalistic reduction of the Xbox logo, the hard edges of the Alienware M18, the monolithic glean of the iPhone… The gloomy games we play are caged inside expressionless machines.
Taking it back 20 or so years, games and their machines looked a lot different. One of the most prominent aesthetics at the time, nicknamed Frutiger Aero, was pulsating through video game design. Frutiger Aero is named after two dominating aesthetics of this period - the Frutiger family of fonts and the Windows Aero (the design language of Windows Vista). It’s characterised by glossy textures, cloudy skies, tropical fish, water, bubbles, lens flare and sprawling patterns. While this aesthetic can be seen across many 00’s coded items from the iPod Mini to the bedside lava lamp, video games took the playfulness of Frutiger Aero and made it a literal playscape.
As video games themselves began to enter new technological frontiers, a more “worldly” aesthetic via Frutiger Aero seemed fitting for an industry that was merging the indoors and outdoors. The Wii was getting people up off the couch to play “sports” indoors. Xbox and PlayStation were supporting huge adventure games like Mirror’s Edge where one would embody an underground parkour courier and leap through near-future cities. At the same time, the archetypal gamer was evolving. Virtual pet games like Neopets were bringing in younger girls while fitness-first games like Wii Fit were bringing in grandparents. These new players needed an aesthetic that felt bright, hopeful and welcoming - fitting the Frutiger Aero bill perfectly.
It wasn’t just the games that embraced these bubbly tones. UI was simultaneously glossified from console home screens to brand web pages. The Wii was perhaps most memorable for this with their charming Mii avatars that subverted the uncanny valley and leant into a clunky cuteness that still resonates today. When editing and customising Mii’s, the atmospheric music with upbeat tones became closely associated with the movement, spawning dedicated playlists on YouTube with millions of views.
Controllers and consoles would embrace the aesthetic, taking on colourfully transparent shells which would allow players to peer inside the joyous machines they played.
While the Y2K trend still embers on social media today, it’s not surprising to see Frutiger Aero return in full cultural force. The term Frutiger Aero has attracted around 110M posts on Tik Tok and thousands of threads on Reddit. Enthusiasts curate and document different corners of the Frutiger Aero video game universe - from games to their music to their characters to their esoteric functions. One of the most notable curators is the Web Design Museum - an Instagram page dedicated to archiving the forgotten eras of web design, with Frutiger Aero spread across its posts.
Young designers that grew up in the peak of Frutiger Aero’s powers are bringing it into their output. Collina Strada’s work often mines the inflexion point between the natural and digital world for inspiration, resulting in surrealistic collections the embody the spirit of Frutiger Aero. Collina Strada even made a game that drives this aesthetic association home. Collina Land a platform for climate awareness and self expression, was created in collaboration with Gucci. The influence of Frutiger Aero was clear.
Meanwhile, brands like Chopova Lowena and Heaven By Marc Jacobs take the base of the Frutiger Aero aesthetic and infuse it with a punk perspective. This leans into these brands association with the “Harajuku girl,” a subculture in Japan that embraces the excitable aesthetics of neo-Japan. The Harajuku girl has evolved into today’s “weird girl,” adorned with many details of the Frutiger Aero aesthetic.
Today, it is clear that those who grew up swinging Wiimotes, designing dream homes in The Sims or leaping through galaxies in Super Mario Galaxy maintain a nostalgic appreciation for Frutiger Aero. In contrast to the nefarious narrative around technology that’s permanently populating the media, the younger generation is turning back to Frutiger Aero as a break from pessimism - remembering a time when tech (and particularly video games) were bright and exciting.
bring back the GTA: Vice City (2002) aesthetic; colourful block noir gaming