The Frutiger Aero Archive

A repository of wallpapers, music and more.

History of Frutiger Aero

This section is about the history of Frutiger Aero, from it's rise to it's decline, and the sub-aesthetics that came from it. I include my sources on the bottom of the page.

Summary

2004 - Beginning

What we now call Frutiger Aero started gaining traction around 2004. Traces of it can be found as early as 2001, with the skeuomorphic design found in Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah, which featured the Aqua theme, although it is still a Y2K design, it shares similarity with Frutiger Aero. Windows XP's Bliss wallpaper is also an exemple of it, despite the OS being Y2K. Windows Aero made its first appearance in Longhorn Build 5048, one of the pre-production builds of Windows Vista. There is also a glimpse of Frutiger Aero in the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

Windows Vista build 5048 Longhorn build 5048 Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah (2001) Media Center Edition 2005 Media Center (2005) Longhorn Build 5029 Longhorn Build 5029

2007 - Golden Age

Wanting to offer their users something new, and modern, Microsoft decided to include a more aesthetically pleasing graphical user interface and visual style, known as Windows Aero. "What is AERO? AERO stands for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective, and Open and is the user experience guidelines for Windows Vista, governing the look and feel of the operating system. These guidelines express not just the way the pixels are drawn, but how the user interacts with the system and the feelings it should evoke. These guidelines, and the AERO user interface, are the result of years of design and user research by Microsoft.". In 2007 Windows Vista released. It the first official release utilizing the new Aero design, but the OS itself had little success because of numerous technical issues, notably with the hardware of the time. In 2009, Windows 7 was released as an improved version of Vista, and was a huge success, and is still regarded by some (me included) as the best version of Windows, because of it's beautiful interface, simplicity, and user-friendliness.

The Seventh Generation of Video Game Consoles, which comprises of the Xbox 360, the Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii, also started using Frutiger Aero designs for their graphical user interfaces. Skeuomorphism, which is a design concept/aesthetic of making items resemble their real-world counterparts, also gained popularity around that time. Although it is widely used in Frutiger Aero, it is not Frutiger Aero on it's own. Apple, with Scott Forstall leading the software development team, made use of Skeuomorphism in Mac OS X 10.5, and the iPhone, which would change the world.

During this time, most big tech corporations had embraced the new design aesthetic, and it became widely used in advertisements, stock imagery, websites, and media of all sorts.

Windows Vista Windows Vista (2007) Windows 7 Windows 7 (2009) Mac OS X Leopard Mac OS X Leopard (2007) Wii U Wii (2006)

2012 - Ending

In 2012, the industry started to shift focus from Frutiger Aero. With the rising popularity of smartphones, Microsoft released Windows 8, which looked completly different from Windows 7's Aero design, the new interface was called "Metro", it was an effort to merge their tablet, phone, and computer interfaces into one. In 2013, Apple released iOS 7, which had a new look, featuring sharper, flatter icons, and slimmer fonts. Jony Ive, Apple's head of design, made this comment about it: "There is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity, in clarity, in efficiency. True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter and ornamentation - it's about bringing order to complexity. iOS 7 is a clear representation of these goals. It has a whole new structure that is coherent and applied across the entire system.", after this, Flat design was the new trend, and Frutiger Aero lost popularity. The Wii U, released in 2012, the last console to feature a Frutiger Aero interface, was a failure, only selling 13 million units.

iOS 7 iOS 6 to iOS 7 (2013) Windows 8 Windows 8 (2012)

2017 - Frutiger Aero is defined

In 2017, Sofia Lee (known mononymously as Sofi) from CARI, which stands for "Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute", coined the term "Frutiger Aero", they define it as "the corporate tech aesthetic popular from approximately 2005 through 2013." With prominent motifs being (i quote):

  • Skeumorphism in UI/UX design

  • Glossy design

  • Frutiger/humanist sans-serif typefaces

  • Tertiary color palettes

  • Glassy/transparent materials

  • Photographs of aurora borealis

  • Bokeh photography

  • Macro photographs of grass

The first part of the name "Frutiger" is derived from Adrian Frutiger, which made humanist typefaces that were often used. The second part "Aero" is derived from the Windows Aero design interface.

Frutiger Aero regained popularity around 2022 thanks to social media, people that were kids when it was popular, now being adults, are returning to the aesthetic, but also younger people that were not around still enjoy it.

Frutiger Aero vs Y2K Frutiger Aero vs Y2K Frutiger Aero Wallpapers Frutiger Aero Wallpapers

Frutiger Eco

Frutiger Eco puts it's emphasis on living in harmony with nature, sustainability, optimism, while also incorporating futuristic themes. Frutiger Eco images often portray a utopian eco-friendly future, and tries to bring awareness to climate change, and the importance of taking care of planet Earth. Key colors used are Green, Teal, White, Yellow, and Blue.

Frutiger Eco Wallpaper 1 Futuristic city with green Earth Frutiger Eco Wallpaper 2 Green Earth

Helvetica Aqua Aero

Helvetica Aqua Aero, also known as Frutiger Aqua, Aquacore, Low Frutiger, and Helvetica Aqua, places it's emphasis on tropical habitats, the beach, tropical fish, bubbles, water, and aquatic colors. Like Frutiger Aero, it also features gloss, futurism, and gradients. The main colors are vibrant blue, teal, lime green, aquamarine and yellow.

Helvetica Aqua Aero 1 Sea life, hot air balloons Helvetica Aqua Aero 2 Monitor and ocean

Dark Aero / Frutiger Ego

Dark Aero, also called Mata Nero or Frutiger Ego is a variant of Frutiger Aero that uses a darker color palette. Aero glass is often used. It was commonly used in computers, TVs, cars, and smartphones.

Dark Aero 1 Dark Glass Dark Aero 2 Dark Aero Interface

Technozen

Technozen is the Japanese counterpart to Frutiger Aero. It is more simple, professional looking, and sleek. Technozen is more evocative of Asian design than Frutiger Aero which is more universal. The Wii and the DS are popular exemples of it.

Technozen 1 Technozen Room Technozen 2 Nintendo DS Advertisement