[20] "Frutiger Aero": The ideology of the hope for a good future posterior to the Cold War world.

What you just saw were images from the 2000s designing style, modernly called "Frutiger Aero". Even if you didn't know the term before, you have more than certainly seem this refreshing style in the glossy UI of Windows 7 (or Vista), Wii, PS3, advertisements (especially for technology products, as it was associated with modernism and novelty), stock images, and some toys, or even in modern-day videos, as this sort of image has been getting a lot of attention and love lately.

Frutiger Aero's main characteristics are bright and vibrant colors, glossy textures, glass/transparent materials, aurora borealis, skeuomorphism (overly detailed even if unnecessary), bubbles, macro photographs of grass, futurism, and humanism. (And if certain characteristics are more prominent than others, it turns into sub-categories of FA, such as Frutiger Metro, Dorfic, Frutiger Eco, Frutiger Aqua, among others). In short, FA represents an ecological and utopic future, where technology, humanism and nature could coexist without one harming the other.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this blog, Frutiger Aero was created in the early 2000s, and lasted until (roughly) 2014, before minimalism started to be implemented in technology. This is not something random; at the period of transition between centuries, the world had been going through a lot of changes: the end of Cold War in 1991, a lot of brand new technological advances, the rise of the internet, in South America (and other continents), countries have started their democratic period again after long and harsh years of dictatorships, a lot of new cultural movements, changes in the musical styles, etc. For example, in the 90s and 2000s my country was doing GREAT economically! People were happy to live here during this period!;

So of course, after so many changes, people have started to hope for a bright future, with peace and modernism. And the companies have cattered to that hope, making these refreshing visuals we saw a lot back then. The designs were refreshing, warm, inviting; the edges were soft, nothing there rushed you to do anything, you just felt like you were at home, or somewherevery comfortable and at peace. Frutiger was humanistic, and it embrace that fully.