Back in early 2020s, people got tired of oversimplified logos. Every single brands turned their logos uniformed and flat just because some big corps did it first.
I guess things like that sparked the modern appreciation of older aesthetics, because I was one of them too. Then the phrase Frutiger Aero came in.
Although the aesthetic itself might've been defined by a professional, it was popularized by Gen Z's who miss the era and younger generations who just think it's pretty looking,
thus unprofessionalized again. While I value the revival, it also caused Frutiger Aero to be desaturated by their poor recreation.
It's understood. Skeumorphism and abstract vector gradients are costly and difficult to produce after all, especially for children who has no actual past memories of it.
It's become blatant and superficial, overly fantasizing their nostalgia. People used the same songs over and over, put MSN buddy icons everywhere,
Nintendo console soundtracks renamed to random bullshit for some reason and uploaded by different "artists" similar to Vaporwave(I especially hate this because it steals credits).
Again, I'm not saying their attempts are worthless. They're mostly children who like pretty things and want to recreate the feeling, how cool is that? I admire their drive.
I just don't want them on my feed because it barely resembles what mattered to ME anymore. It's like how different strawberries and strawberry-flavored things are.
Now it turned into nothing but a corny ass injoke I say to fuck around with my friends. I see anything glossy and I whimper "So aero..." like a dying man and they laugh at it.
Totally satirical. It felt like my feeling towards the oversimplified logos, was coming full circle. Tired.
I didn't want my memories of it to be affected and ruined altogether, at least for myself. I wanted to do something about it, and that was the beginning of Velkommen.
Since I've got used to buliding in Tower Unite at the moment, I could give it a try to recreate the scene for myself. But not long after, I had a realizization.
I'm yet another lay person like them, I'm no designer. Am I qualified to be complaining all this when I can create the same superficial shit if I'm not careful either?
I didn't want that happening to myself, I had to prevent it. I had to do research.
As I started studying the aesthetic, I found a problem with Frutiger Aero. The term was way too broad to begin with.
It's not a term for a genre. It's entangling everything from the era. Because of this, the only judge is your "vibe", which is rather unfair and uncertain.
For example, take a listen to this list of most overused songs in the modern revival.
While I had not much progress on it, I stumbled upon a local wiki talking about Frutiger Aero. Its first line read;
It refers to various design styles that spread across advertising, media, images, etc., from approximately 2004 to 2013 after Y2K has faded away. It was frequently used when the term "Ubiquitous" has started trending.
Wait. Oh shit, that's it. That's the word I heard in what, two decades ago? That was the actual term Koreans used back in the day referring to today's Internet of Things.
Finding that keyword saved my research. All I had to do was typing "Ubiquitous" in Korean and put extra words after it. "Interior", "Exhibit", "Experience", "City".
I felt as if I struck gold. This one time-accurate term was a game changer to look for refrences.
If you're researching Frutiger Aero interiors, one tip of mine is that it's still around in places that want to look futuristic. Mall complexes, trade show booths, hospitals, banks.
Anywhere that prioritize credibility or hygiene, really. Just put one of these places to search along with the word "futuristic", and you'll likely get what you wanted.
"Neo-futuristic" is also a powerful keyword I found, works for both exterior and interior to grasp their shapes.
My build started to look pretty charming and accurate so far. My Tower Unite friends instantly loved it when I showed them.
One of them said, "Is this also gonna be like a game?" This was because they played my condo m before. "Nah, I think it's only gonna be like a visual demonstration," I replied.
But later on, I kept thinking about it. Of course, wandering around 3D environment of Frutiger Aero feels so much cooler than just looking at images. What if it's an actual game?
Have I seen a game based on modern revival of Frutiger Aero that's actually good before? Mirror's Edge doesn't count, that was 2009.
At that point the best experience I had was Frutiger Aero Hub in Roblox but the best thing you can do there is probably roleplaying, it's a walking simulator after all.
Aesthetic-based games like the backrooms are difficult to balance its visual and gameplay. Too much of tasks can ruin the visual appreciation, and too less makes it boring.
What if the amount of interactivity is just right? Well, All I was acclaimed for my past Tower Unite works was interactivity.
Dude this could work. Fuck it, let's get ambitious.
As much as I sound pretentious, I wanted to max out the experience it promised. It didn't matter if nobody else played my game.
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