The_Admiral Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 I'm obsessed with this site, the Consumer Aesthetic Research Institute: https://cari.institute/ It's so neat to see names for trends I always sort of felt and intuited, like Utopian Scholastic: And what's more mid'90s desktop publishing than Jumbled Font? https://cari.institute/aesthetics/jumbled-font 6 Quote ♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Admiral Posted May 16 Author Share Posted May 16 https://cari.institute/aesthetics/corporate-gen-x-cyber It says "Early 1990s - Late 1990s" but this is concentrated 1998: 2 Quote ♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Germanshepherd Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 Aesthetics are awesome. I’ve gushed about Frutiger Aero and the nosalgiacore YouTube scene around it, and I’ve now been into Y2K design retrospectives like these. 1 Quote i have unquantifiable corpses on my conscience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFGiants58 Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 (edited) Disco Deco is such a lovely aesthetic. https://cari.institute/aesthetics/disco-deco ITC really peaked as a typeface design house in the '70s. I'm also happy to have a name for the "Neon Surf" aesthetic. https://cari.institute/aesthetics/rad-dog-neon-surf ...and "New Wave Tropical" is oddly appealing to me (yes, I used this example - my second-least favorite George album) https://cari.institute/aesthetics/new-wave-tropical: Edited May 17 by SFGiants58 Added Neon Surf and New Wave Tropical Quote MLB: Project 32 (Complete), MLB: The Defunct Saga (Complete) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Admiral Posted May 17 Author Share Posted May 17 Those both feel like subgenres of everyone's favorite graphic representation of NAFTA neoliberalism, Global Village Coffeehouse. And say what you will about GVC, but I'd rather have Starbucks look like that than the goddamn Apple Store, and I'll take fake woodcuts and poor man's Keith Haring over Alegria and its non-binary Muslim Gumby. Quote ♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFGiants58 Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 Just now, The_Admiral said: Those both feel like subgenres of everyone's favorite graphic representation of NAFTA neoliberalism, Global Village Coffeehouse. I'd say that Acid Surf is more related to Factory Pomo, but both are only a few steps removed from Global Village Coffeehouse. New Wave Tropical predates GVC, but you can see the lineage from the former to the latter. I do agree with the nostalgia for Global Village Coffeehouse - hell, it's why I buy these cookies whenever I can. They taste better after at least 24 hours in the freezer (as most cookies do, I find). Quote MLB: Project 32 (Complete), MLB: The Defunct Saga (Complete) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Admiral Posted May 17 Author Share Posted May 17 1 minute ago, SFGiants58 said: I'd say that Acid Surf is more related to Factory Pomo, but both are only a few steps removed from Global Village Coffeehouse. It's the link between the two, I'd say. Some of these feel a bit too narrow and specific to be viable, but this 2K5 one touched me: https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/2K5 because I distinctly remember browns with pastels on notebooks at Barnes & Noble, and I remember my girlfriend at the time telling me how much she liked brown and light green together. And I even remember being disappointed with the Memphis Grizzlies rebrand and saying they should have used...brown and light green. 1 Quote ♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFGiants58 Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 It's definitely a development on the more well-rounded "WB Crush" aesthetic: https://antifandom.com/aesthetics/wiki/The_WB_Crush* Add some light undersaturated/sage green and you have 2K5. *I miss that era of TV aesthetics, when film-to-video/digital transfers had improved but widescreen was still rare (e.g., Charmed, Gilmore Girls, and the first few Sopranos seasons). Hell, even stuff shot on video had a more "charming" look to it (see early-'00s Kamen RIder and seasons 1-4 of IASIP). Quote MLB: Project 32 (Complete), MLB: The Defunct Saga (Complete) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Admiral Posted May 17 Author Share Posted May 17 I stared at that picture for a good minute thinking something was really off before I realized I was thinking of Deadwood. Quote ♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digby Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 CARI rules, though sometimes I find some of the distinctions to be arbitrary. I also have not seen it categorize two related aesthetics, though maybe I've just missed it: the medieval-goth-meets-raver look popularized by Life of Pablo-era Kanye West, and the subsequent 60s-nature-witch revival currently en vogue amongst a triangular path running roughly from Kacey Musgraves, to darkwave-adjacent DJs, to dive bars that also serve natural wines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Admiral Posted May 18 Author Share Posted May 18 21 hours ago, Digby said: the subsequent 60s-nature-witch revival currently en vogue amongst a triangular path running roughly from Kacey Musgraves, to darkwave-adjacent DJs, to dive bars that also serve natural wines. Tarotcore 1 Quote ♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTConcepts Posted May 18 Share Posted May 18 Anyone know what this style of design is called? Often seen in the NYT, Wapo and other corporate news outlets. CARI doesn't seem to have an answer. Quote "You ain't gonna learn what you don't wanna know..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Admiral Posted May 19 Author Share Posted May 19 I would just call it an offshoot of Corporate Memphis: no lavender blob people, but the rest of that flat geometric vector-art design is of a kind with it. Quote ♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sport Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 On 5/16/2024 at 5:17 PM, The_Admiral said: https://cari.institute/aesthetics/corporate-gen-x-cyber It says "Early 1990s - Late 1990s" but this is concentrated 1998: ESPN 2/ Danny Boyle Core. A 19 year old graphic designer who works in the athletic department for a university could do numbers on twitter right now just by copying that shoe ad. I thought this thread was gonna be about how the zoomers don't know how to correctly use the word "aesthetic" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CS85 Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Great topic. Corporate Grunge – you wouldn't download a car? https://cari.institute/aesthetics/corporate-grunge-grunge Cassette Futurism is my . Get me all the CF coffee table books. I could pore through those all day. Quote Quote "You are nothing more than a small cancer on this message board. You are not entertaining, you are a complete joke." twitter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Admiral Posted May 21 Author Share Posted May 21 6 minutes ago, CS85 said: Great topic. Corporate Grunge – you wouldn't download a car? Man, put that one on the Mandela Effect list: I just watched the spot on that page and it never actually says "you wouldn't download a car." I would have sworn for all the world that it did. That's the meme. Wow. I love Cassette Futurism too. This is so of its time in the best way: 1 Quote ♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJimmy Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 as much as I adore aesthetics, I think the zoomer obsession with them has some detrimental effects, particularly when it comes to music. there's a certain point where you're basically encouraging being a poser. now, that being said, Gen X Soft Club my beloved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Admiral Posted May 22 Author Share Posted May 22 1 hour ago, JerseyJimmy said: as much as I adore aesthetics, I think the zoomer obsession with them has some detrimental effects, particularly when it comes to music. there's a certain point where you're basically encouraging being a poser. now, that being said, Gen X Soft Club my beloved I lit up when I saw this cover art. Do you have this album too? "Autumn Tactics" is gorgeous. Quote ♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJimmy Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 3 hours ago, The_Admiral said: I lit up when I saw this cover art. Do you have this album too? "Autumn Tactics" is gorgeous. I actually just picked it out of the GXSC page on the CARI site, but I will say that I'm intrigued now. the Whippersnapper album was a personal choice, though, and that one's quickly become a favorite deep cut of mine. also I don't think anyone would ever look at it and correctly assume it's a skate punk record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digby Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 On 2024-05-18 at 3:06 PM, DTConcepts said: Anyone know what this style of design is called? Often seen in the NYT, Wapo and other corporate news outlets. CARI doesn't seem to have an answer. I call this "every news story needs a photo now for social sharing purposes but not every story is visual" aesthetic. Just kidding, kinda. I've noticed that The Athletic, particularly, leans very hard into photo-montages with selective color fills like this, though I think it's smart branding to stand out in the content sea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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