# y2k-retrofuturism — Y2K / Frutiger Aero Retrofuturism

- **School**: Specialty / Genre
- **Vibe**: Late-90s / early-2000s techno-optimism: chrome, glassy bubbles, jelly translucency, lens flare
- **Best for**: Fashion / music / nostalgia-coded products, creative campaigns, anything referencing 1999–2005 internet
- **Touchstone**: late-90s Apple iMac G3 ads, Windows Vista Aero, the original iPod aqua buttons, MySpace pages

**Palette**
- Ground: electric ice blue `#A3D5FF` or chrome silver `#E0E4EA`
- Glass accents: cyan `#5FC9F8` → magenta `#FF66C4` (the iridescent / oil-slick gradient)
- Chrome: brushed-steel highlights at `#C4C9D2` to `#F2F4F8`
- Acid green pops: `#A8FF00` (used sparingly)
- Ink: `#000000` or `#FFFFFF` depending on ground

**Typography**
- Display: a chunky rounded sans with personality — Frutiger, Eurostile, or Sharp Grotesk in heavy weight; sometimes a chrome-effect treatment
- Body: friendly humanist sans like Frutiger or Avenir at 14–16px
- Numerals love an LCD / digital-readout treatment for hero counters
- Underline + sparkle treatments common on link hover

**Spacing**: 4 / 8 / 16 / 24 — packed but bubbly

**Radius**: gummy — 16 / 24 / 32 / 9999 (full circle). Buttons are pill-shaped jelly bubbles.

**Shadow**: heavy and colored — glossy reflections, drop shadows like `0 16px 32px rgba(95, 201, 248, 0.4)`. Inner highlights to simulate glass.

**Motion**: bouncy springs, glow pulses, lens flare sweeps. Anything that recalls early-Flash interactions.

**Signature moves**
- Glassy translucent buttons with an inner top highlight (faking aqua / lozenge)
- Iridescent oil-slick gradients on hero / character imagery
- Chrome-effect type with sparkle overlays
- Lens flare or specular highlight on any glass surface
- 3D / dimensional UI elements (the OS-X-Aqua dock effect)
- Floating circular orbs / bubbles drifting in the background

**Avoid**
- Sharp corners
- Muted / earthy palettes — Y2K is bright and synthetic
- Restrained typography — Y2K is exuberant
- Anything that reads as "tasteful 2020s minimalism"

**AI prompt seed**
> Y2K retrofuturism scene, chrome silver and ice-blue iridescent gradient background, floating glass orbs with cyan and magenta oil-slick reflections, lens flare in upper right, single bright translucent pill-shaped button, late-1990s techno-optimism vibe, 16:9.

**Don't use when**
- The brand has no nostalgic / retro / playful claim
- The audience is enterprise / professional — this recipe is consumer-fashion-music coded
- Long-form readability matters (Y2K is for moments, not for reading)

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> **Same school — Specialty / Genre**: [`mid-century-modern`](./mid-century-modern.md)  
> **Browse all 25 recipes**: [INDEX.md](./INDEX.md)