55 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
55 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
# y2k-retrofuturism — Y2K / Frutiger Aero Retrofuturism
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- **School**: Specialty / Genre
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- **Vibe**: Late-90s / early-2000s techno-optimism: chrome, glassy bubbles, jelly translucency, lens flare
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- **Best for**: Fashion / music / nostalgia-coded products, creative campaigns, anything referencing 1999–2005 internet
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- **Touchstone**: late-90s Apple iMac G3 ads, Windows Vista Aero, the original iPod aqua buttons, MySpace pages
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**Palette**
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- Ground: electric ice blue `#A3D5FF` or chrome silver `#E0E4EA`
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- Glass accents: cyan `#5FC9F8` → magenta `#FF66C4` (the iridescent / oil-slick gradient)
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- Chrome: brushed-steel highlights at `#C4C9D2` to `#F2F4F8`
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- Acid green pops: `#A8FF00` (used sparingly)
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- Ink: `#000000` or `#FFFFFF` depending on ground
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**Typography**
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- Display: a chunky rounded sans with personality — Frutiger, Eurostile, or Sharp Grotesk in heavy weight; sometimes a chrome-effect treatment
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- Body: friendly humanist sans like Frutiger or Avenir at 14–16px
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- Numerals love an LCD / digital-readout treatment for hero counters
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- Underline + sparkle treatments common on link hover
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**Spacing**: 4 / 8 / 16 / 24 — packed but bubbly
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**Radius**: gummy — 16 / 24 / 32 / 9999 (full circle). Buttons are pill-shaped jelly bubbles.
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**Shadow**: heavy and colored — glossy reflections, drop shadows like `0 16px 32px rgba(95, 201, 248, 0.4)`. Inner highlights to simulate glass.
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**Motion**: bouncy springs, glow pulses, lens flare sweeps. Anything that recalls early-Flash interactions.
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**Signature moves**
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- Glassy translucent buttons with an inner top highlight (faking aqua / lozenge)
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- Iridescent oil-slick gradients on hero / character imagery
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- Chrome-effect type with sparkle overlays
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- Lens flare or specular highlight on any glass surface
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- 3D / dimensional UI elements (the OS-X-Aqua dock effect)
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- Floating circular orbs / bubbles drifting in the background
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**Avoid**
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- Sharp corners
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- Muted / earthy palettes — Y2K is bright and synthetic
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- Restrained typography — Y2K is exuberant
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- Anything that reads as "tasteful 2020s minimalism"
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**AI prompt seed**
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> 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.
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**Don't use when**
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- The brand has no nostalgic / retro / playful claim
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- The audience is enterprise / professional — this recipe is consumer-fashion-music coded
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- Long-form readability matters (Y2K is for moments, not for reading)
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---
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> **Same school — Specialty / Genre**: [`mid-century-modern`](./mid-century-modern.md)
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> **Browse all 25 recipes**: [INDEX.md](./INDEX.md)
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