A span of years within a decade where we feel this aesthetic was most relevant. These years are usually given Early/Mid/Late modifiers, roughly corresponding to the beginning, middle, or end of a decade:
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Metalheart

Namesake: Named after the cornerstone book “Metalheart” by Andreas Lindholm & Anders F. Rönnblom.

Centers around the 'Metalheart / Transformer / Depthcore' aesthetic popular from around 1998-2004. It's named after the Metalheart book by Andreas Lindholm (2001). Pioneered by design firms like the Attik, Brainreactor, Gmunk, etc. in the late 1990s, it peaked & became oversaturated by the early 2000s, then essentially vanished in the late 2000s, morphing into McBling (basically Design Student's Orgasm on TVTropes) vector graphics, and replaced by more hand-drawn Hipness Purgatory 'indie twee' design. Many of these are collected from the piecemeal archives of old design sites like depthcore, archived sections of designers portfolios, deviantart and customize.org, and some scans I've taken from the Metalheart books, Plazm Magazine, and various design collection books from the era.

Links

  1. Are.na - https://www.are.na/consumer-aesthetics-research-institute/metalheart-6vzdlxemtkq
  2. Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2079027392333818/
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