Gen X Soft Club

Other names

GXSC

Decade of origin

1990s

Creator/s

Sloane Angel Hilton (coined term)

Key motifs

Y2K-era vector graphics, Helvetica fonts, metro/train stations, airports, urban architecture/cityscapes, Lomo lens effects.

Key colours

natural and muted colors such as greens, blues, beiges, tans and greys/black.

Key values

A more natural, softer look into 90s/2000s futurism, with an urban twist.

Gen X Soft Club was a popular aesthetic in the Late-1990s and Early-2000s, branching from the popular Y2K Futurism movement of the time. It is considered a more natural and "down-to-earth" look at futurist optimism of the time. It's characterized by urban typography, a use of plants/nature, underground metros/train stations, airports, city skylines, and a heavy use of minimalism/cool color schemes.

Origins[]

GXSC's popularity was a movement in futurist aesthetics that spawned from the economic recovery and growing technology industry of the mid-late 1990s. Some had criticisms about the overly-optimistic, "bubblegum" styles of Y2K Futurism and McBling. A notable shift in the visual mood of these styles happened during the turn of the millennium, mainly among Gen Xers and older Millennials.

GXSC uses a mix of contemporary urban minimalism and lifestyle with Futuristic Y2K elements, along with the heavy use of Lomo effect (an analog cross-processing method creating saturated, high-contrast, "soft" looking photos), bleach bypass and blur technics in photography, and natural and muted colors - especially greens, blues, beiges, tans, greys, and black. There are also elements of 1960s and 1970s nostalgia, which were most common with Generation X.

Comeback[]

Today, the aesthetic is making a comeback as styles like Y2K Futurism and Frutiger Aero returning to the public eye in the 2020s. Artists like George Clanton, CFCF and Doss overlap a lot with GXSC, and push forward with the style to this day.

Visuals[]

GXSC uses a mix of contemporary urban minimalism and lifestyle with Y2K Futurism elements, along with the heavy use of Lomo effect (an analog cross-processing method creating saturated, high-contrast, "soft"-looking photos), bleach bypass, and blur technics in photography, and natural and muted colors - especially greens, blues, beiges, tans, greys, and blacks. There are also elements of 1960s and 1970s nostalgia, which were most common with Generation X.

Fashion[]

Following trends with the rest of the visual identity of the aesthetic, the fashion of GXSC is inspired by Y2K Futurism's fashion with a much more muted, softer appearance. Some fashion trends include nude lipstick, middle parts or natural textured hair, natural leathers, knee high boots, duster jackets, and other alternative/grunge streetwear styles.

Media[]

Movies[]

Chungking Express (1994)
Fallen Angels (1995)
Trainspotting (1996)
Gattaca (1997)
Happy Together (1997)
Nowhere (1997)
Sliding Doors (1998)
Wonderland (1999)
The Beach (2000)
Code Unknown (2000)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Millennium Mambo (2001)
Vanilla Sky (2001)
L.I.E. (2001)
One Hour Photo (2002)
Resident Evil (2002)

TV Shows[]

MTV Chill Out Zone (90s)
MI-5 (2002)

Anime[]

FLCL
Eden of the East
Serial Experiments Lain
Digimon Adventure (the 1998 movie, not the series)

Webfiction[]

Orion's Arm (2000-)

Games[]

Racing Lagoon (1999)
Roommania #203 (2000)
Assassin's Creed (2007)
Portal series (2007-2011)
Mirror's Edge (2008)

Grand Theft Auto III (2001)

Music[]

Gen X Soft Club, while being mostly a visual aesthetic, is highly associated with music. Many examples of the aesthetic come from album covers and music videos. While Gen X Soft Club is commonly associated with Downtempo and its Trip Hop subgenre, other Electronic and Rock genres can be included in the aesthetic. Here are some examples: