frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Visual lexicon of consumer aesthetics from the 1970s until now

https://cari.institute/
71•tontonius•4mo ago

Comments

xnx•4mo ago
Great site. It let me put a name to one played out aesthetic: https://cari.institute/aesthetics/paperback-chic

Would be even more excellent if it had a timeline.

dtagames•4mo ago
A good idea dragged down by poor UI and lack of content. These are just images with no context or explanation.

When did archival displays get such low information density? Not even the names of objects.

This is the page with the content they do have: https://cari.institute/aesthetics

Animats•4mo ago
They didn't separate the actual designs of a period from retro looks at that period. See "Diner Klisch", which is more than half retro images.

Nice picture of the Aston-Martin Bulldog, listed under Cassette Futurism.[1][2] Clearly the ancestor of the Cybertruck.

MOMA (NYC), SFMOMA, and the Tate Modern have good design collections.

There's also the Color Association of the United States, which at one time determined what the "in" colors would be for each season, announcing this far enough in advance that fabric makers could plan production. They don't have that much clout any more.

They also once managed the consumer electronics color cycle, from white to black to cream to silver and back again. You thought that happened by accident?

[1] https://d2w9rnfcy7mm78.cloudfront.net/13599514/original_59cb...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Martin_Bulldog

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Association_of_the_Unite...

sevensor•4mo ago
What I find fascinating about the site is my own emotional reactions to the various collections. The message is, “this is how they manipulate you, and it works.”

> Color Association of the United States, which at one time determined what the "in" colors would be for each season, announcing this far enough in advance that fabric makers could plan production

Wild, I did not know this. I wonder when beige will come back.

Animats•4mo ago
> I wonder when beige will come back.

Beige was last in back in October 2023.[1]

You can read the past Color Alerts month by month for free. If you pay money, you get advance notice. There's a whole planning process.

[1] https://www.colormarketing.org/blog/2023-october-color-alert

Citizen_Lame•4mo ago
Mobile first, because who actually reads anymore?
rdtsc•4mo ago
These are fun, I like that Encarta of the 1990s has it's own style -- Utopian Scholastic

https://cari.institute/aesthetics/utopian-scholastic.

DK (Dorling Kindersley) and especially Stephen Biesty's books use it, a lot of software in the 90s used it. I wouldn't say today it's particularly interesting or special objectively, but I personally like it mostly because of nostalgia.

dtagames•4mo ago
I must disagree. Even Encarta had text. DK books are terrific precisely because they give small amounts of text right next to the image it relates to.

This site has no text.

rdtsc•4mo ago
I think it's more about the visual style overall with or without text. It's not just DK book but Designs for American Museum of Natural History and other example. Software packaging, especially from Microsoft had it.

The text is often a serif font, there is often a white background, and a heavy reliance of clip art. At least for me, it immediately clicked and I recognized it. I just had no idea it had a name and it's identified as a unified "style".

cosmic_cheese•4mo ago
Some of these make me really want to return to the 90s. Also, airbrushed album art was rad.
geuis•4mo ago
On mobile safari it just loads a "please donate" page with no actual link. No way to dismiss it or continue to the actual content.
casey2•4mo ago
Full of alot of hallucinations and misinformation not very useful nor fun/interesting.
thomassmith65•4mo ago
It seems a bit off to me, too. It would be much improved if they clarified which of the names they invented, and which are canonical. They know about the 'Memphis' esthetic, which suggests they didn't just wing everything. The other names are unfamiliar to me, and I'd like to know if it is ignorance on my part or invention on theirs. The site is a great idea, at any rate.
tobr•4mo ago
This is a serious project that has been going on for over a decade. In fact, it looks like it hasn’t been updated very much for the past four years or so. So, most of the content predates AI hallucinations. If you can point out specific examples of ”alot” of hallucinations and misinformation, that would be helpful.
madcaptenor•4mo ago
https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-bette...
jv0010•4mo ago
ai crawlers rubs hands

seriously this is a great trip down memory lane.

woctordho•4mo ago
I've been using https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Aesthetics_Wiki

Apple is the only Big Tech company whose capex declined last quarter

https://sherwood.news/tech/apple-is-the-only-big-tech-company-whose-capex-declined-last-quarter/
1•elsewhen•1m ago•0 comments

Reverse-Engineering Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Atari 2600

https://github.com/joshuanwalker/Raiders2600
2•todsacerdoti•2m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Deterministic NDJSON audit logs – v1.2 update (structural gaps)

https://github.com/yupme-bot/kernel-ndjson-proofs
1•Slaine•6m ago•0 comments

The Greater Copenhagen Region could be your friend's next career move

https://www.greatercphregion.com/friend-recruiter-program
1•mooreds•6m ago•0 comments

Do Not Confirm – Fiction by OpenClaw

https://thedailymolt.substack.com/p/do-not-confirm
1•jamesjyu•7m ago•0 comments

The Analytical Profile of Peas

https://www.fossanalytics.com/en/news-articles/more-industries/the-analytical-profile-of-peas
1•mooreds•7m ago•0 comments

Hallucinations in GPT5 – Can models say "I don't know" (June 2025)

https://jobswithgpt.com/blog/llm-eval-hallucinations-t20-cricket/
1•sp1982•7m ago•0 comments

What AI is good for, according to developers

https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/generative-ai/what-ai-is-actually-good-for-according-to-developers/
1•mooreds•7m ago•0 comments

OpenAI might pivot to the "most addictive digital friend" or face extinction

https://twitter.com/lebed2045/status/2020184853271167186
1•lebed2045•8m ago•2 comments

Show HN: Know how your SaaS is doing in 30 seconds

https://anypanel.io
1•dasfelix•9m ago•0 comments

ClawdBot Ordered Me Lunch

https://nickalexander.org/drafts/auto-sandwich.html
2•nick007•10m ago•0 comments

What the News media thinks about your Indian stock investments

https://stocktrends.numerical.works/
1•mindaslab•11m ago•0 comments

Running Lua on a tiny console from 2001

https://ivie.codes/page/pokemon-mini-lua
1•Charmunk•11m ago•0 comments

Google and Microsoft Paying Creators $500K+ to Promote AI Tools

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/06/google-microsoft-pay-creators-500000-and-more-to-promote-ai.html
2•belter•14m ago•0 comments

New filtration technology could be game-changer in removal of PFAS

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/23/pfas-forever-chemicals-filtration
1•PaulHoule•15m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I saw this cool navigation reveal, so I made a simple HTML+CSS version

https://github.com/Momciloo/fun-with-clip-path
2•momciloo•15m ago•0 comments

Kinda Surprised by Seadance2's Moderation

https://seedanceai.me/
1•ri-vai•15m ago•2 comments

I Write Games in C (yes, C)

https://jonathanwhiting.com/writing/blog/games_in_c/
2•valyala•15m ago•0 comments

Django scales. Stop blaming the framework (part 1 of 3)

https://medium.com/@tk512/django-scales-stop-blaming-the-framework-part-1-of-3-a2b5b0ff811f
1•sgt•16m ago•0 comments

Malwarebytes Is Now in ChatGPT

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/product/2026/02/scam-checking-just-got-easier-malwarebytes-is-n...
1•m-hodges•16m ago•0 comments

Thoughts on the job market in the age of LLMs

https://www.interconnects.ai/p/thoughts-on-the-hiring-market-in
1•gmays•16m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Stacky – certain block game clone

https://www.susmel.com/stacky/
2•Keyframe•19m ago•0 comments

AIII: A public benchmark for AI narrative and political independence

https://github.com/GRMPZQUIDOS/AIII
1•GRMPZ23•19m ago•0 comments

SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes

https://xorvoid.com/sectorc.html
2•valyala•21m ago•0 comments

The API Is a Dead End; Machines Need a Labor Economy

1•bot_uid_life•22m ago•0 comments

Digital Iris [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg_2MAgS_pE
1•Jyaif•23m ago•0 comments

New wave of GLP-1 drugs is coming–and they're stronger than Wegovy and Zepbound

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-glp-1-weight-loss-drugs-are-coming-and-theyre-stro...
5•randycupertino•25m ago•0 comments

Convert tempo (BPM) to millisecond durations for musical note subdivisions

https://brylie.music/apps/bpm-calculator/
1•brylie•27m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Tasty A.F. - Use AI to Create Printable Recipe Cards

https://tastyaf.recipes/about
2•adammfrank•27m ago•0 comments

The Contagious Taste of Cancer

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/contagious-taste-cancer
2•Thevet•29m ago•0 comments