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Personal aesthetics tier list

This tier list is about visuals only. All the names listed below are from https://aesthetics.fandom.com (as of July 2025).

A few differences are listed as follows:

The aesthetics fandom wiki seems to be going through new management. A lot of labels in my 2023 version of this list has been deleted or combined with other labels.
A few things are recognized as their own things, but some of them shouldn't be, e.g. the so-called "Avant Basic" and "Avant Apocalypse". In my opinion these are simply a revamp of existing old aesthetics: "Avant Basic" is just old Memphis-inspired 80s design, and "Avant Apocalypse" is simply Cyber Grunge again.
As the time progress (for better or worse), the objectively worst aesthetics have changed. (See below)

(very early draft. subject to change.)

Last update: 2025.7.10

S

After Hours
- Unlike Shenzhen, there's not that much of an "after hours" to speak of in Dublin especially during the summer when the sun doesn't set until nearly 10 P.M. - what you'll do is to wait for winter and go out to the city center at 5 P.M. and pretend it's late in the evening. Dublin is a boring city on this front.
Holosexual
Cuddle Party
De Stijl
Bauhaus
Swiss Style / International Typographic Style
Memphis Design
Dark Academia
Romantic Academia
Vectorheart
Balletcore
Gothic Architecture

Cabincore
Autumn
Baroque
Chic Modernist
Auroracore (when executed superbly)
Memphis Lite
- i.e. Old Multimedia CD core
Webcore
- Neocities changed my opinion on Webcore. There are more than one kind of Webcore; the faux-Win95 ones are often Kitsche, but the ones on Neocities are often very good.

Y2K Futurism
Light Academia
Gothic Lolita (on very few occasions)
Metalheart
- The unfortunate thing about Metalheart is that to me it's forever associated with kids that thoughts metal and machine are cool with their specific child-like manner. It's a very thin line between "cool" and "kid's toys".
Art Academia
Mizuiro
Vintage Americana
DORFic
- A much less evil cousin of the Abstract Tech (ugh).
Auroracore

Urbancore (fashion only)
Femme Fatale (before the woman in case decides to destroy you or use you as a sacrifice.)
Traumacore (has merits but please seek a therapist.)
Yami Kawaii (has merits but please seek a therapist.)
Art Hoe
Chaotic Academia (this ain't an aesthetic this is just life...)
Galaxy Hipster
Gen Z Maximalism
Acid Design
- It depends. Some pieces are very good. Bad pieces are not good.
Anglo Gothic

Weirdcore
- You can feel there's potential, but it's bloody hard to imagine a Weirdcore thing that goes past the current level.
Art Deco
Kid Science
Medicalcore (has merits but please get well soon)
Glitchcore (when executed properly)
American Thanksgiving

(the middle ground between "love it" and "hate it".)

VSCO
- It's for people that lives in the free world without childhood trauma, not someone like me.
Poolcore
- I personally enjoy bathtubs more.
Americana
Corporate
Angelcore
Grungy Metro
Corporate Memphis
- You know how people are saying that Frutiger Aero is good nowadays? Corporate Memphis is going to be the next Frutiger Aero.
- The so-called "3D Corporate Memphis" is a misnomer. 3D logic is fundamentally different than 2D; the 3D Corporate Memphis is closer to Fluent Design (which actually uses 3D elements) than to Corporate Memphis.
1999 Mundane Office Space
8-Bit
Arcadecore

Dokukawaii
Barbiecore
- I personally believe hyperfemininity is a mistake. I believe women should just have a normal amount of femininity and I still stand by this opinion as I did in 2023.
Androgynous
Cleancore (do you know too much cleaning products can be bad for your skin?)
Cyberpunk
Avant Basic
- There truly isn't any new things under the sun, is there? The reason why this is in the conflicted tier is that I don't think it's a new thing that warrants its own name. It certainly isn't started in the early 2020s - mirror80 has been covering this throughout the last decade.

'70s Disco (one of the signs of globalization. good thing it kinda died before globalization did.)
E-Girl & E-Boy
Bosozoku (not into gangsters. sorry.)
Cyber Grunge (your days have already ended two decades ago, please let it go...)
Cottagecore (not into farming. sorry.)
Cyberdelic
Afropunk
Angura

Baddie
- Reminds me of highschool bullies.
Atompunk & Retro-futurism
- Not good. I personally think atompunk should remain a thing of the past, and some part (and only some part) of retro-futurism should be revived.
1950s Suburbia
- I lived in a suburb during my first year in Ireland. It was fucking depressing.
Acidwave (i know it's induced differently but it looks like someone try to make iridescent things but failed miserably.)
Glitchcore
Babygirl
- Not into minors, sorry.
- Sometimes the way western woman do their makeups is just bad. I think a lot of men would have the same opinion. They can claim that it's actually beautiful and the reason they do that kind of makeup is not for attentions but to please themselves; our opinion is not gonna change.
Frutiger Aero
- I understand the nostalgic sentiment, but I genuinely couldn't understand why people choose this instead of better aesthetics. Frutiger Aero has always been a sign of "cheapness" to me; it's a replacement for when you can't get proper good Vectorheart design.

Asian Baby Girl
- I have seen way too many girl bullies during middle school to have a proper judgement about it.
Aetherpunk
- It has the same problem as Metalheart - it attracts kids; and when it starts to attract kids, it will be perceived as the one aesthetics that appeals to kids instead of a serious thing.
Lobotomy-Chic
- I think of the song Alison by Slowdive. I've seen many people saying that it's a beautiful song and it makes them feel things. I only felt fear. The lyrics makes it obvious it's talking about drugs. I don't know what's so romantic about drugs and drug-induced haze. This aesthetics gives me the same scary feeling.
Frutiger Metro
- Unlike Vectorheart which belongs in the "elite" club, Frutiger Metro has been falling from being the new hot thing to being the mass-produced cheap thing, due to its appearance coincides with China becoming the global powerhouse of cheap low-quality products. You'd see Vectorbloom on cheap hand cream packages and other subgenres of Metro on the package of all the badly-made MP3 players (see DankPods)