Evan Collins and Froyo Tam's work in identifying and labeling modern aesthetic trends is one of the coolest areas of internet research I've come across. They have done loads of scanning of old catalogs and magazines, uploading work to internet archive, etc. and formed the 'consumer aesthetics research institute (CARI)' to catalog it all. Tons of modern internet aesthetic trends like "Fruitiger Aero", "Y2k aesthetic" etc have largely been the work of these two and the CARI community. Their work and research gets constantly copied or shared without source, so I always try to point people back to the community that has done the hard work finding these trends.

https://cari.institute/

despite hating it at the time, I kind of miss this tacky look. You don't get this kind of sincerity with modern graphics. Sure, the corporate memphis style has tried, but I argue it's failed because it tries too hard to err towards wholesomeness