Thinking: Exhaustion Aesthetics: Visual Language Burnout

Written By Drucilla Burrell

Aesthetic movements have historically unfolded over decades, shaping cultural and artistic landscapes before gradually giving way to new styles. However, in today’s hyper-digital world, aesthetics shift at an unprecedented pace, leading to what can be called aesthetic fatigue—a saturation point where once-compelling visual styles become overused, emptied of meaning, and ultimately discarded.

Yet amid this fatigue, a new aesthetic has emerged: the aesthetic of exhaustion itself—a visual language that embrace burnout, disengagement, and digital fatigue as stylistic choices.

Below I’ll explore how contemporary aesthetics function within advertising, marketing, and art, examining the mechanisms behind their rapid turnover. I also look at how exhaustion has become an aesthetic in its own right, particularly in the social media sphere, where blurry images, glitch effects, and anti-design movements capture a collective sense of weariness. Finally, I consider the cultural implications of this cycle: What happens when the visual language of exhaustion becomes commodified? And how might artists and brands navigate an era of relentless aesthetic churn?

Function of Aesthetics in Advertising and Marketing

Aesthetic choices in branding and marketing are never arbitrary; they are carefully curated to evoke emotion, establish identity, and generate engagement. Some Companies (Like NIke and apple) have long relied on consistent visual identities, while others chase rapidly shifting styles to stay relevant. This tension between stability and reinvention is at the heart of modern aesthetic fatigue.

The Lifecycle of an Aesthetic: Millennial Pink and Beyond

millennial pink dominated branding in the 2010s. Initially fresh and modern, the color quickly became ubiquitous, appearing in fashion, technology, and lifestyle branding. Eventually, its overuse led to a sense of exhaustion.

yet in the 2020s, it has resurfaced, subtly reimagined in more muted or vintage-inspired variations, this time gaining first a bright REIMAGINING with the release of the barbie movie (and my own website!). It was then further muted, now essentially a ‘white with colour’ rather than a colour within its own right.

This illustrates a broader pattern in contemporary aesthetics: rather than disappearing entirely, styles are compressed into rapid nostalgia loops, re-emerging faster than ever before - and often ‘neutralised’ for wider markets and appeal.

The Paradox of Novelty and Recognition.

As everyone who works with brands knows, they must navigate a delicate tightrope between novelty and familiarity. Social media algorithms reward content that feels fresh, yet constant reinvention risks alienating audiences. This has led to a wave of visual homogenisation, where brands rapidly converge on the same aesthetics in an attempt to remain relevant. Consider minimalist sans-serif typography and earthy tones—once distinctive, now a hallmark of indistinguishable direct-to-consumer branding (See ‘Beyond Sans Serif: How Type can Move on from ‘Blanding’ D&AD)

Rather than new aesthetics emerging organically over decades, often through subcultures and underground movements, they are now rapidly developed as purely surface, resulting in the ability for them to be quickly recycled and repackaged with slight modifications:

This cycle leads to a paradox: the faster an aesthetic gains traction, the quicker it reaches saturation, rendering it obsolete almost as soon as it peaks (clear examples being brat summer and demure. See ‘Why is everyone saying demure all of a sudden? By Emma Specter for Vogue Aug ‘24)

The pressure for constant visual reinvention has reshaped artistic production as well. Historically, aesthetic movements—whether Impressionism, Surrealism, or Abstract Expressionism—developed over decades, allowing for deep exploration. In contrast, contemporary artistic styles often reach saturation within months, dictated by digital platforms that prioritise visual immediacy over conceptual depth.

Because algorithms favour content that conforms to existing visual trends, artists often feel pressured to replicate rather than innovate. This creates a feedback loop in which certain aesthetics become overrepresented, while more experimental work struggles to find visibility.

Social Media Effect: The Hyper-Acceleration of Aesthetic Cycles

Traditionally, aesthetics evolved gradually, with styles emerging, peaking, and declining over the span of decades. Today, as noted, this process has been radically compressed:

  • Micro-styles emerge weekly, cycling through popularity at an unsustainable pace.

  • Nostalgia loops shrink, with aesthetics from just a few years ago resurfacing and recontextualised.

  • Algorithmic amplification accelerates saturation, ensuring that once an aesthetic gains traction, it is pushed to exhaustion at record speed.

The result is a collective desensitisation to aesthetic shifts. With each new cycle, the cultural impact of aesthetics diminishes, making it harder for any single style to leave a lasting imprint.

Exhaustion as an Aesthetic

While aesthetic fatigue usually signals oversaturation, there is also a growing aesthetic of exhaustion itself—a deliberate embrace of burnout and disengagement as a visual style. This is particularly evident in social media, where both creators and brands are adopting aesthetics that signal fatigue, detachment, and rejection/boredom of traditional polish. Currently Tiktok Has 895.6K posts featuring the hashtag ‘burnout’. This can also be seen as emerging post covid lockdown, with the rapid rise of the wellness market and a new wave of increased political unrest. This movement however is also not new, resurfacing throughout history, from Baroque to The great Gatsby.

’I develop this understanding of exhaustion by adapting Deleuze's figure of the exhausted, by which desire becomes the endless playing with the possibilities of the same habitual, limited situation without asserting any preference’ ‘The baroque aesthetics of exhaustion by Patino Romero, Jose Luis 2024

The Visual Markers of Exhaustion Aesthetics in 24/25

This aesthetic does not merely reflect personal burnout; it has become a stylized and commodified expression of digital fatigue. Ironically, the aesthetic of exhaustion is now curated for engagement, illustrating how even rebellion against aesthetic norms is swiftly absorbed into the cycle of aesthetic consumption.

Conclusion: Navigating the Era of Exhaustion Aesthetics

In a digital culture where aesthetics function as both currency and commodity, maintaining relevance while avoiding aesthetic fatigue is increasingly difficult. The emergence of exhaustion aesthetics suggests a paradox: while audiences seek an escape from hyper-curation, the aesthetic of burnout itself is becoming stylised and monetised.

For artists, brands, and cultural producers, the challenge lies in resisting the pressure of algorithmic homogenisation. Rather than chasing fleeting trends, those who cultivate a distinctive, enduring aesthetic identity—one that prioritises depth over superficial novelty—will be best positioned to navigate the relentless churn of visual culture.

In a world oversaturated with aesthetics, true originality may come not from reinvention, but from resisting the cycle of exhaustion itself.

Drucilla Burrell
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