The Animal Crossing franchise has had a decorating element since the first game in Happy Home Academy scores and placing trees and flowers all over your town, but New Horizons has taken decorating to another level. It is currently the only Animal Crossing game that allows players to place furniture outside. With this players have created amazing islands and instilled real-world aesthetics as island themes. In the almost two years Animal Crossing New Horizons has been out there has been no shortage of ideas, but they're were some ideas that seemed to remain constant despite the trends at the moment.
5. Normcore
Ah, Normcore…the basics. Normcore is said to have been created as a joke, but it has evolved into the anti-trend. Normcore is timeless and stress-free. If you tend to throw on a T-shirt and pair of jeans every day you may have the Normcore spirit within you.
In Animal Crossing, Normcore can mean playing the game how it was intended or doing a spoof of that. People who do the former often don’t call their islands normcore, and they think of themselves as coreless. If they truly aren’t trying to create a themed island, then they might have beaten the system, created an island with no aesthetic. If they do feel the need to label themselves, however, normcore will accept them.
On the other hand, there are those doing a spoof of how an island would look if it was played as Nintendo intended. This is truly normcore. Normcore is a fabricated normal, not a natural one.
4. Cottagecore
Cottagecore was one of the first widespread Animal Crossing Aesthetics. It’s since faded into the background letting other aesthetics take the lead, but it is still visible throughout the Animal Crossing fandom. It is often combined with other aesthetics like fairycore. Cottagecore pairs well with any aesthetic that uses whimsical or rustic tones. The official color palette of cottagecore is brown and white with the occasional soft pink or green.
Outside of Animal Crossing, cottagecore is a thriving aesthetic and even lifestyle. Cottagecore has been developing since as early as 2017, but the lifestyle became popular in 2020, the year New Horizons came out. Cottagecore preaches connecting to nature and self-care, which many took part of after being shut away from the world. Cottagecore is a romantic spin on colonial-era Europe. It puts a modern twist on that lifestyle and creates an inclusive community.
3. Kidcore
Maybe you’ve seen islands reminiscent of the set of a kid’s show, with brightly colored pathing and splotches of the rainbow everywhere. This is known as kidcore! Kidcore is inspired by 90's nostalgia with brands such as Hello Kitty (Sanrio) and Lisa Frank being common sources of inspiration. There are three typical kidcore palettes to work with, rainbow, pastel, and primary colors.
In Animal Crossing kidcore can be anything from a rainbow playground, to a pastel classroom, to an area dedicated entirely to the race car bed. Kidcore is the go-to aesthetic for bright colors. There are many playground and toy items to inspire kidcore islands, and I can’t wait to see the kidcore islands inspired by items from the 2.0 update.
The kidcore lifestyle is all about being carefree. Kidcore is saying no to the more complex problems of adult life and just having fun. We all need a little kidcore energy every now and then, whether or not that's our island theme!
2. Seasonal
One of the things that make Animal Crossing so unique is that you play it in real-time. The game is synchronized with the clock on your console, and as the seasons change around us, the seasons within the game change too. In New Horizons' first year, several updates were released placing new seasonal content in the game. We’ve got everything from haunting jack-o-lanterns to dazzling Christmas lights.
A seasonal island can mean just about anything. Some might go for a traditional winter wonderland, while others go for a tropical holiday. Seasonal islands don't have to revolve around holidays, you can also find mystical spring islands and gorgeous autumn. Seasonal islands don’t have to be islands dedicated to design either, which is part of what makes them so widespread. There are unthemed islands decorated according to time of year with appendages that can easily be cleared away as time shifts.
Decorating for the seasons outside of Animal Crossing isn’t really an aesthetic, well for most of us, but a parallel to its in-game counterpart. We see intricately decorated lawns in December. Maybe we try our hand at hanging up lights ourselves, and pumpkins adorn nearly every front porch come October.
1. Fairycore
Cherry blossoms drift around you, and the scent of ripe peaches floats down from the trees. Glowing pink mushroom lanterns loom over you and star fragments illuminate the ground. It almost seems magical. That was likely the creator’s intent if they have a fairycore island.
Fairycore has been almost as popular as cottagecore on islands. A branch of fairycore, fairytale has also had its’ time in the sun. The color scheme for fairytale shifts depending on which fairy-tale the island is based on. Fairycore’s color scheme tends to fall in lines of soft pink and white, maybe with a baby blue or a lavender sprinkled in.
The goal of Fairycore is to make the island seem magical and otherworldly. Outside of the game, Fairycore is associated with optimism and escapism. Good luck charms are a large part of fairycore because they inspire optimism. Fairycore is used to find the magic in the every day, but most importantly, fairycore has no clear-cut lines. It is what you make of it.
