I’ve been a fan of Japanese style design since I started my career as a designer. The uniqueness of culture, lifestyle, and relationship with human and nature are reflected not just in the physical but also in digital form of design, especially on the web design.
When browsing for web design inspiration from Japan with the web design galleries that I previously introduced, I found a few design characteristics that are truly unique in Japan and not commonly seen in English-based website. Without further ado, let’s dive into it.
1. Beautiful large imagery with beautiful typography
I always think that in Japan, any angle and any corner will produce beautiful photography, this is because Japan is just simply breathtakingly beautiful in my opinion!
Many websites featured high quality photography that can immediately allowing visitors to quickly immerse into the experience. Also the Japanese words in Mincho font (you can think of it as serif fonts) style are perfectly paired with the images while not grabbing any attention away.
2. Cute
Shiba Inu is cute, Pikachu is cute, Gudetama is cute. Japan is the capital of cute culture that makes people happy and are certainly mastered the essence of creating cute stuffs.
Cute is friendly, cheerful and have the power to bring all kinds of human together. Cute is also in a way deconstructing the real life, a kind of expression on how we can interpret it differently.
https://artscouncil-kanazawa.jp/
3. Vertical typography
Traditionally, Japanese words were written vertically and such tradition can be seen in the web design. By displaying the text vertically, it gives the designers limitless creative space to play around with layout while still maintain its readability.
You can see how the vertical typography complements the visual, and guides the visitors’ eye in reading and absorbing the information. Interestingly, when words are presented vertically, it can be read either from left or right. However, normally it reads from right since this was the convention in print media.
4. Human as the center stage
Japan is all about life philosophy. From the famous books promoting ways of living like “Ikigai (生き甲斐)”, “wabi-sabi (侘寂)”, and “Dan-sha-ri (断捨離)”, it’s not hard to see such messages and aesthetics being incorporated into the design.
In the web design context, large clean imagery with human usually being used as the main focus, then accompanied with substantial white space with minimal yet heartfelt message. The website usually feels uncluttered and promotes a sense of peace and towards a better living.
5. Image masking with irregular shapes
If you observe closely with website designs, they are constructed and layered with many rectangles. However with clever use of white space and irregular shapes, it can create a refreshing design and establish a creative rhythm to navigating and viewing the website.
I can see websites from Japan is more daring in using irregular shapes to contain images or illustrations, and the shapes are usually linked to their branding.
https://www.honeycomb-labo.com/
6. Traditional Japan — Wafuu (和風)
Despite living in the modern world, Japan has great success in preserving its tradition, hence when you are travelling in Japan, you can experience the modern and traditional side of Japan harmoniously. Moreover, according to a research in 2009, Japan has more than 20,000 companies that are more than 100 years old.
Therefore, for websites that are the homepage of traditional Japanese businesses for food, confectionary, hotels and many more, the beauty of the traditional Japanese aesthetics are being showcased.
Conclusion
Above are some of the common characteristics that I personally think that are the unique Japanese web design styles. Certainly I’m not the expert in Japanese web design and just purely writing this from a Japan-lover, a fan of Japan design perspective. But I do hope you enjoyed reading this article! 🆃