We recently did a piece on Japan and it’s creative promotion culture and how out of the box some of their ways of marketing truly are, while doing that piece I stumbled upon some remarkable web designs in Japanese websites. I thought it would be a travesty not to feature them here. What we think of web design is really just an amalgam of what we have seen and what we tend to expect from websites and the different types of companies behind them. They range from flashy, to simple and minimalist, to very complicated and formal and everything in between – but what Japan is doing is seeming very fresh and inventive compared to the norm we have gotten accustomed to.
Here are 5 brilliant Web Design inspirations from the land of the rising sun:
HIKKOSHI-MORE
This is a site promoting Shipping(Moving) companies. Once you brush off the shock that a website about shipping companies is so epic, you will notice the main character, a cute cat named “KURONISHIKI” that communicates the purpose of each shipping service simply and elegantly. Kuronjshiki was born in the same way as “Momotaro (The peach boy )” which is a famous Japanese old tale. So in the original Momotaro story, the peach boy was born in the form of a peach and is supposed to beat up evil demons (Oni) for the citizens, but in this manga, Momotaro seems a bit too mean to Oni. So this cat Kuronjshiki is doing his part to be nice to everyone, even to the demons. Demons want to move out of this town since Momotaro is too mean to them. Then, Kuronjshiki helps them to reduce the cost of moving by explaining their moving/Shipping services. Tell me that isn’t adorable. So much culture and creativity packed into one web design!!
McDonalds Japan
As familiar as McDonalds is to us here in the states, Japan can add it’s own flavor to anything as you can clearly see in this minimalist website representation. The key imagery here is the food in high res glory, and the comic relief of a real life hamburglar!
GAKUTEN 2016
Gakuten is a summer art festival in Japan that celebrates creativity on and off of its official website. This website is a good example of a creative event promotion as it is seen showing off spectacular videos, photos, team members and crucial event information for those who want to partake. It’s a fun and quirky design with functional tools such as English translation available making this a creative and excellent web design.
Kusatsu Onsen
Featuring some common web design elements and some more unique ones (scrolling background image) this website does a fantastic job of giving you a calm feeling as well as a historical cultural representation of Japan. This beautiful spa is located about 200 kilometers north-northwest of Tokyo, Kusatsu Onsen is a small town nestled in mountains where visitors can experience nature all year round. Not only does their website translate this message to the user, it presents itself professionally and with some fun manga and more traditional illustrations that you would expect to find on a creative Japanese web design.
Party Agency
Party is a Japanese creative agency that is responsible for promoting and marketing a lot of the creative and quirky products we find coming out of Japan. Their website is just as unique as their client base and have several video examples of their work which will bring you several minutes of entertainment and inspiration as you scroll through their portfolio.
Have you seen any great Japanese web designs? What country do you feel really inspires you when it comes to the web? Let us know in the comments below!
