Self-initiated studio concept
Kumo.
Eight rooms above the river.
The starting point
A website with the pace of a stay.
Imagined brief: an eight-room ryokan in Arashiyama wants its website to have the calm of a stay, then make rooms and the four o'clock tea simple to book.
Designed for
Travellers looking for a considered stay, and couples planning a special trip.
Discipline
Website design & development ↗
The visual direction
Indigo, paper and one red seal.
Traditional Japanese colours: aizome indigo, sumi black, shironeri white, a madder-red seal and matcha green. Photography of tatami, cedar baths and indigo-dyed linen.
The thinking
A clear idea.
A connected expression.
The site is laid out like a Japanese printed magazine: vertical type, wide margins and indigo bands on white paper. Two cinematic 3D shots are played by the scroll: a walk across the tatami, through the indigo noren and out to the moss garden, and a close shot of matcha being whisked at four. Photos open with an ink wipe, the seasons are set as type, and the reservation ends with a red hanko seal.
Explored in this study
- Live concept website
- Scroll-driven cinematic 3D walk-through
- Editorial layout and vertical type system
- Reservation journey and sound design
Screen capture
See it move.
Then open it yourself.
A silent screen capture of the live Kumo site: the scroll walks you across the tatami, through the indigo noren and out to the garden, then into the tea ceremony.
Open the live siteNext possibility
Buttern
Websites / Studio concept
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