Web Design Trends 2018 Seminar - Overview

This year we'll once again hold our Web Design Trend seminar. From among the themes explored in our 2018 edition, in this Column I'd like to touch on two aspects - typography and design flexible to change.

Typography

The first theme is typography.

In the news, books, posters, subtitles etc., it's not an overstatement to say that we see text and characters multiple times every day. Furthermore, while researching online trends for 2018, I noticed that were many references to typography. Now compared to past trends featured in these seminars, such as Responsive Web Design which attracted attention several years ago but is now considered standard, it may seem a little unexpected to pick up on a typography – something which has been around indefinitely and isn't only limited to the online sphere.

In this seminar we'll explore why typography is once again a trend of note. From consideration of background context, I will discuss various examples of how to exploit current typography trends and reflect them in web design.

Design Flexible to Change

The second theme is design flexible to change.

As an Art Director, I work on large-scale website renewal projects. Often during the project preliminary stages and scoping meetings, it's not unusual to hear clients remark "at the time of the previous renewal, we developed a site that was of high quality and up-to-the-date with trends, however, over time, the site has become inconsistent, dated and difficult to use."

Of course, there are a multitude of reasons for significant intervals between renewals - such as web teams being caught up in the day-to-day updates consequently leaving insufficient time to consider the larger strategic picture or that personnel changes leave newly assigned employees unfamiliar with the current website/project background. In my line of work, it's not uncommon to come across sites that haven't been renewed for nearly 10 years!

On this theme, we discuss visual design hints and tips to keep in mind when developing new websites, renewing existing sites, and performing site operation.

The first run of this seminar has now been held, while the second and third runs are fully booked. At present we are considering a fourth run of the seminar, so, if you are interested in attending, please check our website for latest updates. (Please note the seminar is in Japanese). We look forward to seeing you.