Tokyo Voice

Standout features:

• Stunning portrait photos
• Consistent half-half layout design
• On-brand use of black and white colors and imagery

Tokyo Voice is a magazine and online portal that profiles and interviews the “regular” citizens of Japan’s interesting capital. People of all ages, genders, and walks of life get to share their life stories and experiences.

The website, conceived and delivered by Hiroshima-based Junsuke Takeda, closely follows the appearance of a physical magazine for better brand consistency. The logo’s font, however, is slightly different as it adopts a bold, sans-serif look that is more effective online than the magazine’s standard serif font.

Tokyo Voice’s website homepage is divided into two vertical halves. On the left are photo portraits of Tokyo’s residents, along with brief interview snippets, set in motion via a carousel and gallery view. To the right is a big chunk of white space containing the brand’s logo and an assortment of hashtags that help search the site complementary to the left half, making it much more engaging visually.

Clicking the main menu button on the top right corner opens full-screen navigation that follows the same two-column layout. The only difference is that it uses a “negative” color scheme compared to the homepage, with black on the right and white on the left.

The Articles section containing the full collection of individual interviews follows a simple but effective grid layout with four columns and a main menu navigation bar pushed to the far right. The individual interview pages revert to the half-half design of the homepage once the reader selects a particular article.

To the left are professionally shot images of the interviewee that transition with a very soft effect as the visitor reads through the article and scrolls down. Meanwhile, to the right, the subject’s storyline unfolds in a thin, black font against a hefty amount of white background.