Kawaii Art
Japanese art has inspired me as a painter and graphic designer. Ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock, drew me in first. I was hooked by the whimsy lines Ukiyo-e artists drew to animate their subjects. The element that caught my eye most was how patterns were represented. The use of patterns in Ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock is simplistic yet clever. The approach flattens the pattern, not always bending and breaking like clothing does in real life. This flat pattern style further emphasizes that the art is not real, and instead fun and playful.
New York City MET has an extensive collection of Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, where I first encountered the art form as a high school student. You can view them here online. I highly recommend exploring this style for yourself.
Flash forward to today where Kawaii artists take cues from the historical Ukiyo-e by turning recognizable subjects into the simplest depiction. They have the same goal of evoking humor and whimsy. And now the very popular art form of Kawaii is seen everywhere from street signs to ATMs, but why? I found this great Medium article by Rishma Hansil, a UX Designer living in Japan. She shares the findings in a study where they discovered “viewing cute images actually promotes careful behavior and narrows attentional focus”. Making things like traffic signs cuter in hopes you notice and drive safely.
She explains how cute is a feeling, not just an appearance. So, let’s revisit the mission for Brookie Designs: graphics for kids inspired by nature to promote a love for the environment and encourage outdoor sports. Incorporating the Kawaii cute into designs of trout may help drive care for this beautiful animal with children of all ages so they bud into the next trout habitat champions.
What makes a design “cute”? I was able to locate the study Hansil mentions. The article defines cute as features “commonly seen in young animals: a large head relative to the body size, a high and protruding forehead, large eyes” (Nittono, 2012). If you look at different examples of Kawaii you will quickly pick up on this. Shapes are also softened. The heads of animals are almost always circles or ovals and any triangles or squares have heavily rounded corners. Every element rendered soft and approachable.
I took this into consideration with my trout designs. The Brookie Designs trout fits into the shape of a circle. All fins are softened with round edges. Specific trout highlights are overly simplified shapes and patterns. And lastly - the colors are pastel palettes and minimal, keeping it light!
And these trout are always smiling.
