Studio Hoshino

Hoshino Architecture works almost exclusively in timber and concrete, and photographs its buildings only in overcast light. Their previous website fought this restraint with animation and colour. They asked us to take everything away.

Approach

The identity is a single move: the practice name set in a light grotesque, always ranged left, always the same size relative to its container — like a title block on a drawing. The website is a vertical archive of projects, one image per viewport, captions in the margin. Nothing moves unless the visitor does.

A plan drawing does not decorate. Neither should we.

Outcome

Average time on the projects page tripled. The practice reports that new clients now arrive already speaking about light and shadow — the website did the first meeting for them.