BiteSizedJapan was a pet project based around a long-time interest in Japanese culture. I wanted to create a site that allowed a visitor to explore the less-visited aspects of Japanese life – that is, not just another anime site.
Content Management
I tried a number of content management systems (from WordPress to Drupal) but in the end I decided I wanted something clean and simple that was an exact fit to me needs. I began to build a CMS in classic ASP & jQuery.
Logo Design
I wanted a modern logo that would be suited for output in different formats, such as on the site of mugs, t-shirts. The initial design was interesting stand-alone, but didn’t really work once put into a page layout:
A cleaner, more attractive logo treatment made it into later designs:
Character Design
From the start it was important for me to have a strong brand for the site, in part to reflect aspects of Japanese culture, but primarily to provide an attractive image that could be used to promote the site.
Kameko’s design was further refined thanks to a Japanese friend
At the time of writing, BiteSizedJapan remain on hold as other projects are underway. I hope to revisit this some day!
The Build
Code:
ASP classic, jQuery, CSS & mySQL
Design:
PhotoShop, Illustrator