The philosophies in Japanese minimalism are the product of the tea ceremony culture, which used to establish the individuality of Japan. However, Japanese design in the new technological landscape lost its cultural adherence, flattening the design styles and deviating it from its cultural adherence. Motion graphics is a media type that exemplifies this. The goal of this project is to re-infuse the philosophy and style of Japanese minimalism in motion graphics to create a renaissance of Japanese cultural identity in the present field of design, countering the functionality of modernism and its association with the celebration of technology.

Compared to the functionality and contrasts of Modernist minimalism, Japanese minimalism utilizes intentional ambiguity and abstraction by blending the positive and negative space. This concept originates from the idea of creating harmony between human and nature. It also infuses the 3 core Japanese tea ceremony principles; imagining things in what we don't see (negative space), accepting the impermanence and the ephemeral (life, flow), and examining the universe through the imperfection of things (rust).

To visualize these concepts, I created a montage that showcased common objects seen in the Japanese tea ceremony and art such as the tsubaki flowers, teacups and landscapes, illustrated in the style of Japanese minimalism. The shape of the objects is intentionally blended into the environment, and the textures of the objects are emphasized in sequence to recall the 3 core principles. To communicate the idea of intentional ambiguity through typography, I used a blur effect that blends the letterform into the background, inspired by the broken ink spreads in haboku paintings.

The project became a case study of bringing back a fading culture and mindset in a developing field of design.