Type Trends in China and Japan

Although China and Japan share many Ideographs (known as hanzi in China/kanji in Japan), they do not necessarily share the same trends in typefaces. In China, for example, technology companies such as Alibaba and Tencent were among the first to adopt custom typefaces, and other industries have followed suit. In Japan, the need for custom typefaces is increasing in various fields, including the automotive industry. There are certain trends in the typefaces favored by the technology and automotive industries. On the other hand, different typeface trends can be seen in the graphic and web design fields. In this presentation, we will share the results of our recent research on trends in the Chinese and Japanese markets, as well as specific examples, and explore in depth the similarities and differences between the two countries’ market trends.

Ryota Doi is a typeface designer at Monotype. After receiving his BA in design from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2013, Doi Ryota enrolled in the MA program in Typeface Design at the University of Reading (UK). Upon earning his master’s degree in 2014, he returned to Japan and began working as a type designer at Monotype Japan. He has been developing a Japanese typeface that corresponds to a Latin typeface and vice versa.

Tao is a Type Designer at the Monotype Studio in Shanghai, China. He graduated from university where he studied engineering, and started his career as a graphic designer at an ad agency in China. During that period, he got attracted to the magic of fonts and started learning type design by himself.

Ryota Doi

Tao Di

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