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Kansei

Kansei is a theme reminiscing of the Japanese book design tradition and graphic aesthetics. It aims to evoke a sense of harmony and balance. It stands apart in the collection as it’s one not quite intended for bloggers. The design is typeset in Cormorant—a serif font that brings a slight nod to the graceful strokes of Japanese calligraphy.

The layout is structured around a single central visual piece, surrounded by various elements—the site title, a short tagline, and menu items—that establish alignment guides, proportions, and relationships. The large media cover in the homepage instructs the user to upload their own using the cover’s block placeholder text. This works just as well for images or videos.

This design is made for visual portfolios. The featured image always fills the screen, giving a bold, full-screen look. Each post displays both project details and navigation together, so it feels like a slideshow as you browse through the work.

Single pages are a bit different. They adjust the layout to fit longer text, adding variety. In these cases, the featured image appears on the left, and the text lines up with the site title at the top.

We also added a special page template that can be used to display the user’s latest works in a two-column grid.

Overall, Kansei provides a spacious and harmonious canvas that can be a good outlet for artists, photographers, videographers, architects, and other craftsmen and craftswomen that may be looking for a minimal yet sophisticated design to showcase their work.