A wet-chemical deposition method of synthesizing highly oriented, transparent ZnO films on a crystalline template is described. Multi-nucleation and the subsequent growth of ZnO nanodomains at an early stage of wet-chemical deposition leads to the formation of thin hexagonal platelike ZnO crystals spread over the template film. A subsequent temperature increase allows the growth of oriented rods, whose size depends on that of the platelike crystals. Consequently, oriented ZnO films with various microstructures can be synthesized by controlling the size of the ZnO plates at an early stage of deposition.