Investigating Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), Jiayue researched into the role of visual communication in creating diaries that promote a healthy lifestyle and regulate emotions.
Major project
For SAD
Diary Folds
For SAD is a diary-calendar designed for people who experience winter-triggered depression, seeking to improve their moods by using evocative images to stimulate positive memories of spring and summer through Synesthetic Design. Using questions and charts, one can gauge the effectiveness of different treatments, record changes in mood, and help them analyse and identify individualised recovery patterns.
Both 'Diary Folds' & 'February Close-Up' were photographed with a NIKON D5600 in a studio setting and edited together using Adobe Photoshop.
February Close-Up
Synesthesia is the phenomenon whereby one perception is automatically triggered by the stimulation of another resulting in the crossing of different senses such as seeing colours when one hears music. The Synesthetic Design upon which this diary is based, actively intends to create a crossover of senses, through vibrant changes in page colour and polished 3D models of spring and summer flowers.
Using a hand-bound concertina design, and G.F. Smith's translucent Cromatico paper, the diary displays an array of dazzling colours.
Pink Chaenomeles
The diary is split into 12 sections, with each one relating to a month of the year, symbolised by a colour and spring or summer flower, in order to drive positive associations with winter. January begins with pink pages and Chaenomeles, also known as Flowering Quinces, a reddish-pink flower characteristic of Japananese horticulture.
Both 'Pink Chaenomeles' & 'Purple Magnolia' were photographed in a studio setting using NIKON D5600 in a studio setting and edited together using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic.
Purple Magnolia
The final section of the book, December, ends in dark purple pages combined with Magnolia flower models produced in Blender. A combination of solid and transparent glass models were chosen to increase the translucency of the flowers in tandem to the translucency of paper, varying how much light passes through each page.
Though smaller illustrative elements of the books were created on Adobe Illustrator, the overall book layout was designed using Adobe InDesign using the Didot font throughout.
Helianthus Annuus Close-Up
The reduction of sunlight in winter has been theorised to create a drop in some people's serotonin levels sufficient enough to trigger affective disorders or depression. As a result, a key aim of the diary is push its users to seek sunlight when it's available through translucent pages whose colours overlap and mix in different lighting settings.
The Helianthus Annuus, or Common Sunflower, is perhaps the epitome of summer and sunlight in horticulture, and themes the July month.
Colour Transitions
As users progress through the months the page colours change in accordance to the synaesthesiac perceptions of artists Anna Inozemtceva and Ivan Belov. Though For SAD does not offer therapy for people with winter depression, the diary provides guidance to people who are unfamiliar with approved treatments for depression in winter.
Both 'Helianthus Annuus Close-Up' & 'Colour Transitions' were photographed outside using an OLYMPUS E-M10Markll.
Jiayue Tang
Major project
For SAD