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Investigating Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), Jiayue researched into the role of visual communication in creating diaries that promote a healthy lifestyle and regulate emotions.

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