Typophile

Typophiles here who are color synesthetes?

Suz_Syn

I'm curious to know if any type designers here have color synesthesia and whether it influences or inspires your work.

I don't know how this would manifest, but -- well, that's why I'm asking. This is just a personal query, something I've wondered about for years, nothing to do with research.

I have it but am not a type designer. It doesn't influence my print design work, but I do occasionally employ it in my abstract art.

Color synesthesia is perceiving specific colors associated with letters and numbers. See description at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapheme-color_synesthesia

Thanks to Alessandro for references in an earlier post.

--Suzanne

Chris Lozos

I don't have it and would probably find i distracting if I did. Can you explain what it feels like or how it affects your work?

ChrisL

Patricia Fabricant

I have it slightly. It's greyscale for me and only has to do with numbers, dates, times of year or week. I can't say it has influenced my design work at all but I have considered working with it somehow in my fine art. I have sketched it out a little.

Chris, as far as I can explain it, when I think of a number, or a date, I see it kind of in a greyscale continuum. I can't explain why some numbers are lighter and others are darker. I can picture the year in the same way, different months have different tones.

Suz_Syn

To me, it's as if there's a transparent overlay of color over a letter. I see type as black (or whatever the ink color is), but also sense/perceive a color to each letter and number. It's helpful in recalling names and phone numbers -- "no, it's more green than that; must be a 4, not a 9" -- and spelling.

It doesn't matter which typeface it is, though the bolder the glyph, the stronger the perceived color. It works in handwriting, too.

Greyscale continuum, Patty -- cool! (BTW, "grey" is more grey than "gray.")

--Suzanne

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