Synaesthesia: Magazine initial ideas

I started to consider the different ways in which I could approach this magazine idea and how the content would appear on the page as individual sections but also as the whole publication. 

I created three different mood boards of styles that could be used to influence the approach that I could take when designing this magazine. Each of them are appropriate for the type of content that will be included but will instantly change the whole overall outcome. 

Personalisation

- everyone experieneces synaesthesia differently, so this personal approach would be appropriate

Minimal/scientific

- approach in a more clinical and serious way 

- scientific topic as it is about the ways in which stimuli effect the senses of individuals, but may not be as appropriate for the creative outputs that it can lead to

- development started by looking at how the use of numerous columns would work visually on a page

- the images would all have to be the same size which isn't very appropriate for this topic because the images say a lot more than the words

- the images on the left and the text on the right columned creates a more formal approach to this magazine and it needs to be decided if this is the aim 

- the last approach takes the minimal approach but with more of a creative twist which works better for the topic of choice

Colour

- overload of sense and add lots of colour to make interesting

- very appropriate for the topic of synaesthesia as it is very visually focused

- could take the scientific aspect of the topic away 

- started with a full bleed image and a white filled text box which worked but more colour could be incorporated

- then decreased the size of the image and then put the text in a pink text box 

- could be developed further by incorporating more colour or layering

- experimentation with layering of images developed this further 

- the colours were swatches from the artwork on the page so that that it visually worked well  

In context:

I chose the most successful of each of the approaches and put them into content so it made it easier to visualise the final outcome and see exactly what would work and what wouldn't. I found that the title worked well when it was larger and not overlapped on any of the images, allowing it to stand out.  

Conclusion:
All of the different approaches have parts that work and are appropriate for best representing synaesthesia as a topic. To develop in terms of design it would be interesting to mix the most successful parts of each of the approaches and develop a consistent and unique style for the magazine.