A mother, a daughter, a wife and a friend. A photographer, a stylist, a copywriter, a creative director and a visual storyteller.

Aray M. Till

 

I’m a lot of things but in the context of the here and now, I’m a color-seeing synesthete who is incredibly curious about each hue; both of the color and of the person for which it belongs to.

The Chromatic Voices Project (known as “the color project” by the ravens who have been cheering me on to ship it) is an exploration of my gift of synesthesia. Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (for example, hearing) leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway (such as vision). Simply put for me, when I hear a voice, I see a specific color. This video from world-renowned leader in the study of synesthesia best explains it. 

Normally when I divulge what has been decades long secret, the first question I get is “What’s my color?” and upon matching their voice color to a Pantone swatch, it’s immediately followed by “What does it all mean?”

This project as a whole is complex with varying elements. Within each person’s page you’ll see their photo which brought me back to practicing my first creative love of black and white portrait photography. You’ll also find a podcast episode from our time together where we got to know about the good, bad and the colorful that makes each of us as unique as our specific color (after all it’s the voice that triggers the color). And then there’s the “breakdown” of the color. As a designer, color has been incredibly important in all of my work and color psychology has very much been a part of that. Inspired by Werner’s Nomenclature of Colors by P. Syme, I’ve started to develop a nomenclature around each hue. For example, when I say I’m a shade of yellow (Pantone 108c), my “definition” of yellow is different than yours but when I say “I’m a sunflower yellow” you have a better understanding of the specific shade. Unrelated to people and voices, I also get very specific feelings from colors. Those adjectives and feelings are also part of that ever-growing nomenclature.

For those who have been part of my life that are just finding out about this “sixth sense” of mine will not be all that shocked. After all, I’m their color obsessed friend who has guessed Pantone’s Color of the Year for years now. For those of you who I’ve yet to meet and are curious to find out about your color, get in touch. The only ask that I have in return is that you contribute to the project in one way, shape or form. 

What innocently started as me sharing this superpower “publicly for the first time in 2019 has become a collection of over 100 interviews, portraits, color matches and steps closer to “what does it all mean”.