New Website Shows You What Synesthesia Looks Like

If you happen to find yourself seeing music, smelling color, or unusually combining two other senses, you may have synesthesia, a possibly genetic condition that affects about 4 percent of the population.

Since synesthetes perceive the world in such a unique way, it’s perhaps unsurprising that many of them pursue work in a creative field. Billy Joel, Vincent van Gogh, and Pharrell Williams are just a few examples of well-known artistic synesthetes.

For the rest of us, the whole concept can be a little hard to wrap our minds around. To help us out—and to help herself make sense of her own senses—artist Bernadette Sheridan created a website called Synesthesia.Me that illustrates grapheme-color synesthesia, which causes her to see letters as colors. If you type in a word or phrase, the site will produce a row of color blocks that correspond to those letters.

As Sheridan explains in a post on Medium’s health and wellness vertical, Elemental, each person’s grapheme-color synesthesia manifests itself differently, so the letter-color combinations on Synesthesia.Me are specific to how Sheridan sees words. That said, there are some common combinations across many synesthetes—the letter A, for instance, is often seen as red.

Not only is the site a fascinating foray into the mind of a grapheme-color synesthete, it could also help you bring a bright, personalized pop of color into your home: Sheridan runs an Etsy shop where she sells prints of the color blocks. She’ll email you a high-resolution, printable portrait of any name or word for just $12, or you can order an already-framed version for $96. Looking for a special engagement or anniversary gift? Sheridan also makes them with two names.