Font and Color Pairing: Tips for Consistent Branding

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Why is font and color pairing important?

Fonts and colors both evoke emotions. Fonts can be playful or serious, quiet or loud, professional or casual. Colors can be joyful or somber, energizing or calming, regal or silly.

Using the wrong fonts and colors can be jarring to a viewer. Imagine a funeral home website with a whimsical font like Henny Penny. I don’t know that you would trust them to give your loved ones a dignified send off!

What is the purpose of your website?

Is your website showcasing a professional service such as real estate or finance? Then you may want to look professional and trust-worthy.

Is your website focusing on digital products for parents who home school their kids? Then you may want to look fun and colorful.

Is your website addressing mindset changes? Then you may want to look calm and caring, but not overly serious.

These suggestions are not carved in stone. My website has tutorials in WordPress and the Kadence theme for beginners. Look around at different tech websites; they are usually a medium blue with grey, so that they look professional, techy and serious. But, my site is geared toward people who are afraid of tech, and are overwhelmed by it, so I choose a soft blue and a calm green. I want to appeal to people, especially women, who want to get a site running without having to learn all the technical jargon that goes with web development.

Choose colors that reflect how you want your audience to react to your content.

What emotions do colors evoke?

We've all heard that red can mean danger, like a stoplight. Red can also mean romance, food, or even pain. It depends on what you pair it with.

Mix red with pink and white and it looks like a Valentine.

Mix it with bright yellow and black and it looks like a danger sign.

Mix it with green and it looks like Christmas.

Mix it with shiny silver and it can look like an operating room.

Think about what you want to convey to your reader. Color is a powerful tool; use it to connect your brand with your reader's emotions.

How do I make a color palette?

Color palettes should be based on a color wheel. This one from Canva can be used to find different combinations such as complimentary, analogous, monochromatic, etc. Start by choosing one color that you want to be your main color and find one or two colors to compliment it. I used my soft aqua blue and found triadic colors. I wasn't happy with the pinkish purple in the center, so i pushed that color to a brighter coral that I use for a pop of color on my website.

You can see the result of my color choices in my logo and throughout all of my branding:

What emotions do fonts evoke?

Fonts evoke emotions on a more subtle level than colors do. I'm using Playfair Display and Open Sans on this website, because they are a commonly used pairing that I hope will look familiar and comfortable to my readers.

What if I used Creepster instead? Besides the fact that it is very difficult to read, it's also totally inappropriate for the feeling and emotions that I am trying to present to my readers.

In general, you should use a serif font for your headings, and a sans serif for your body text. This is mainly for legibility on a screen. Use a common font pairing, then experiment with some unique styles here and there. For example, if I had a post about how to make a Halloween printable, I might sprinkle in the Creepster font.

This article from Google fonts gives more info on the emotive considerations for choosing typefaces.

How do I know if my colors and fonts look good together?

Your color and font choices are ultimately up to you. Don't be afraid to try different combinations and think about what you're saying to your readers. Sometimes we fall in love with a color or a font, and don't want to give it up, even if it doesn't work. If you chose a bright yellow because it's your favorite color, but it's not working for your audience, then change it.

This is even more important with a font. Sometimes you love the look of a fun, whimsical font and you want to use it everywhere, but it may not be legible enough, especially on a mobile screen. Save the whimsical font for a decorative element, and write your articles so that your viewer's can read them.

The word “Hello” in this heading is pretty, but it's also difficult to read. I've used it as a decoration, not as an entire heading.

Principles of Visual Harmony

The secret to visual harmony is consistency. Using the same two or three colors and fonts throughout your site adds balance – but what if it looks boring?

You can add some variations of your colors and fonts, such as using a darker shade of your primary color or using a thinner or bolder weight of your fonts.

In this detail of my homepage, I use my blue and green in my logo, a darker variation of my blue in the top header bar, and a lighter version of my blue in the image background.

I also use small caps in my menu and I use bold in my h2 headings to give my typography a variation without changing fonts.

Matching a bold font variation with a paler shade of the primary color or a thinner version with a bold shade of your primary color can give your design “tension” which is a great way to call attention to a section:

What if I decide to change my color and font pairs?

The Kadence customizer is a great way to try out different palettes. You can set up different palettes and see instantly what your site will look like.

Here's a screenshot of my color palette in the WordPress customizer.

Here's a screenshot of some of the default color palettes in the customizer. You can change each color to your own hex code and try out different palettes.

You can do the same with fonts under Typography in the customizer.

Where do I get inspiration for colors and fonts?

Ensuring Readability and Accessibility

Always check your colors and font sizes for accessibility. This will ensure that reader's with visual impairments can enjoy your site, and Google will reward you with a better ranking in search. You can use a tool like Coolors Contrast Checker or Accessible Web's Color Contrast Checker to check font size on different background colors.

Bookmark sites that you like

Apple.com is a masterpiece of design simplicity with it's monochromatic color palette and simple, legible fonts.

Lindsay Kelly's OrganizeYourOnlineBiz.com is feminine without being girly, professional without being stuffy – it's perfect for it's target audience.

Ryan Robinson's tech blue matches his RyRob.com site's tech focus, but his friendly images and plain talk make it less intimidating for newbies.

I like Pam Allen's website PamAllenOnline.com because she breaks all the rules and still has a cohesive site that reflects the exuberance she brings to her Canva tutorials.

Another rule-breaker is Stripe.com. It's bold colored hero section is not what you would expect on a financial site – rather it indicates that this is not your typical stuffy financial site, but rather a bolder, more modern choice.

Choose a few sites that you are drawn to, and analyze why you like them, then use them for inspiration on your own site.