Seeing in Colour

With colour on the mind and summer on our doorstep, we explored the broader impacts of colour in graphic and type design, its associations and how colour can be practically and conceptually used to your advantage.

As graphic or type designers, we often spend so much time designing purely in monochrome. Engrossed by a black and white world. Colour comes later. But it’s easy to forget how dramatically colour changes what you do, how something feels and how something is read. In the real world, on pixels or pages, typography rarely exists in grayscale. The moment colour enters the equation, everything shifts: legibility, mood, hierarchy, and even the way a typeface’s structure is perceived.

Colour has a direct impact on how easily text can be read. High contrast pairings – black on white, white on black – are the default for a reason. But once colour is introduced, legibility can become a balancing act. The wrong contrast can make something illegible or a paragraph exhausting. That said, even that basic contrast can be tough on the eyes. For those with dyslexia, schools often print black text on light coloured paper, such as baby blue or cream, to soften the contrast on one’s eyes – overall reducing the visual stress of reading words on a page.

Take yellow text on a white background. On paper, it’s nearly invisible. On a backlit screen, it might work, but only at a certain weight and size. Similarly, red and blue text together can cause optical vibration, making words appear to shift and blur (like you might see in an eye test). These are the kinds of interactions that designers have to test, not assume.

Type designers, meanwhile, have to consider how their letterforms hold up in different colour settings. A razor-thin grotesk might look ultra slick in black and completely disappear in pale pink. On the other end of the spectrum, a chunky display typeface might vibrate aggressively when placed in neon green. Testing typefaces in various colour scenarios can be very important, and should be treated in the same way type designers test the optical performance of their fonts at different sizes.

In graphic design, colour is a very useful tool for directing an audience – telling their eyes where to go. A headline in bold red is going to grab attention before a paragraph in gray. A subtle colour shift between a subhead and body text can create a visual break without needing additional styling. It can offer all the hierarchy necessary for a publication, even if everything is the same point size.

In typography, designers can also build colour into the type itself. Some variable fonts allow colour customisation, opening up new possibilities for expressive, multi-tonal letterforms. Digital-first typefaces are increasingly designed with colour interaction in mind, however, it’s far from a new invention. Plenty of old, originally letterpress, fonts used ‘shadows’ for greater contrast (plus they look very nice).

Colour and typography both carry meaning, but together, they can amplify it. No matter what, we carry culturally-informed, deep rooted chromatic associations, be it relating to gender, mood, price, history, stature… everything really. A classic, evergreen serif in deep navy conveys tradition and reliability. The same serif in hot pink feels unexpected. A geometric sans in red feels urgent and bold; in soft beige, it’s calm. It’s classy.

Different cultures and industries assign different meanings to colours, which means the same typeface can tell radically different stories depending on the palette. Luxury brands lean into black, gold, and neutrals to suggest timelessness and exclusivity. Tech companies love blues and purples for a forward-thinking, (ironically) trustworthy feel. High-energy, sporty brands go for oranges, reds, and bright greens.

As designers, the challenge (and the fun), is playing with those expectations. Perhaps subverting what an audience would expect, and using their associations in your favour.

For type foundries, this raises an interesting question in the role of a type specimen. Should they be neutral? Should it suggest how a typeface can behave in different colour settings? Many foundries opt for grayscale type specimens to let the letterforms speak for themselves. Others embrace colour as part of the showcase, highlighting the typeface’s concept and character.

Colour and typography are inseparable. Even monochrome is a colour choice. Whether designing a typeface or working with one, it’s not enough to think about letterforms in isolation because they, in fact, never do. Consider type through the lens of form, contrast, communication and colour.