Understanding pastel colors
Pastel colors are soft, muted tones: high lightness, low saturation. Baby blue and blush pink are the archetypes, and both are built to soothe rather than to demand.
Pastels have a long history in art and design, associated with movements interested in tranquility and refinement rather than force.
Their advantage is contextual. In an environment full of saturated visuals, a pastel palette stands out by not competing, which is a real strategy rather than a consolation.
The psychological impact of pastels
Pastels read as calm, serene and often nostalgic. That combination is why they turn up in spas and nurseries, spaces where the design is trying to lower the temperature of the room.
Pantone's Serenity, a soft blue named as a Color of the Year for 2016, is the clearest example of the range being deliberately positioned around trust and tranquility.
Incorporating pastels in design: tips and tricks
Pair pastels with neutrals like white or gray so the soft colors have a stable ground to sit on. Combining pastels with each other produces a dreamier result and needs a value anchor to stay legible.
In branding, pastels soften a company's register and make it read as more approachable, which suits some categories and undermines others.
In web and interface design they reduce visual harshness, at the cost of making contrast harder to achieve. That constraint has to be solved rather than ignored.
Pastel palettes
Avoiding common pitfalls with pastels
Overuse is the main risk, and it produces designs that look washed out rather than gentle.
Mixing in a more saturated color keeps interest in the palette. Ensuring genuine value contrast keeps the design readable. Neither happens by accident with pastels, because every color in the range sits at a similar lightness by definition.
The future of pastels in design
The current direction is toward unconventional pairings and stronger accents against a pastel base, which addresses exactly the contrast problem the range creates.
Pastels are soft by construction. Making them say something requires deciding what the hard edge in the design is going to be.
Written by
Designer and developer
Julio Song is a professional web designer and developer who builds and maintains ColorSift, and writes most of what is published here.
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