How to Use Your Brand Colors More Effectively

a tone-on-tone graphic that reads "Color Hierarchy 101: a quick guide to using contrast in typography to create clarity, focus, and visual rhythm" in a stylish, feminine serif font perfect for interior designers.

You’ve got a brand color palette…but now what? If you’re unsure how to actually use those colors in your social media, client documents, or even on your website, you’re not alone. A well-chosen palette is just the beginning; how you apply it determines whether your content is clear or chaotic. In this post, I’ll walk you through a simple way to use color contrast and hierarchy to bring clarity, focus, and rhythm to your visuals. No overthinking required.


Photo of a French provincial home with a gray roof, light sage green shutters, and natural stone. Adjacent is a color palette inspired by the photo. The text reads: "Here's the color palette we'll be working with..."
A color palette of dark gray-blue, gray-sage-green, and natural stone. Values for Pantone, CMYK, RGB, HSL, and 4 tints each in HTML are provided.
Only the dark gray-blue and light stone color are shown. Text reads: "I'll be using the dark neutral and light neutral only - in the context of designing a website."
Elegant, feminine, and editorial style serif font reads: "Headings will be in Fifty Fifty Semibold." "Paragraphs will be in Helvetica Neue Regular" (a web-safe sans-serif font)

Featured Font :: Fifty Fifty

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Let’s get to it!

A dark neutral on a light background creates the most contrast and is easiest to read.

Your highest contrast heading should be reserved for essential information you need to communicate immediately. Here, I’m using the darkest text (100% tint of the dark neutral) over the lightest background (25% tint of the light neutral) to make the message pop.

This combo is perfect for pop-ups:


A dark neutral on a light background creates the most contrast and is easiest to read.

Your high contrast heading is for information you need to communicate quickly. Here, I’m using dark text (100% tint of the dark neutral) over a light background (100% tint of the light neutral). There’s slightly less contrast here, but it’s still very easy to read.

This combo is ideal for the banner on your home page:


A medium neutral on a light background creates mid-level contrast for secondary info.

For secondary information, take the contrast down another notch to keep the attention on your most important heading(s). Here, I’m using a lighter tint of the dark neutral over the same light background.

This combo is ideal for the bio section on your home page. Once you’ve communicated what your website is about, you can provide additional information for those still interested.

You may be wondering, “Wait a second - explaining my background and expertise is pretty important - why should I treat this as secondary?!” I totally get that. However, the goal here is to use color and contrast to show people where to look first, second, and so on. We have to be extremely picky about which headings get the spotlight in order to create varying levels of visual importance. Without these levels, everything would feel the same and our readers may not know where to look first.


A subtle tone-on-tone look offers low contrast for less important, more artistic uses.

For automated responses, familiar phrases, and softer tones, take the contrast down yet another notch. Here, I’m using a tone-on-tone look with the lighter neutrals.

Here’s an example of what a user might see after submitting an online form:

Did you notice how the more familiar phrase within the automated response uses a larger font size in combination with the more muted color? The smaller font size of the sentence below requires higher contrast to be legible, so I used the dark neutral.


Light type on a light background offers very little contrast - perfect for non-essential information.

Here’s where you really start looking a pro! For non-essential info, like writing “Testimonial”—or, in this case, “Kind Words”—directly above a client’s testimonial, try using really LOW contrast to treat the type as a decorative, almost textural, element. Light text on a darker background is more difficult to read, but in this case, seeing/reading “Kind Words” is less important than the actual words of my client. Notice how your eyes move to the dark text first, even though it’s smaller?


When you understand how to use color hierarchy, your palette becomes more than pretty. It becomes powerful. With just a few contrast tweaks, you can guide the eye, create focus, and make your brand look sharp and intentional. Keep this framework handy the next time you’re designing, and let your visuals do the heavy lifting.

Nikki Mihalik

Hi! I’m Nikki, the Creative Director and Principal Designer at Akula Kreative, a branding + print + web design studio based in Houston, Texas. Over the past 17 years, I have branded hundreds of businesses, from seven-figure-start-ups to one-woman-shows. I am obsessed with design, passionate about paper goods, and love to create beautiful, intentional brands that allow busy entrepreneurs to hustle less and play more.

http://www.akulakreative.com
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a French-provincial-home-inspired color palette

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What Every Interior Designer Should Know About RGB, CMYK, and Pantone®