The Rise of Pastel Era in Design Landscape

Pastels signify peace and joy. They are versatile, and design trends for 2021 show a resurgence of pastel colours in a wide spectrum of designs. They have been conventionally used in promotions designed for children, in the past. Pastels can also be used to create a feminine feeling thus work very well with female fashion websites too. Owing to their soothing nature, extensive use of pastel colours in designs can be observed in hospitals and surgery rooms. No doubt pastels can bring back life and energy to your designs, but it is easier said than done. It requires a skilful and a balancing act to get the desired tone, one which is neither too bright nor too dull.?

Let’s see where they sit on the colour spectrum.

What are Pastel Colours?

Source: Medium

If somebody were to ask you how many colours are there in the world? You would probably say infinite. Isn’t it? But how many of them infinite colours can you actually see? Scientists claim a human eye can detect up to 10,000,000 (ten million) shades of colour. However there are 12 basic colours (primary, secondary & tertiary) which all these shades stem from.

Among these million shades lies the incredible palette of pastels. Pastel colours are pale tints or diluted versions of primary and secondary colours. They possess the characteristics of the original colour as well as the freshness and simplicity of the white.

How to Design with Pastels?

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Artists fell in love with these pale tints early on and have been using pastel colours in their designs since time immemorial. A pastel colour is complemented by a tint of the complementary primary or secondary colour. For example, pastel green complements pastel red, pastel blue pairs with pastel orange, pastel yellow with pastel purple.

Let’s take a look at how companies are using pastel colours for brand positioning:

1.Pastel Colours in Branding: A wide range of female oriented brands are turning to pastel colours to project feminine nature of their offerings and the brand as a whole. Traditionally pastels have always been associated with femininity and motherhood, for example, endorsements related to perfumes, skin care products for women and baby products are presented in pastels. However, off late we are seeing a resurgence of the same in a multitude of brands.?

At the same time we are witnessing a growing trend of pastel colours in men’s clothing as well. Pastel pink and pastel grey are no longer gender specific colours.

Branding for eco-friendly products is primarily done through pastels to bring an earthy tone. Wherever peace, purity, joy and freshness needs to be expressed, pastel colours are used.

Source: Fancy Pastels

Source: Anveshan

2. Pastels in Web Designing: In times such as these when average screen time is constantly increasing, landing on a website designed using pastel colours is no less than a treat to your eyes.? Pastel backgrounds do not overwhelm the text and allows you to use more font colours without making it look too brash. A light background also makes the images pop. Design trends for 2021 points to increasing use of pastels in website designing, too!

Source: Jos Alukkas

3. Pastels for Home Décor and Interior Designing: After a day of hard work there is nothing like a home oozing freshness and calm. Careful mix from palette of pastels is like a potato slice to the sore eyes.

Source: Dezeen

Conclusion

If you are bored and need a break from mundane solid colours then you must try the ever refreshing palette of pastels in your design efforts. Presence of pastel colours in design schemes for home and websites, architecture to brand positioning reflects their ever versatile nature and bring calm to the ever-chaotic work processes too (take it as an added bonus).?

Pastels are a strong contender in the colour scheme and they are here to stay!