For more than 60 years, Pantone has been at the centre of print with its Pantone Matching System which, as the company says, ‘allows for the faithful selection, articulation and reproduction of consistent, accurate colour anywhere in the world’. Anyone involved in print or publishing before the digital world will remember the books of Pantone swatches, used to choose and match colours.
Over the past few years, the company has embraced the clever marketing idea of launching a ‘Colour of the Year’. In 2024, it was Peach Fuzz and, in 2025, it is Mocha Mousse. Both were unveiled with much fanfare and words that might usually be found on a press release for a new perfume launch.
PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse, says Pantone, is ‘a warming, brown hue imbued with richness. It nurtures us with its suggestion of the delectable qualities of chocolate and coffee, answering our desire for comfort’. The company also suggests other colours it works well with and writes about ‘floral pathways’, ‘a cornucopia of suggestively scented floral tones, blended with a soft mocha and a shaded willow green, leads us down a cobblestone path’.
The chosen colour for 2024, PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz, is described as ‘a warm and cozy shade highlighting our desire for togetherness with others or for enjoying a moment of stillness and the feeling of sanctuary this creates’.
What is notably about these two colours is the fact that they could both be described as muted pastel shades – certainly, neither are bright and attention-grabbing.
Not surprisingly, many web designers keep a keen eye on these colour trends and, in some of the lists of top web design trends for 2025, is a move towards – as one report described it – ‘more soothing and nurturing colour palettes’, which includes these chalky pastel shades like Mocha Mousse and Peach Fuzz. The ideal is that they are step away from ‘attention-grabbing saturated hues’, promoting ‘digital comfort’ and reducing ‘visual fatigue’.
This is all very well but, as we’ve written about recently, specifically in this blog there is a requirement on web developers to create not only beautiful sites but ones which are accessible. The NHS says that about 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have colour vision deficiency, while two million people in the UK live with sight loss.
In the UK, public bodies (including central government and local government organisations; as well as some charities and other non-government organisations) have a legal duty to offer a fully accessible website.
While these beautiful pastel tones are both fashionable and popular now, they should be used carefully on a website. That’s not to say that they shouldn’t be included at all – but where there is text over these shades, it should be large enough and have enough definition.
As a web developer that counts public bodies among its clients, at Lake Solutions we are careful regarding definition.
According to the charity Scope: Colour contrast matters if you want to make your workplace and website accessible. Document and website content need to have enough contrast between the text and background. If they have low contrast, it creates barriers for people with sight loss or colour blindness. This makes it hard for them to get the information they need.
Colour accessibility ensures all users, including those with visual impairments or colour vision deficiencies, can navigate a site effectively. In web design, it’s important to consider:
Contrast ratios: Ensuring sufficient contrast between text and background colours helps improve readability. The WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) recommend a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.
Avoiding colour dependence: Don't rely solely on colour to convey information. For example, instead of using only red to indicate an error, include text or icons for clarity.
Providing alternatives: Use patterns, textures or labels, in addition to colour when creating charts, graphs or other visual elements.
It is possible to test your colour choices with colour contrast checkers and simulators to evaluate your design for users with colour blindness. Here at Lake Solutions, we routinely test our use of both colours and text.
If you want to talk to us about how colour on your website and making your site accessible, then contact Lake Solutions today.