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Teach & case

Help a near-peer reason through the idea — when you explain it, you understand it best — then read the real decision it comes from.

A case · you decide

Willoughby and the poster nobody could read

Willoughby — a student designer whose vivid poster looked striking on screen but was unreadable when printed and posted

The idea in play: contrast is a LUMINANCE ratio (WCAG), not how different two colours look by hue.

Willoughby's event poster uses bright blue text on a bright orange background — the two colours look totally different, so Willoughby assumed the text would pop. On the wall, people squint and can't read it. If the hues are so different, why is it so hard to read?

Readability is driven by CONTRAST, and contrast is a LUMINANCE ratio — how light vs. dark two colours are — not how far apart their hues are. A saturated blue and a saturated orange can sit at nearly the SAME luminance, so the text and background are equally "bright" and blur together.

WCAG puts a number on it: the contrast ratio between text and background should be at least 4.5:1 for normal text. That ratio is computed from luminance, so "these look really different" can still fail — and a plain dark-on-light pairing can easily pass.

Willoughby insists the blue-on-orange is fine "because the colours are completely different." Is different-hue enough for readable contrast?

To fix it, Willoughby considers swapping the orange for an even MORE different hue (say, green). Best move?

Measure a contrast ratio yourself in the Lab →

When two ideas meet: 2 cases with two people

A case · you decide

Onyx and Willoughby: grey that nobody can read

Onyx & Willoughby — a designer who knows colours change beside each other, and a friend who measures contrast

The idea in play: readable text needs enough contrast with its background; the WCAG ratio for body text is at least 4.5 to 1.

Onyx sets a poster's small print in a soft grey, #999999, on white. It looks elegant on the big monitor.

Willoughby measures the contrast: about 2.8 to 1.

A slightly darker grey, #767676, measures about 4.5 to 1.

What should Onyx do with the small print?

Open the Color Lab →

A case · you decide

Ursula and Yardley: what goes together

Ursula & Yardley — a designer who sets emphasis, and a friend who groups things by closeness

The idea in play: items placed close together are read as a group, so spacing does as much for hierarchy as size or colour.

Ursula's event flyer has a title, a date, a place and a price, all evenly spaced down the page. Readers keep missing the date.

Yardley suggests the date and place belong together, since both answer "when and where?"

What is the clearest fix?

Open the Color Lab →