8 color swatches for updated website
Graphic Design

20 Years, Same Colors. Here’s Why I Changed Them.

Here’s a confession: I’ve been using the same brand colors for over 20 years, and I was getting a little bored. So I gave my website a refresh.

ALT TEXT Image 1 — Before/After side-by-side (weiher-creative-accessibility-May27-2.png) "Side-by-side comparison of the Weiher Creative homepage. The left side, labeled 'Before,' shows the original design with a gold heading, lighter teal background, warm gray body text, and red newsletter footer. The right side, labeled 'After,' shows the updated design with a brighter yellow heading, darker teal background, dark blue body text, and darker red-orange newsletter footer.

But the real reason wasn’t boredom—it was overdue. I’ve known for years that some of my header text didn’t have enough contrast against my background colors. As someone who tells clients to check their accessibility compliance, I figured it was finally time to practice what I preach and run a proper WCAG audit.

Here’s what I found

Annotated screenshot of the original Weiher Creative homepage with four accessibility problem callouts: the gold heading is hard to read on the teal background even at large size; the teal color only works with white text layered on top; the warm gray body text is passable but could be darker; the red footer background doesn't meet WCAG contrast standards for smaller white text; and the white button text disappears against the gold subscribe button.

A few problem spots jumped out right away: my gold header text was hard to read against the teal, even at a large size. My favorite teal only worked well with white text layered on top of it. My red call-to-action background didn’t meet contrast standards for smaller white text. And my body copy, while technically fine, could’ve been darker and easier on the eyes.

None of these were dramatic failures. They were the kind of small compliance gaps that are easy to overlook when you designed something yourself two decades ago and have looked at it every day since.

What I changed — and how

Annotated screenshot of the updated Weiher Creative homepage with four accessibility callouts: the brighter yellow heading is easier to read and feels more fun; the teal background has been darkened for better contrast; the dark blue body text is clearer and adds color; the darker red-orange footer now meets WCAG readability guidelines; and the teal button text is much easier to read.

I started at coolors.com to generate a few palette options that kept the spirit of my original brand colors but nudged them toward better contrast. From there, I ran each combination through a WCAG contrast checker to confirm the pairings actually passed—not just “looked fine to me,” but met the real accessibility standard.

The result: a brighter yellow instead of gold, a slightly darker teal, a darker red-orange instead of red, and darker body text throughout. The brand didn’t change. The vibe didn’t change. But now every color combination on the site actually meets WCAG contrast guidelines.

Why this matters beyond aesthetics

If your website’s text doesn’t have enough contrast, you’re not just making a design choice—you’re creating a barrier. People with low vision, color blindness, or who are simply reading on a phone in bright sunlight may not be able to read your content at all. For organizations whose entire mission is serving people, that’s worth taking seriously.

The good news: you usually don’t need a full rebrand to fix it. In my case, it took an afternoon, a free tool, and a contrast checker. When’s the last time you checked your own site’s accessibility? If it’s been a while—or never—I’m happy to take a look.

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