🎙️ VMPro Podcast Episode #009: The Power of Color Psychology and Typography in Modern Web Design

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the VMPro Podcast—the show for aspiring designers, developers, and small business owners learning to build better websites with WordPress. In today’s episode, I want to talk about two things that can completely change the way a website feels — colour and typography, so let’s dive right in.

Transcript

So, as some of you may already know, one of the things Samantha and I are currently working on — and something that’s been on the Van Marciano Pro roadmap for a while — is upgrading our course management tools.

We’re not changing everything. The main goal is simply to make the platform more user-friendly, easier to navigate, and ultimately provide a better learning experience for our members. One area where we’ve received quite a bit of feedback is the way our courses are currently managed and presented.

We’ve been using LearnDash since the very beginning, going all the way back to when I first launched FVM Courses in 2022. It’s served us well over the years, but unfortunately, it hasn’t evolved quite as much as we’d hoped. The interface is beginning to feel a little dated, and there are some features and functionality that we feel are missing from the overall learning experience.

Now, I’m not slating LearnDash whatsoever. It’s been fantastic for us over the years and has served the platform incredibly well. We’ve simply reached a point where it no longer meets the growing needs of Van Marciano Pro, especially as we have a long-term vision for the platform and plan to introduce many more courses, tutorials, and learning resources in the future.

So, we’re currently testing TutorLMS as a potential replacement.

If everything goes to plan, we’re hoping to make the switch later this month, in September. Whether the migration will be completely seamless remains to be seen — these things rarely are! — but we’re doing plenty of testing beforehand to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible for everyone.

Anyway, that’s enough LMS talk for now. We’ll keep you posted and let you know when we’re ready to make the change.

For now, let’s dive into the content for this episode.

So color and typography can really change the way a website feels, let’s talk about that.

And the interesting thing is, these are often the things we think about last when designing a website.

We get caught up in layouts, animations, sections, grids and all the technical stuff, but colour and typography can have just as much impact on how a visitor perceives a website.

Colour Psychology

Let’s start with colour.

Colour isn’t just about making a website look attractive. It can influence emotion, perception and even how someone interacts with a website.

For example, blue is often associated with trust, reliability and professionalism, which is why you see it used so frequently by financial institutions and technology companies. If you’ve visited any of these types of websites, you’ll see that blue is almost always present.

Green can communicate nature, growth, health and sustainability.

Red can create a sense of urgency, energy or excitement.

And black can communicate sophistication, luxury and authority.

But there’s an important caveat here: colour psychology isn’t a strict set of rules, OK?

Culture, context, branding and personal experiences all influence how someone responds to colour.

So rather than thinking, “Blue means trust, therefore I should use blue,” think about the emotion you want your website to communicate.

Ask yourself:

What should someone feel when they land on this website?

Calm? Excited? Confident? Inspired? Sophisticated?

Then use your colur palette to support that feeling.

When I was researching colours for the Van Marciano Pro platform, I’m not sure if you remember, but back when I was primarily focused on creating courses, the main colour I was using was orange.

For the most part, it worked really well. Orange is associated with things like energy, warmth, creativity, confidence, friendliness and enthusiasm, so it made a lot of sense for an educational platform built around learning and creativity.

But the combination of using a dark theme background with teal (or the version of teal that we use on Van Marciano Pro) make the platform, in my opinion, feel more like a professional creative/developer environment than a traditional e-learning website.

So again, not to tell you what you should be using, but consider a little color psychology before creating a color palette for your next website project.

🛎️ Shameless plug

So, I’m just going to interrupt this episode for a quick shameless plug.

If you’re getting some value from this episode, or you’ve enjoyed any of the WordPress tutorials I’ve shared over on Van Marciano Pro, you might want to check out the membership options.

Membership gives you access to the full library of content, including all of my page-building and web design courses, tutorials, and more.

And, just for podcast listeners, you can use the code PODCAST20 at checkout to get 20% off your membership. Just head over to vanmarciano dot pro, slash pricing.

However, if you’re a VIP email subscriber, you’ll know that we regularly run exclusive bi-weekly promotions, with savings ranging from 20% to as much as 40% off.

So, be sure to keep an eye on your inbox and check our latest email newsletters — you never know when the next VIP saving might land!

Okay, shameless plug over — let’s get back to the episode.

Typography

So, what about typography? Well, the same principle applies to typography.

Typography isn’t just about choosing a nice-looking font.

Your typeface has personality.

A modern geometric sans-serif can make a brand feel clean and contemporary.

A serif typeface can create a sense of tradition, elegance or authority.

And a bold display font can bring personality and energy to a design.

But typography also has a very practical job — that being communication.

If your body text is difficult to read, it doesn’t matter how beautiful the website looks. It’s going to suck.

Pay attention to things like font size, line height, letter spacing, line length and contrast.

And perhaps most importantly, create a clear typographic hierarchy.

Your H1 should obviously feel like the most important heading.

Your H2s should establish sections.

Your body text should be comfortable to read.

And supporting text should feel secondary without becoming illegible.

Bringing Them Together

The real magic happens when colour and typography work together.

Imagine a luxury architectural website using an elegant serif heading, a clean sans-serif for body copy, a restrained neutral colour palette and subtle accent colours.

Compare that with a website for a children’s creative brand using vibrant colours, playful typography and bold headings.

Both can be excellent designs — but they’re communicating completely different personalities.

And that’s the point.

Good web design isn’t just about making something look good. It’s about communicating an idea, a personality and an emotion.

So next time you’re starting a website project, don’t just ask:

“What colours look good?”

Ask:

“What do these colours communicate?”

And don’t just ask:

“Which font should I use?”

Ask:

“What personality does this typeface give the brand?”

Because when you start thinking about colour and typography strategically rather than purely aesthetically, your designs become much more intentional.

Summary

OK, so a little bit of a short one. I wanted to keep it that way but still provide you with some value and something to provoke your thoughts. Once again, thanks for tuning in, if you enjoyed this episode, do check out my other web developer/designer rants on here, until the next episode, take it easy and peace!

Resources

1. Web design tech stack (2026 Episode 6)
2. Buzzsprout (podcast hosting)