When you've been interested in design (any kind) long enough, you eventually start to notice the cyclical nature of trends in the industry. Just like in fashion and art, what's gone out of style inevitably resurfaces a few years later—only to fade again before it becomes fully mainstream. In digital design, it works exactly the same way, and it's hard not to notice the rise and fall of gradient popularity. Still, gradients are considered a cornerstone of 90s interface design (remember how many websites from that era had gradient WordArt headlines—the kind you can still create in MS Word today?). But... this trend likely has deeper roots.
The “Back to the Future” logo is a great example of a design trend that recently made a comeback for various reasons. Most notably, the 2016 Instagram logo redesign and the updated website design of Spotify.
Gradients have been growing in popularity year after year (their fame hasn’t faded—it keeps growing, and in the coming year, they’ll gain even more momentum) —especially in user interfaces and web design. And there’s a solid reason: they instantly add depth and texture to elements on a page. Every gradient is unique and can serve different purposes: mimicking the natural colors we see around us (since we rarely encounter pure solid tones in real life), or adding a touch of fantasy and magic—because some color combinations are the opposite: impossible in nature, but beautiful in design.
A gradient is a powerful design technique. But as with many powerful tools—great power comes with great responsibility. Used incorrectly, gradients can result in a design disaster. The layout can feel confusing, distracting to users, and can completely ruin the visual harmony of the interface.
That was quite an intro, but this time we want to take a closer look at the secret to creating gradients that elevate your design to the next level—rather than making it look like it came from 1997. We’ve already discussed gradients —where to use them, what tools and resources exist, how to apply them in Photoshop to create shadows. But today we’ll dig into the secrets behind crafting perfect color blends and use real examples to unpack some of the details we previously mentioned.
The Foundation – Back to Basics
Whether your gradient idea is a duotone or multitone, each gradient is only as strong as the colors within it. To define good combinations, a color wheel is your best friend. You don’t have to be a color theory expert—just remember one rule we often repeat: colors that sit next to each other on the wheel harmonize best. It doesn’t matter if you’re choosing solid colors for a website or creating a gradient. In the diagrams below, the smooth yellow-to-orange transition is compared with a green-to-purple one. The second has too many gaps—some of the transition colors are lost. As a result, purple and green appear disconnected (as separate entities), and the transition line becomes a blurred divide.
Why are neighboring colors on the wheel so visually appealing? Maybe because these are the gradients we naturally see in the world around us. Which brings us to one of the best designer secrets: look at nature. Take a walk through a nearby park or down the street (let alone into the woods or mountains), and use nature as your gradient inspiration.
Nature as Muse, Internet as Guide
Every single day we encounter gradients in real life: skies, sunsets, bodies of water. No matter where in the world we are, the sky—especially the sky—is a brilliant source of inspiration (even in winter evenings, when city lights reflect off the clouds, creating glowing color washes). Just take a look at these stunning natural gradients and ideas for using them in web design will start sparking on their own. Whether vivid or pastel, they can transform a web layout and add flair to a design that otherwise uses only flat colors. Just with the sky alone, the potential combinations for gradients are practically endless.
On the other hand, there are tons of websites that have created their own original gradients—and they look fantastic.
Impossible Bureau – as soon as you open the homepage, you're greeted with a gradient that transitions beautifully between red, pink, and purple.
Melanie.F – right at the beginning of the site, you'll notice a green-to-blue gradient. It’s not overly bright, but it immediately draws user attention. Individual elements also feature their own subtle color transitions.
Symodd – has a homepage shaded in orange and pink, with following pages continuing in richly mixed color transitions.
Taking It to the Next Level
Let’s be honest: sometimes the color palette of your brand just doesn’t work well as a gradient. Or maybe your basic two-tone gradient doesn’t contrast enough with your logo. In other words: don’t be afraid to experiment. Add extra shades to enhance visual interest and make your UI elements pop even more.
As you might expect, extra colors work best when placed between the start and end points on the color wheel. Here’s another set of diagrams for reference. In the second and third examples, the colors are placed closely together, creating smooth, natural blends. But what about the first one? Yellow and blue aren’t near each other, and the gray in between just acts like a divider. You’re left with a three-block segment—light, neutral, dark—without any real flow. That’s not how gradients are meant to behave. Understanding the logic of gradients is key to building them successfully.
But two or three colors can feel boring. You may want something more complex and vibrant. Just know this: the more colors you add, the harder it gets to balance the gradient visually. Things get tricky—what goes in the middle? How do you handle the blending between all the corners and edges? You might come up with big plans and spend hours fine-tuning. But in the end, you risk ending up with a chaotic mess—too many hues, too little harmony.
Light and Shadow
Even after you've found and selected the perfect color combination, there's still the question of how to actually implement it in a layout.
Compare the gradient overlays below. A linear gradient can help emphasize a menu bar or add subtle shading. But in this case, the radial gradient feels confusing. The text doesn’t fit inside the central highlight, and it’s unclear which object the gradient is trying to emphasize.
The same logic applies to circles. A linear gradient looks too sharp, as if it's slicing through the shape, while a radial gradient looks more natural and fluid.
Of course, whenever you work with gradients, it’s important to establish an imaginary “light source” for your layout—just like a painter would when working on a landscape. This helps guide how to orient the gradient, where the lightest and darkest areas should be. For example, if your linear gradient starts light at the top, the nearby radial gradient should also have its highlight near the top. Defining a light source can also help you align and shade other graphical elements across the page.
When all the visual conditions align, gradients can create striking, dynamic layouts that significantly enhance the user experience.
Take a look at projects like gqjapan, magicleap, gucci, kinsta, erachain, acnc, sproutsend, rbuilddev. In many of these examples, the gradients are surprisingly complex—even if at first glance they appear to be simple fades from dark to light. If you look closer, you’ll spot additional middle tones. These act as bridges between opposing ends of the color spectrum. And many of the combinations feel familiar, even meaningful. Blue for medical or nonprofit use feels natural, and adding green (a symbol of life and growth) enhances it. Together, they provide both emotional resonance and a beautiful blend.
What’s Next?
No matter what the current design trends are, gradients remain a simple yet effective way to modernize and enrich a project. Sometimes, during a redesign, you don’t even need to change your original colors—just replace harsh color blocks with a subtle blend of tones. It’s easy to create:
Final Thoughts
Flat colors dominated web design for the past decade, but things are changing—and gradient color schemes have taken their place. The reason is simple: gradients let brands express themselves more freely, creating smooth transitions between their primary color pairs.
A website is the first thing users see when they want to learn about a company. In this context, it’s extremely important to make your site feel unique (or at least close to it) and to use smart color choices. Gradients play a key role here because they help designers build more engaging visuals that encourage users to stick around longer.
One day, gradients might go out of style and give way to something new. But for now—they're a strong, modern trend that isn’t going anywhere soon. Even a simple tone shift from dark to light already counts as a gradient. But who says you can’t go beyond black and white? What about transparency, layer blending, or custom opacity percentages?
After years of strictly flat design, gradients have returned as a natural choice—because they offer variety, creativity, and flexibility. They introduce a whole new dimension and add the depth that today’s web design desperately needs.