Dark mode and your branding

Dark mode impacts your email branding by adjusting the HTML used to display it in the inbox. These adjustments can be as small as inverting colors in text-only emails (while leaving HTML emails unchanged), or as substantial as adjusting every color in your fully-designed email template. If you don’t consider dark mode when designing your email messages, your recipients may experience hard-to-read text, colors that don’t align with your brand styles, and more. 

Read more from Klaviyo about dark mode email design best practices: https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360049181631.

You can also read more background and details from Litmus in their Ultimate Guide to Dark Mode: https://www.litmus.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-dark-mode-for-email-marketers#chart.

We recommend:

Use a UW–Madison Email Banner, or a similar full width image with an integrated background at the top/head of the body of your email message. A full-width graphical image with text and colors included in the image file should appear the same in light or dark modes. 
 
If you use an image of your UW–Madison logo (or a similar transparent image), your email design tool is likely going to apply a background. This background typically changes if the recipient had dark mode set as their viewing preference, making the image look different than intended.  

UW–Madison email resources:

UW–Madison Email Banner Templates: https://brand.wisc.edu/resource/email-banner-templates/. 

How to Apply the UW Brand in Email:   https://brand.wisc.edu/applying-the-brand/email/.