Ahhhh, chocolate brown.  So sophisticated, so modern, so 5 minutes ago? Whaaaat?

For the past few years, chocolate brown has been the “it” accent color for birth announcements, photo cards, stationery, and pretty much all things paper.  And it’s easy to see why.  I love the way that chocolate brown can impart its deep, velvety, rich vibe on other, shall we say, less swanky colors.

Like pastels – a prime choice of color for many birth announcements, in various pastel-y shades of blue and pink, sometimes green or yellow.  Pastels are typically hopeful, cheerful colors that kind of make you smile in a “oooh!  so cute” kinda way.

Check out the feel of pastel pink  paired with another soft coordinating pastel in this birth announcement:

And how that same pastel pink looks totally different when paired with a rich chocolate brown in this birth announcement:

See what I mean?  That’s why these types of color combos work so well with birth announcements – new parents want their card to reflect the newness, cuteness, pinch-your-cheeks-adorableness of their new baby, so they start with a pastel.   But they also want to remind everyone that they are just as sophisticated and cool as they were pre-baby(if not more so!), so they add in a little brown to add a touch of elegance.

Crazy how that works, right?  So with mojo like that, why are our clients starting to shy away from this color superhero?  Don’t get me wrong, chocolate brown still is extremely popular and birth announcements and invitations with chocolate brown in them still make up our biggest portion of sales.  I don’t see brown going away any time soon.  But we’re starting to get a ton of requests to put chocolate brown on the sidelines and sub in a new player.

What color is this player, you ask?  Well, meet slate gray.

Slate gray does all the wonderful same things that chocolate brown does with this birth announcement – gives the pastel an air of elegance, is dark enough to make the photos really pop, and acts to make this birth announcement more sophisticated.  So what’s the difference?  Well, simply put, slate gray is not chocolate brown.

That’s it!

For those customers looking to do something a little different, they are turning to this color as an accent in their birth announcements because it’s unique.  Slate gray seems fresh and modern in this birth announcement design.  It’s unexpected, yet similar enough to chocolate brown to be equally elegant and demure.

So, if you’re looking to try something a little different without veering too far from the norm, consider using a nice slate gray in your birth announcement design.  And now that you know about this new color trend, you’ll start noticing it everywhere – from wedding color palettes to home decor.

Shop our entire collection of birth announcements here…and if you want to change the color of any design to incorporate this new trend, (or to chocolate brown, or to any other color for that matter), fear not – all the birth announcement designs are fully customizable.