For two decades, email design meant getting clever. Glossy headers, multi-column layouts, branded everything, image-heavy templates that took a designer two days to build.
That’s not where the wind is blowing anymore. The best-performing emails in 2026 mostly look like emails from real people. Plain typography. Few or no images. One column. Buttons that look like links. The kind of email you’d send to a friend, not a marketing department.
Here is what good email design looks like now, why it works, and what to leave behind.
The big shift: plain is winning
Three things have driven the move away from heavily designed templates:
- Deliverability. Image-heavy, code-dense emails trigger spam filters more readily than simple ones. Plain emails get through.
- Trust. Polished marketing templates signal “this is a sales email”. Plain emails signal “this is from a person”. Plain wins on opens, clicks, and replies.
- Mobile. Around 70% of email is read on a phone now. Fancy multi-column layouts often break on mobile, while plain typography just works.
None of this means design doesn’t matter. It means the design is now in the typography, the spacing, and the structure, not in the visual chrome.
The mobile-first rule
If you take one principle away, take this one: design for the phone first, then check it on desktop.
In practice that means:
- One column. Always. Multi-column layouts collapse awkwardly on small screens.
- A maximum content width of 600 pixels. This is the email design standard and almost all clients respect it.
- Body text at 16 pixels or larger. Anything smaller is hard to read on a phone.
- Generous line height (1.4 to 1.6). Cramped text is exhausting on mobile.
- Lots of whitespace. Phones magnify how dense text feels.
Typography that works
Use one font for everything. Two at most. Pick a system font (Helvetica, Arial, Georgia) or a Google font that’s widely supported. Custom fonts in email are inconsistent across clients; the fallback to system fonts often happens anyway.
Headings should be a touch bigger than body text, not dramatically so. The hierarchy comes from spacing and weight, not size.
Avoid fully justified text. Left-aligned reads better, especially on mobile.
Images: less is more
Use images sparingly. Each one increases load time, can break (people block images), and tips the email-to-image ratio toward spam-flagging.
If you do use images:
- Always include alt text. Many readers see the alt text before the image loads, or instead of it.
- Optimise file size. Compress everything. A 2MB hero image is a deliverability problem and a slow inbox load.
- Don’t put critical content in images. If the image doesn’t load, the email still needs to make sense.
- Use product photos in e-commerce. Use almost nothing in service-business emails.
Buttons versus text links
Buttons work when you have one clear primary action. Use a generously-sized button (44 pixel minimum tap target), high contrast, and one per email.
But plain text links work surprisingly well too, especially in personal-feeling emails. “Reply if you want details” or “Here’s the link” is often more effective than a polished button. It looks like a real email, not a campaign.
The rule of thumb: e-commerce and offer-driven emails use buttons. Newsletters and personal-style emails use text links.
Dark mode awareness
A majority of inboxes now support dark mode, and a lot of users have it on by default. Test your email in dark mode before sending. Watch for:
- Black text becoming invisible on a now-dark background
- Logos with white backgrounds suddenly looking like awkward boxes
- Coloured buttons that lose contrast against the new background
The simplest defence is to keep colours minimal and to use PNG logos with transparent backgrounds.
Accessibility basics
Good email design is also accessible design. The basics:
- Alt text on every image
- Decent contrast between text and background
- Body text at readable sizes
- Meaningful link text (not “click here”)
- Semantic structure: real headings, not just bold text
None of this is hard. It’s the difference between an email everyone can read and an email a chunk of your list silently struggles with.
The simple template that works
If you want a default that almost always works, here it is:
- Plain background (white or off-white)
- Small logo at the top, centered or left-aligned
- One column, 600 pixels wide, generous padding
- 16-pixel body text in a system font
- Maybe one product image or hero image, optimised
- One clear button or link as the primary call to action
- Short, human sign-off from a real person
- Compact footer with your address and unsubscribe
That’s it. The fanciest part is the writing.
Read next
Design carries the email; the subject line gets it opened. Pair this with our subject line guide. And if your beautifully designed emails are landing in spam, read this on deliverability.
Need help with the design?
If your emails look like they were designed in 2014, that’s the kind of thing we fix. Have a look at our email marketing service, or get in touch.
