I’ve worked with incredible designers over the years — people who can craft stunning interfaces, guide user flow like a symphony, and turn whitespace into poetry. But when it comes to email design, even the best of them sometimes step into a minefield without realizing it.
Email isn’t the same as web. It’s not even close. It’s a Frankenstein platform, full of quirks, legacy constraints, and silent failures. And yet, most email design problems I see could be solved if designers just had the right context.
This article isn’t a rant. It’s a love letter to designers. A wish list. A bridge. Because when designers and developers understand the real landscape of email, the work gets easier. The product gets better. And the users get emails that actually make sense — and work.
Email Is Not a Website
The first thing I wish designers understood is that **email design is not web design**. Yes, it uses HTML and CSS. But it uses a very limited subset of both. Think early 2000s-level support.
There’s no flexbox. No CSS grid. No custom fonts unless you plan for fallbacks. No external stylesheets. Hover states are hit or miss. Media queries work — sometimes. It’s not a canvas. It’s a cardboard box with duct tape on the corners.
What does this mean in practice? It means your beautiful Figma layout might break in Gmail. It means Outlook might ignore your margins. It means mobile stacking isn’t guaranteed unless you hard-code it.
The Limitations Are Real — and Predictable
Here’s the good news: the constraints of email aren’t mysterious. They’re just... annoying. And if you know what they are, you can design around them like a pro.
Use tables for layout — yes, tables. Developers will thank you.
Stick to inline styles.
Design with single-column layouts for mobile readability.
Assume your fonts might fall back to system defaults.
Test in dark mode and image-blocked environments.
You don’t have to love the limitations. But respecting them changes everything.
Designing Without Talking to the Developer Is a Risk
Many designers assume they’re doing the developer a favor by handing off a polished, high-fidelity mockup. But in email, fidelity can be misleading.
If your design includes unsupported CSS, weird alignment tricks, or unrenderable components, the dev has two choices: hack it together, or gut your vision. Neither is ideal.
What works better? Start the design with a quick convo: “Hey, here’s what I’m thinking for layout. Any landmines I should avoid?” That single step avoids hours of rework.
Typography Needs Breathing Room
Email isn’t scrollable like a website. Every paragraph counts. Every line must breathe.
What I wish more designers did:
Increase line-height to 1.4 or 1.5
Keep paragraph widths under 600px
Use heading sizes that scale for mobile
Avoid over-styling links — clarity beats creativity here
Good typography in email feels open, legible, and warm. It doesn’t strain the reader. It invites them in.
Images Break. Always Have a Backup.
Email clients love to block images by default. If your entire message is embedded in an image, the reader might see... nothing.
Design with:
Alt text on every image
Meaningful visual hierarchy in plain text
Call-to-action buttons that don’t rely on images alone
Designers who understand this build trust. Their emails don’t break when a filter kicks in. They work, quietly and reliably.
Dark Mode Isn’t a Feature. It’s the Default.
Designers who ignore dark mode are designing for the minority.
What often happens:
Your logo disappears against a black background
Your light gray text becomes unreadable
Your visual balance shifts awkwardly
How to fix it:
Test in dark mode early and often
Use transparent PNGs carefully
Check color contrast at every step
Dark mode is a constraint — but also an opportunity. Design for it, and you stand out.
The Developer Is Not the Enemy
I say this with love: designers who treat developers like production machines are missing the point. A great email comes from collaboration, not handoffs.
Designers: ask your dev how they prefer to receive files. Sit with them for QA. Celebrate when something renders correctly in Outlook (you’ll both deserve it).
The more you understand how email is built, the more effective your designs will become. And the more the dev will fight to protect your vision.
Email Isn’t a Portfolio Piece. It’s a Conversation.
The best emails I’ve seen aren’t flashy. They’re helpful. They’re simple. They sound like a person talking to a person. Good email design isn’t about being impressive — it’s about being useful, fast, and human.
If your layout helps someone find what they need, click a button, and feel confident in the next step — you’ve won. No Dribbble likes required.
Final Thoughts: Respect the Medium
Email is a strange beast. It’s part design, part engineering, part psychology. And when you treat it like its own discipline — not a subset of web or branding — everything gets better.
I don’t need designers to become email coders. I just wish they understood the terrain.
Because when they do? Their ideas actually make it to the inbox — intact, on-brand, and effective.
Still thinking it through? Contact me here and I’ll help you get it right.