Try 10 FREE fall season color palettes that are a feast for the eyes—seasonal color schemes of fruit and vegetables, winter baking, cold-weather comfort food, and more.
Open up the pantry and you’ll find that winter produce provides a visual feast of color—the golden tint of butternut squash, the jewel-like hues of candied fruit . . . mouth watering yet?
We’ve even included the guiltiest of food pleasures in our winter color palette edit, with color schemes inspired by life-affirming fast food and mouth-watering cakes, biscuits, and buns.
These seasonal color palettes inspired by food can be used to bring comforting and captivating color to your design projects. While food-themed designs are a natural fit, these moreish schemes will also bring tantalizing taste to a range of designs, including event flyers, restaurant menus, and website designs, to name a few.
License these images via Andrey Trunov, Foxys Forest Manufacture, and Anne Ponomarenko.
Delicious and Delectable Winter Season Color Palettes
Inspired by the rich colors of seasonal food, the 10 FREE color palettes below explore the wealth of seasonal color you can find simply by opening the cupboard door. Discover surprising and contemporary color combinations that range from unexpectedly vibrant (pickles and soups) to calming and comforting (stollen and cinnamon buns).
Once you’ve landed on a color palette you like, simply right-click and save the image, or pin to a mood board to use in your designs later.
Each produce palette details the HEX codes that allow you to apply your swatches to digital designs. For print media, easily convert these to CMYK swatches.
1. Pumpkin Color Palette That’s as Sweet as Pie
The vitamin-infused colors of winter root vegetables are the inspiration behind this rich color palette.
Mustard yellow and pumpkin orange are teamed with purple and beetroot red in this vibrant scheme that would be a much-needed energy boost for winter branding or packaging.
2. Pickled Pink Vegetable Color Palette
One of the most hygge of activities in the winter months is pickling and preserving vegetables and fruit to create lip-puckering chutneys and jams. Perfect for topping your smörgåsbord, no?
This chic palette pairs deep navy blue with radish pink and gherkin green.
3. Bake Sale-Inspired Cozy, Color Palette
In this comforting, cocooning palette, you’ll find colors that envelop you like a hug on a cold winter’s morning. Dark blue and burnt orange are combined with biscuity, buttery hues to produce a graduating result.
Break out the pumpkin spice lattes and cinnamon buns, and hunker down in a corner of your favorite coffee shop.
4. A Plum Pudding Palette to Delight You
A color palette to celebrate the end of fall and the start of the winter season, here fruit-tinted hues of crimson red, apple green, and golden pear are grounded by chic charcoal black.
If you have a glut of orchard fruit, it’s time to get baking!
5. A First Taste of Spring Color Palette
At the tail-end of winter, the days start to become lighter and fresher, and we begin to crave colors that mimic the soft hues of cherry blossom and birds’ eggs.
This fresh color palette marks the final departure of winter, with pale, pastel tones of pink, mint blue, and marine blue combined with rose red for a Japanese-inspired scheme.
6. A Warm Fruit Color Palette Inspired by Holiday Stollen
Every household seems to end up with a box of dried fruit and nuts after the festive dust has settled in the New Year.
Rather than confining it to the back of the cupboard where it’s destined to be forgotten until summer, these jewel-hued selections can be used to create delicious sweet treats, from stollen (German Christmas bread) to ginger-laced (and brandy-soaked) puddings and fruit cakes.
This color palette will bring rich, fruity flavor to a range of designs, with warming berry reds and glistening amber colors inspired by candied oranges and toffee apples.
7. Forest Foraged Food Color Combos
If you know what you’re looking for (and if you don’t, maybe don’t risk it), woodlands can be a treasure trove of winter produce—think mushrooms, wild herbs, the elusive truffles.
This color palette is inspired by the magical domain of foraged food, with purple violet, pastel yellow, mushroom brown, and blush pink mimicking the ethereal colors of forest finds.
8. A Delightfully Bright Indoor Picnic Palette
One of the nicest activities in the wintertime is to do . . . absolutely . . . nothing. Stay in bed or migrate to the sofa with this chic, Scandinavian palette inspired by the simple pleasure of indoor picnics.
Deep mustard yellow, amber, and zinc gray evoke the comfort of butternut squash soup and biscuits dusted with powdered sugar, while caviar black gives the scheme a cocooning mood.
A perfect color scheme for designs that need to balance comfort and elegance.
License these images via Andrey Trunov, Foxys Forest Manufacture, and Anne Ponomarenko.
9. Juicy Health Kick Color Palette
The holiday period can make us all feel like gluttons, which is why we often crave healthier foods in the late winter months.
Pomegranates and figs feel suitably festive while keeping calories down, while a dose of frozen blueberries on your morning porridge can make you feel positively saintly on cold January days.
This is a fresh, bright color scheme featuring cranberry red and ice blue, perfect for giving your designs a much-needed health kick.
10. Guilty Pleasure Foods Color Palette
We couldn’t end our collection of winter food palettes on a strict diet! On cold days, there’s nothing more comforting than fast food, whether it’s Canadian poutine or a dirty burger.
In this cheerful color scheme, mustard yellow and ketchup red are teamed with pickle-bright green and rhodamine red. Useful for bringing color into even the darkest and dreariest of winter days.
Explore More Beautiful Food Photography
Dig into Shutterstock’s wide range of food photos and videos to make each project truly your own.
If you like what you see, our subscription plans are easier-to-use than ever! Shutterstock Flex offers all-in-one access to millions of creative assets, along with the FLEXibility you need to select the right mix for every project.
Bon appétit!
License this cover image via Myroslava Pavlyk.
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