# Meta Branded redesign: theme refresh
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246
**Category:** Site feedback
**Tags:** meta-redesign-2026
**Created:** [February 27, 2026, 10:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246 "2026-02-27T10:36:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@NateDhaliwal](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NateDhaliwal)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 10:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/1 "2026-02-27T10:36:56Z")
Over the past few hours, I’ve noticed the Meta Branded theme having some changes, like an increased border radius on buttons and text fields, etc.
Over the past 15 something minutes, I noticed that the primary color changed from blue to purple. Was there a reason for this change, like to align it with the ‘new’ [discourse.org](http://discourse.org) design? It was blue for years now, so the change to purple came as a surprise.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 10:49am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/2 "2026-02-27T10:49:06Z")
I think the new color is part of
> [@Updating Meta's theme and structure](https://meta.discourse.org/t/updating-metas-theme-and-structure/396304/1):
>
> We are going to update the look and feel of the site to match our website.
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### Author:  [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 11:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/3 "2026-02-27T11:08:24Z")
I found it quite jarring too! But have rapidly adjusted.
What I don’t like is the font for this 🤢:
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### Author:  [@NateDhaliwal](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NateDhaliwal)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 11:14am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/4 "2026-02-27T11:14:38Z")
Couldn’t see that on mobile but after changing my browser to show the mobile view I do now. It’s the same one used on the main site, I believe. But yes, I’m not a big fan of it either. On the flip side, the colour is easy to adjust to, it’s not too bright or loud.
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### Author:  [@manuel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/manuel)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 11:55am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/5 "2026-02-27T11:55:29Z")
Yes, we’re aligning with the new brand styles.
I personally love the updated colors and font, but understand they might feel quite different at first. They’re part of the new brand guidelines we’re implementing across the site, so they aren’t open for changes.
That said, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback on the theme. As @Moin mentioned, this update is part of a sequence of planned changes. We might not be able to fix every glitch in the current theme, but all input is super valuable and will help guide other improvements to come!
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### Author:  [@ToddZ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ToddZ)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 12:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/6 "2026-02-27T12:10:02Z")
I love the purple! 💜
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 12:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/7 "2026-02-27T12:11:21Z")
> [@manuel](#):
>
> all input is super valuable and will help guide other improvements to come!
^ Just reiterating this. Any feedback about the new theme refresh here is welcome.
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 12:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/8 "2026-02-27T12:40:37Z")
Sorry, not a fan _at all_.
Amber was a much better choice:
Purple becomes a fuzzy chromatic aberration on some glasses! 🧐😢
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### Author:  [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 1:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/9 "2026-02-27T13:05:21Z")
> [@merefield](#):
>
> Purple becomes a fuzzy chromatic aberration on some glasses! 🧐😢
I don’t understand what you mean, it looks perfectly fine to me:
Sorry, that was just a pun. I do have slight issues with chromatic aberrations as well in certain conditions, but I don’t have any with the purple choice on the new meta branded theme.
I also like the background hue in both dark and light theme.
I’m not a fan of the fully rounded buttons. It’s okay-ish for wide buttons, but the fully round buttons
 
Can explain why tho. Perhaps it gives me a smartphone vibe 🤷
Perhaps I just have to get used to it, but I usually don’t pick the meta branded theme, I like being on default.
Anyway, happy to see all these changes. While everything can’t please everyone, changes must go through many iterations to get closer to perfection after all 😄.
And I also like the new [discourse.org](http://discourse.org) theme, by the way. Keep up the good work! 🤗
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 1:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/10 "2026-02-27T13:09:31Z")
I have switched to Foundation and that’s still great.
I cannot last with Meta Branded for more than a few minutes.
It may be because I have varifocals.
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### Author:  [@manuel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/manuel)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 1:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/11 "2026-02-27T13:19:46Z")
> [@merefield](#):
>
> Amber was a much better choice:
I think what happens here is that you have Amber selected as your personal dark color scheme.
Some themes, like this brand theme, are not color scheme agnostic, it doesn’t make sense to apply a different color scheme to them. However, there’s no option right now to disable user color schemes for a specific theme.
So far I only explicitly declared accent color values right on the theme, so they don’t come from the color scheme. But with Amber, I guess grey background values are mixed into that. A hotfix would be to manually declare _all_ color variables on the theme and not infer any from the color scheme at all.
My general preference would be an option to disable custom color schemes on specific themes, like brand ones.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 1:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/12 "2026-02-27T13:22:36Z")
Would something like [Targetable Color Schemes](https://meta.discourse.org/t/targetable-color-schemes/276967) work to not use purple when the amber palette is used?
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 1:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/13 "2026-02-27T13:22:48Z")
Oh thanks. I’ll investigate my Prefs.
Update: choosing Grey Amber works on Foundation but not Meta Branded.
I agree with your point: the option is there but doesn’t have effect on Meta Branded.
I’m satisfied in any case. Thanks for listening!
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### Author:  [@angus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/angus)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 1:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/14 "2026-02-27T13:35:17Z")
I love it. I think this new look is the best looking version of Discourse I’ve seen in a long time.
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### Author:  [@manuel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/manuel)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 1:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/15 "2026-02-27T13:40:30Z")
> [@Moin](#):
>
> Would something like [Targetable Color Schemes](https://meta.discourse.org/t/targetable-color-schemes/276967) work to not use purple when the amber palette is used?
The goal is to not allow any other color schemes with this branded theme. We only want the brand colors for the overall look and because other colors won’t work with the theme, e.g. with the background gradient and blurred icons.
On a forum that only offers a brand look we don’t run into this issue because we can just not offer any other color schemes. But we have a conflict here, because we offer many schemes, but as far as I’m aware we don’t have the option to then disable that option selectively and force a color scheme with a theme.
As mentioned a hack is to entirely circumvent the color scheme system and declare all variables on the theme. I’ve done that just for `tertiary` values so far. It’s a bit of an ugly approach..
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### Author:  [@darkpixlz](https://meta.discourse.org/u/darkpixlz)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 2:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/18 "2026-02-27T14:23:04Z")
I definitely like the solid background over the abstract circles of before. Feels less in your face then the horizon theme. When the theme initially loaded I was like “wait, the search banner isn’t too bad” but then the custom font loaded and yeah not good. That’s my main criticism at the moment, just give that more of a normal font and it looks good.
I do kinda wonder why purple is being overridden to be the accent color no matter what, I kinda like the blue of the WCAGdark theme..
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### Author:  [@NateDhaliwal](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NateDhaliwal)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/19 "2026-02-27T14:37:40Z")
Perhaps this is the motivation I need to create my long-standing plugin idea to allow users to add their own CSS overrides 🤔.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 2:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/20 "2026-02-27T14:40:09Z")
You can already do that with browser plugins like Stylus, which work independently of admins installing a plugin.
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### Author:  [@NateDhaliwal](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NateDhaliwal)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 2:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/21 "2026-02-27T14:46:25Z")
True, but I don’t think you can do this on mobile. Plus, a Discourse-native way would be nice.
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### Author:  [@elmuerte](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elmuerte)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2026, 4:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/meta-branded-redesign-theme-refresh/397246/22 "2026-02-27T16:08:39Z")
This looks really, I mean really, purple.
It’s like I’m on Rictus’ ship.
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