Email creative is all about standing out in the inbox, which means marketers are going bigger and getting weirder to grab attention. And we’re here for it.
The collective derision toward Pantone’s off-white Color of the Year was an early sign that 2026 is not the time for tranquility and peace. The clean aesthetic is out, and maximalism is back in. Consumers don’t want boring and bland brands. They want loud-and-proud promotions that don’t shy away from a strong message.
Our team wanted to know: What email creative and design trends will dominate this year? To find out, we mined our own inboxes, conducted research and scanned thousands of emails with a new tool we’ll be debuting soon.
After collecting our favorites, we distilled the best trends down to the top five. As a sneak peek, we’ll share three in this post:
- Vibrant Color Palettes
- Pop Culture Concepts
- Text-Based Antics
You can get the full picture—including trends in Delectable Deals and Milestone Magic—in our latest Inbox Monster lookbook. Download the lookbook to learn more and share with your team.
Top Email Creative Trends in 2026
Vibrant Color Palettes
Stanley Encourages You to Taste the Rainbow
You could argue that color is responsible for Stanley’s meteoric success in the last few years, as the drinkware brand enters its third era, appealing to teen girls rather than its initial audience of blue-collar workers.
While the Stanley cup craze has settled, the company continues to showcase its diverse collection of colors. This email allows subscribers to shop by shade or click through to see the entire color spectrum.
With so many promotions and holidays lending themselves to color-based marketing (e.g., pink and red Valentine’s Day, black and orange Halloween), Stanley’s strategy is one that’s—dare we say it—evergreen.
Going Gives Travel a Fresh Coat of Paint
A vibrant palette doesn’t mean you have to throw every color and the kitchen sink in an email. Travel brand Going proves that a few accents go a long way.
In an industry where flight promotions typically lack personality, Going looks fresh and modern. The email above uses a soft yellow-and-green background to make the purple Guatemala hero image pop. The royal blue CTA button and banner are well-contrasted, making them irresistibly clickable.
Pop Culture Concepts
TGI Friday’s Gives Meaning to a Meaningless Meme
In news that will surprise no parent with young children, “6-7” was Dictionary.com’s 2025 Word of the Year. This slang that’s popular with the kids these days went viral precisely because it’s nonsensical. As Blades of Glory once put it, “No one knows what it means, but it’s provocative.”
TGI Friday’s turned this pop culture moment into a kid-friendly promotion for sweet treats. The fast casual chain made “6-7” more memorable by offering free dessert from 6-7 p.m. with the purchase of a kids meal. And brainrot tastes better with an ice cream sundae.
Wendy’s Subtle Nod Is Wicked Good
Most marketers already know from social media that Wendy’s is killing it. But the fast food restaurant is just as witty in the inbox.
With real-time responses and a pulse on what’s trending, Wendy’s emails meet the moment in a mindful way. With the subject line, “Unlimited…your energy is unlimited,” this email above doesn’t even mention the Wicked films by name. But musical fans will immediately clock the references with the pink and green sparkling energy drinks and the tagline, “Holding space for these sips.”
Colorful, original, and inviting—it’s a deal that defies gravity.
Text-Based Antics
Recess Gets Cheeky With Order Confirmations
Sure, email is the primary mode of communication for order confirmations, but that doesn’t mean brands can’t have a little fun with them.
In the email above, beverage company Recess adds pizzazz to their transactional message with its tagline, “We released the carrier pigeons.” In the body copy, they even explain that these imaginary pigeons drink Recess, “so they’re extra strong and fast.”
A cute way to get customers excited for their upcoming delivery. We’ll drink to that!
Shinesty Converts Copy Into Clicks
Shinesty’s branding is big, bold, and usually NSFW, but we wouldn’t expect less from an underwear company with a mission to “force the world to take itself less seriously.”
While most of the brand’s emails are kaleidoscopes of colorful cool, this win-back email captures attention in a single run-on sentence. The subject line, “We’re ending things,” makes you do a double-take, while the hyperlinks galore make the call-to-action crystal clear.
Shinesty may offer 8 free gifts, but this sense of humor counts as the ninth.
Compelling Email Creative for Your Next Campaign
We’re only one month into 2026, so we expect truly awesome emails to land in inboxes this year. And only Inbox Monster has the most epic email search engine coming your way soon.
Until then, download our 2026 Email Creative Trends lookbook to get inspiration for your next campaign.
Ready to go big this year? Try Inbox Monster’s Creative Suite. It has everything you need to build emails your customers can’t ignore:
- Render emails across 110+ modern clients and devices
- Test GIFs and interactive content with live previews
- See AI summaries from popular tools, like Gemini and Apple Intelligence
- Translate into 75+ different languages
- Collaborate with your team in real-time with unlimited seats
Schedule a demo to see the Creative Suite in action today.
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