diff --git a/pkg/gui/gui.go b/pkg/gui/gui.go
index 109ac7ce9..e1eeb143f 100644
--- a/pkg/gui/gui.go
+++ b/pkg/gui/gui.go
@@ -400,6 +400,14 @@ func (gui *Gui) onUserConfigLoaded() error {
 	// sake of backwards compatibility. We're making use of short circuiting here
 	gui.ShowExtrasWindow = userConfig.Gui.ShowCommandLog && !gui.c.GetAppState().HideCommandLog
 
+	authors.SetCustomAuthors(userConfig.Gui.AuthorColors)
+	if userConfig.Gui.NerdFontsVersion != "" {
+		icons.SetNerdFontsVersion(userConfig.Gui.NerdFontsVersion)
+	} else if userConfig.Gui.ShowIcons {
+		icons.SetNerdFontsVersion("2")
+	}
+	presentation.SetCustomBranches(userConfig.Gui.BranchColors)
+
 	return nil
 }
 
@@ -599,14 +607,6 @@ func NewGui(
 	// TODO: reset these controllers upon changing repos due to state changing
 	gui.c = helperCommon
 
-	authors.SetCustomAuthors(gui.UserConfig().Gui.AuthorColors)
-	if gui.UserConfig().Gui.NerdFontsVersion != "" {
-		icons.SetNerdFontsVersion(gui.UserConfig().Gui.NerdFontsVersion)
-	} else if gui.UserConfig().Gui.ShowIcons {
-		icons.SetNerdFontsVersion("2")
-	}
-	presentation.SetCustomBranches(gui.UserConfig().Gui.BranchColors)
-
 	gui.BackgroundRoutineMgr = &BackgroundRoutineMgr{gui: gui}
 	gui.stateAccessor = &StateAccessor{gui: gui}