Graphic design is something that often goes unnoticed until it is missing. Have you ever thought about how graphic design helps agriculture? Some of the key things you may have overlooked are how graphic design helps target certain audiences, creates memorable and functional branding, helpful visuals, and digital 3D designs.
Understanding Who We are Designing for? And why?
One of the most important steps of any sort of marketing is knowing who you are designing for. As Emily Butler said in Harvesting Creative Design in Agriculture different personas digest information in diverse ways. Whether that be in an easy-to-scan format or a heavily detailed and technical information-filled format.
Other things to consider in this part of the process include typography, the kind of imagery you are using, and colour.
Typography
- The information should be easy to read and understand.
- Rick Sellar recommends in How to Design for Agriculture that fonts be kept familiar and simple because people in this industry generally prefer traditional and sensible options.
Visuals/Imagery
- To the untrained eye, any picture of a field with a farmer or some equipment will do, but when you are marketing to those who work in these environments, it becomes crucial that you know what each of your images represents.
Colour
- Rick Sellar also mentions that since there are many neutral colors found in the environment of agriculture, these are great starting options to incorporate into your designs.
- Emily Butler notes that you should try to use colors that work well with the imagery you are using.
Why Does the Colour of Agriculture Equipment Matter?
Colour is one of the most eye-catching elements and often makes designs stand out from the rest. At first glance, the colour of equipment may introduce a personal bias to how the machine works or whether a farmer would be interested in buying it. Interestingly enough, there is reasoning behind the colours on what some would call “the office”. In Design and computer graphics in the agro-industrial complex by A Mokina and L Khoronko they discuss how the interior colour of the machine is just as important as the exterior.
Interior
- Interior colours are often neutral, muted tones. This creates a comfortable and less distracting environment for the driver since there are so many other things for them to focus on.
Exterior
- Exterior colours are often greens, blues, reds, and yellows. These colours are very memorable and easy to identify
- Unlike the neutral colours of the interior, the vibrant colours of the exterior are meant to stand out and be distinguishable between brands.
- The example that A Mokina and L Khoronko used was the Rostselmash harvester. These machines are painted in a way that creates a feeling of stability with darker colours on the bottom portion.
How Are Visuals Beneficial to Agriculture?
Have you ever thought about how many visuals you look at in a day? Or how many times have visuals been more helpful than a large block of text? It doesn’t matter what industry you are in; they can still be helpful. In agriculture, these visuals can be used for things from teaching new skills to giving customers “the inside view” of what life on the farm is really like.
Visuals are generally easier to read and understand, which is incredibly helpful. For example, when something needs to be fixed, the visuals in an owner's manual can help determine what part is broken or needs to be replaced, as well as info graphics that can help educate both people in the industry and those outside of it.
This is an example of an infographic that helps educate people outside of the agriculture industry.
In Using Visuals to Influence Agriculture, John D Sanders the mentions ability to create a perception of what outsiders think farm life is like by using visuals. When we see all these bright sunny graphics and images, we think that they properly represent what life is like, but this isn’t always the case of real life on the farm.
How Does Digital Software Help the Agriculture Industry?
In Design and computer graphics in the agro-industrial complex, it is motioned that digital software can be more useful than the traditional methods of design. Although there are many benefits to both workflows.
Pros of Digital Software
- 3d modeling is a major advantage to using digital design software. This way, you can see the design from multiple different angles and add more important details.
- Another advantage is that you can present the design to your clients more easily, and it will be simpler for them to understand.
Here’s what one of those programs might look like:
While graphic design may not be the first thing that comes to mind when asked what industries are important to agriculture, we can now see what connections it has. The agriculture industry would not look the same as it does today if we didn’t have designers to create marketing targeted at certain individuals, recognizable and meaningful branding, and visuals. There is no such thing as an entirely independent industry, and you might just be surprised by which ones help each other.
References
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/937/3/032078/meta
https://www.stratagon.com/blog/harvesting-creative-design-in-agriculture
https://www.blackillustrations.com/blog/using-visuals-to-influence-agriculture
https://thinkshiftinc.com/blog/how-to-design-for-agriculture
Images/Video
https://www.dpaauctions.com/servlet/Search.do?auctionId=284&itemId=55918
https://sar.rostselmash.com/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/22962874444/sizes/h/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPfE77Fk_ME