History and background
Serigstad Agri AS is an agricultural machinery manufacturer founded in 1864 on a farm on the west coast of Norway. Today it is a multinational company seeking to fin its place in a changing world where agriculture is under pressure on multiple fronts and technological advances threaten to disrupt its core business models thoroughly and rapidly.
Digital technology has allowed the programming and partial automation of many of their products but digitalisation of heavy machinery, connecting it directly to the cloud and smart devices is the next stage in agricultural development.
Our initial work was a research and strategy (DIP) project partly funded by Innovation Norway with the intention of mapping current and future trends, business factors and technological developments to aid the client in identifying potential new business development areas. This was a six month long endeavour involving close client collaboration, extensive on-site interviews with farmers, partners and suppliers, analysis of future trends research as well as mapping and testing of business strategies and concepts.
The initial delivery was a research report documenting the process, findings, potential new concepts and timelines for strategic development. This was presented to the board of directors as an aid to future strategic investment.
Some of the materials consisted of concept designs for device interfaces. These necessitated a new interpretation of the brand across digital devices and led to a full brand refresh, website redesign and brand guidelines manual. The results of this work are presented here.
Rebrand
The first task was to consolidate the brand assets and guidelines. The logo was not always implemented in the same way on all surfaces, colour profiles and design styles had become corrupted and confused over the years and a multitude of different files where used in creating the various stickers, decals, posters, brochures and other materials which were not always optimised for quality.
Our task became to clean out old and corrupted files, clean up vector logos and illustrations. We created new master templates for Pantone, RGB and RAL colour profiles so print materials and machinery matched with screen implementations and Powerpoint presentations. We consolidated these into a toolkit for all employees, partners and suppliers to implement.
Logo
The next task was to consider how the brand would function in the new digital world. There was a lot of history to be respectful of but the client needed a logo which would be responsive to and legible in all instances, both tiny on a mobile phone or social media profile and large on the side of a building or machine.
As a result we redrew the existing logomark adding clarity with whitespace without moving too far from the original. In looking through the archive of old versions we found features had been removed from the original concept which we decided to add back in. The first logo was based on a hand-cranked flywheel from the first threshing machine the founder invented in 1864. We decided to add in a hole and other subtle features in the logo centre, in order to tie the origin story of the design back in.
Variations
Once the logomark was tidied up we developed several variations for use in different cases. The main ‘shield’ version for use in most cases, the mark on its own for mobile apps and stamping into metal, a horizontal variant for websites and presentations where vertical height is limited and finally official company name versions (without the mark) for legal documents, business cards and contracts.
Assets and implementation
We also redefined the colour palette across all media, and added a new set for use in digital applications on infographics and so on. We then created a suite of new concepts for advertising, POS, brochures, business cards, stationery, merchandise and livery on vehicles so all aspects of the visual profile had points of reference for future use. We also defined a photography style to complement the company values, roots and identity with a suite of opens source images supplied to help them get started.
Photography
Signage
Brochures and advertising
Livery and merchandise
Website
