Digital Green
Creating a More Human Brand Expression
The Challenge
Digital Green empowers smallholder farmers around the world to lift themselves out of poverty by harnessing the collective power of technology and grassroots-level partnerships. Their communications team had determined that their design system was focused more on technology than the farmers and communities that benefit from their work. They came to us with the goal of flipping these priorities in their visual identity.
While technology is an important part of their solutions, their focus is on people and providing them with the tools they need to put themselves on a more prosperous pathway. Our task was to update their visual identity to express this hierarchy.
The Outcome
The updated visual identity utilizes a more humanist design system, with a more approachable typography system, a varied and subdued nature-based color palette, and a clear point of view for photography paired with a geometric illustration style that includes intentional imperfections.
Services
- Strategic Brand Building
Focus Areas
- Climate Action & Environment
- Science & Technology
- Sustainability & Food Systems
A Balanced Visual Identity
The visual identity system was built upon the lone lime green color of their original branding. We kept this color and added a deep green paired with a saturated blue that hints at water and plantlife, along with a warm brown/black that honors the soil and counters the lime to create a balanced palette.
We updated the Digital Green wordmark to use the full word, rather than initials. In doing so we created a system of missing corners on the letterforms that match button styles and are complemented by arrows that appear to be the “missing corners”.
Completing the Design System
The overall design system leans into the human elements of Digital Green’s work. The illustrations have a unique perspective, look, and feel, that is precise but humanist and maximizes bringing clarity to complex systems. We devised a DG-based pattern system that combines farming and technology and can be used as subtle background elements or pushed forward on swag and collateral.
Curved corners throughout the system soften different elements from photos to information containers to echo the illustration style and make a complete design system.
Typography is central to the Digital Green visual identity. The sans serif font used for headlines has a thin to thick organic feel with shapes that match the curved nature of the overall brand expression. It’s a font with character that is legible and intentional.
We used illustrations to visually communicate complex ideas that intentionally include design elements that place humanity over technology — such as the leaves that connect with the plant stem differently on both sides, slightly different leaves on the plant, and a repeat of the leaf motif in the hand that’s another leaf variant.
The illustrations use color blocking to evoke several themes including agriculture as if from the air — including earth, sky, sun, and water references — and also a nod to diversity and the different groups of farmers Digital Green works with while avoiding specific ethnicities.
We developed a stylized DG icon specifically for the production of swag to reinforce internal brand building that unites their dispersed team.
Expanding on the stylized DG, we created a pattern that’s drawn from the agriculture from above concept previously established. The pattern can be used for multiple digital and real world assets including the organization’s business cards.
Story-based Iconography
The icon set we designed equips their marketing and communications teams to tell complex stories in simple ways and communicate concepts visually. They are used as a ‘shorthand’ to reduce the amount of copy needed to express information as quickly as possible.
The iconography system on the site was developed from an approach we dubbed ‘perfectly imperfect’ to bring subtle human elements into the icons we created. Icons utilize a minimum of 2 brand colors which unifies them but also allows for diversity in the icon set.
A good, but subtle example of intentional imperfection is the eye icon. If you look closely, the blue iris isn’t perfectly round. It’s an oval that’s slightly wider than it is tall.
The cellphone icon uses color to evoke a human aesthetic, simplifies the idea of technology use, and reinforces Digital Green’s humanity over technology approach. These choices communicate the value of technology and its place in their solutions ecosystem.
A Guide for Brand Cohesion
As a global organization, a brand style guide is critical to creating consistency from in-house content creators around the world. Our guide provides their dispersed team with a ‘document of truth’ upon which they can base all future internal design choices.
Scope of Work
Strategic Brand Building
- Brand Identity & Design Systems
Other
- Visual Identity
- Brand Style Guides
- Icons & Illustrations
