Cossette mirror PLANT Agricultural Systems’ radical thinking with a sharp, systematic identity

Making the radical understandable, Canadian design agency Cossette, originally founded in Quebec City, have crafted a technical and systematic identity for PLANT Agricultural Systems – a company tackling the stigmas of fresh, local produce and looking towards the future of AI and blockchain farming technologies. Setting a benchmark for sustainability within its field, PLANT Agricultural System’s identity similarly needed to set the standard – something achieved by Cossette; having created a brand that is both technical and characterful, as well as confidently showing that visual systems don’t need to be minimal in order to be understandable, intelligent and striking.

Setting the scene with a flipped logomark, the identity certainly makes an impact, even at smaller scales. Immediately conveying clues to the transparency and blockchain process of the company through the prominent use of dashes, the identity has a distinct harmonious quality distilled within it; succinctly conveying a multitude of elements and ideas all held together in a considered typographic balance. “The brief was to subvert the current way agriculture brands itself and tell PLANT’s story through every detail,” Mark Neil Balson, Creative Director at Cossette explains, noting the client’s prompt approval of the concept when originally presenting it. “PLANT is aiming to change the way the world sees farming through the use of AI and blockchain technologies,” Balson tells us, “so when they saw the first version of this approach it was an immediate winner for them.”

Significantly contributing to the typographic prowess of PLANT Agricultural System’s identity is the use of Dinamo’s Favorit as the typeface of choice – providing sophistication as well as vibrancy due to the subtle quirks in its construction. “Once the core idea was locked in we started with Favorit for its neutral, slightly techie, engineered feeling,” Balson explains, immediately trying to find a sans that could compete. “We thought that because the idea was so simple any sans would work,” he adds, “but none looked as good backwards or locked into that magic balance the way Favorit did.”

With Favorit framing the identity’s logomark, it’s the introduction of shapes and colours that cement Cossette’s systematic approach – using specific concoctions to represent different arms of the company. “Each element of the system has a very clear intention and the shapes needed to be the anchor,” Balson tells us, ranging from the primary logo’s registered symbol to the blue triangle that signifies the AI branch of PLANT. “The system as it is today gives PLANT a few years of space to grow,” Balson concludes, “but any new marks would simply require a new two-letter acronym and shape that upholds the same thinking as the originals.”

Cossette

PLANT