Farmers Movement
Archive
Visual Identity
The Farmers Movement Archive logo is a tribute to the resilience and strength of the farmers movement. With care-driven research and design processes, we co-created a logo which aims to encapsulate the values of the movement and its archive.
In the midst of a global pandemic, the farmers movement emerged in strong resistance to proposed agricultural reforms which would hinder the rights of many farmers. These reforms were proposed in 2020 in the form of three bills which were eventually passed as laws despite large-scale protests, and during a global pandemic.
These laws sought to bring significant changes to existing agricultural practices perceived to be against the interest of farmers. Witnessing the resistance, particularly the brutal treatment meted out to the democratically protesting farmers, deeply aggrieved us. We could see the continual erosion of our hope of India where all beings are treated with dignity and respect. The uprising of unity, strong determination and resilience of our nation’s farmers brought about to the forefront, the power of collectivisation and compassion that we had long forgotten.
To design a visual identity for such a strong movement was not like any other logo design project. We were acutely aware of our social positioning while working on this project and wanted to do justice to it in any way possible.
The ideation centered around a careful representation of the movement. Both of us watched the movement from the sidelines with minor artistic contributions and were grossly aware of our social location during the making of this logo and wanted to approach this with the utmost care and respect. We chose to build on the visual elements that those deeply involved in the movement had co-created and acknowledged. Our central idea was to show the patience and resilience of farmers but also portray their powerful resistance.
We identified and worked with the following core elements:
Visuals: Seeds, wheat, sowing, ‘raised fist’
Colours: Red - resistance, revolution; Green - power, rootedness; Yellow: vibrant
Emotions: Powerful, vibrant, strong, rooted, resilient
The logo, as we conceptualised it, reimagines the raised fist, globally recognized as a symbol of resistance, and a commonly used seed sowing motion, which challenges the status quo and imagines a new world, as an ode to the hope of a new world embodied in the farmers movement. A line making a disrupted open circle was added after finalising the hand, to depict the world coming together and moving into a new direction. It also symbolises the earth, farm land. To us, the logo represents the grounded resistance and resilience of the movement which has sown the seeds of a powerful moment in Indian history.
