A bold vision for an AgTech innovator
Client
Corteva is an agricultural tech company leveraging AI to solve major societal challenges around food security, energy transition, biofuels, and climate change.
Challenge
Establish a UI approach for extending Corteva’s human-centric rebrand to their family of websites while identifying areas for improvement in reaching policy-makers and informed consumers.
Amidst an ever-changing landscape (both literally and figuratively) Corteva sought to solidify their authority in a highly regulated industry by clearly communicating their mission, values, and ethics through a site refresh that puts humans first and reflects their newly established visual identity.
Based on themes that surfaced during exploratory conversations and stakeholder interviews, we developed a series of interactive exercises aimed at surfacing how we can best express the brand digitally to resonate with and support specific audiences through their needs and journeys.
These exercises included a detailed audience analysis, competitive landscape audit, brand personality assessment, and an aesthetic mapping exercise.
During this process we worked together to get to the core of their desired tone and perception.
We defined the Corteva brand as…
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Top workshop insights
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Corteva’s current UI does not stand out within the agtech landscape and lacks in authenticity. Blues, greens, and generic textural imagery will not set them apart without a more intentional visual approach.
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Current experience is too text-heavy and feels more exploratory than journey oriented. The new site should be more visually engaging, have a more distinct content hierarchy, and clearly establish next steps for users.
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The medium should be used as a messaging device. Currently Corteva’s site is clean, but primarily serving as an informational repository and does little to communicate their authority as a modern and innovative tech company
Understanding the rebrand
Corteva’s rebrand was focused on bringing vibrancy to their existing visual presence which relied primarily on “Corteva Blue” and pops of green.
Agricultural and scientific textures, light dappling, an expanded tertiary color palette, a low contrast gradient, and a collection of “growth shapes” were all key elements that needed to play into the new digital design system.
During our exploration, we needed to keep accessibility top of mind. The gradient provided and its sample usage did not pass WCAG standards , so its application had to be modified to suit the digital space. With so many textures, colors, and shapes, we also knew we would have to be strategic in how we combined them to achieve our desired tone.
Explorative Compositions
Based the learnings and personality traits established during our design workshop, we created four visual directions that Corteva could employ for their their interface—each of which stretched the boundaries of the rebrand guidelines to show the breadth of possibilities available to them .
Each composition showcases a hero, image/content block, card styles, a stat block, and large call to action to exemplify the ways these components can be stylized to convey different visual messages.
Friendly & Progressive
This concept plays up the friendliness of Corteva Blue as a backdrop for accents of the gradient in calls to action and to emphasize text.
Rounded buttons and soft shadows support the approachability of this concept, while growth shape modules and images reinforce Corteva’s upward momentum.
Trustworthy & Cutting-edge
Light, airy, and scientific. A subtle use of color and gradient highlights imagery, key content, and calls to action.
The generous use of whitespace and thin line weight add to the airiness of this concept while crisp edges on CTAs emphasize authority.
Modern & Vibrant
This concept leans into the gradient in a sophisticated way – utilizing a decreased opacity for module backgrounds which allows imagery to be the star of the show.
A slightly off-white background allows the colors to feel vibrant, yet friendly. Circular stats and text link icons add a playfulness here
Dynamic & Bold
Nature Blue serves as a foundation for highlighting pops of vibrant gradient in text and calls to action. This concept feels daring, yet highly credible.
Full bleed imagery, subtle highlights, and micro animations bring the page to life as users interact with your content.
Outcome
Based on our ongoing conversations regarding the unique challenges of Corteva's mission in 2025 we plan to conduct working sessions to pressure test our models, uncover opportunities, and pave the next steps in our shared direction forward.
Workshop and UI design by Andi Rozell and Emily Johnson