The Challenge

Metagen’s mission is to harness the innate power of the microbiome on every farm to build a more resilient, productive and sustainable industry. They developed Australia’s first laboratory to bring scientific rigour to agroecology and assembled a brilliant team of agronomists, microbiologists and data scientists. The pressing challenge was to overcome mainstream scepticism around biotechnology and introduce a complex product category to the market. 

Metagen’s existing identity was failing to differentiate them as a pioneering, evidence-based brand. They work at the cutting edge of research and build pathways towards large-scale, agricultural transformation, but their position lacked credibility and gravity. Our task was to evolve Metagen’s brand status by crafting a messaging and design system fit for the leaders of soil science. 

The Change

The brand refresh focuses on clarity and zooms in on the hidden world below ground. We replaced complicated language with meaningful messages and developed an easily digestible approach to data visualisation. Metagen’s drive to shift perspectives can be seen throughout the design system, in the use of macro and micro photography, dynamic type treatments and the ‘viewfinder’ device that peers into key agricultural sectors.

"The Studio Ag team worked with us to build a brand for our company, Metagen. They spent time listening to us, captured our values, ethos and company mission and built a visual representation that reflected it incredibly well. Metagen is an agricultural biotechnology company with a lot of technical people and technical services and products. Charlotte and team really help to cut through and represent the value proposition of our company in an elegant and clear way."

— Chris Hames, Chief Data Officer