Iseki Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. is a comprehensive manufacturer specializing in agricultural machinery that was founded in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture in 1926. Under the philosophy of founder Kunisaburo Iseki, "I want to free farmers from harsh labor," the company has long been developing products and services related to agricultural production, such as tractors and combine harvesters, and in recent years has been aiming to further contribute to the agricultural sector, such as by releasing self-driving robotic agricultural machinery.
Iseki Agricultural Machinery adopted our font "UDKakugo_Large" for their tractor operation terminal "IMLT®" (ISEKI Machine Link Terminal) in 2018. We spoke online with Mr. Suzuki of Iseki Agricultural Machinery, who was actually involved in the selection and adoption of the font, about the reasons for adopting "UDKakugo_Large" and future business prospects.
Yuta Suzuki
Born in Fukui prefecture in 1991. Majored in product design at Shizuoka University of Art and Culture. After graduating from university, he joined Iseki Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. as a new graduate and was assigned to the design department. Currently, he is mainly in charge of product design and UI design for agricultural machinery.
Select "straight and sharp characters" for agricultural machinery used in harsh environments
――First of all, please introduce your company's design department.
Mr. Suzuki: The design department of Iseki & Co., Ltd. is in charge of overall design related to products developed in-house. The work of the design department is mainly done such as character and logo design used for the product, coloring of the product, sketching when thinking about the appearance design, creation of 3D data, and UI design of the operation screen liquid crystal system. I have. There is no particular division of fields, and everyone is working evenly.
In addition, when developing a new product, it is a feature of our design department that several designers are assigned and all the designs are done by those members.
――Please tell us a little more about the handling of characters (fonts) in your design department.
Suzuki: The designer makes it according to the image of the product. For example, select a font with a good atmosphere from the font service "LETS". However, there aren't many fonts for agricultural machinery that don't have to be tampered with, so I'm constantly fine-tuning them to match the image of the product.
――You said, "There aren't many fonts that you don't have to play with the design for agricultural machinery at all", but there are selections and directions of characters (fonts) unique to agricultural machinery that need to be adapted to all weather and situations. Is it?
Mr. Suzuki: Agricultural machinery is a product that is used in harsh environments, so we often adjust the characters to be straight and sharp. The characters themselves should be thickened, three-dimensional, and the decals displayed on the sides should be italic. The characters displayed on the product are completed through processes such as assuming the actual usage environment and inspiring us designers through fieldwork at the agricultural site.
I was also in charge of designing the mini cultivator "My Pet KCR7 Series" most recently, and the font for this product is Eurostile®, which is included in "Monotype LETS". This Eurostile® is a very straight and sharp European font, with a wide variety of weights, and I personally like it very much.
"UDKakugo_Large" resonated with my sensibilities. Its comfort is also conveyed to my farm customers.
-- Now, could you look back on the process that led to our universal design font, "UDKakugo_Large," being adopted for "IMLT®"?
Suzuki-san: Initially, we envisioned that the tractor operation terminal "IMLT®" would be used to check the screen for just a moment while driving. Therefore, we needed a font that could instantly and correctly convey information. In addition, we needed to display as much information as possible on a 7-inch screen, so Universal Design fonts gradually became more and more advantageous. Furthermore, we realized that an embedded font was necessary to display the text on the tractor operation terminal, and since this was our first experience of installing an embedded font on a tractor operation terminal, we searched around and consulted with several font manufacturers at the time.
-- You consulted with other font manufacturers. Why did you choose us?
Suzuki-san: The sales person at the time was very flexible in his response, and compared to other font manufacturers, the website had the most comprehensive information, so even in those small details we felt very reassured.
-- We are pleased that we were able to accommodate your company's wishes! From here, I would like to talk to you from a font design perspective. First of all, were you aware of fonts with the concept of universal design (Universal Design) itself?
Mr. Suzuki: We were aware of the existence of universal design (Universal Design) fonts. For example, we were actually using another company's Universal Design font in our printed materials.
-- What was the reason why you adopted our "UDKakugo_Large" font when you were already using the Universal Design font from another font manufacturer?
Mr. Suzuki: The resolution of the display (of the tractor operation terminal) is actually not that high precision. While the display often has rough characters, we felt that the "UDKakugo_Large" is good in that it can be seen clearly and neatly. Because the text is clearly readable, more information can be shown on the display. The final deciding factor was the internal reputation of the font as "easy to understand and good looking," while giving it a modern appearance with a wide, beautiful curve.
-- The font UDKakugo_Large captures the essence of the Universal Design font, with its basic features of "readability," "visibility," and "distinguishability," as well as our own unique perspective of "aesthetics!
Mr. Suzuki: When we borrowed fonts from several font makers and verified them on the display, we typed in "UDKakugo_Large" and said, "This is good! (laughs). (laughs). It resonated with my own sensibilities. The font itself has a sense of comfort and familiarity, and I feel that this comfort is conveyed to our customers as well.
I want to support the rapidly changing world of agriculture with a "bold and long-lasting design"!
――Your company will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2025, but I hear that the world of agriculture has undergone a particularly significant transformation recently. What is happening in the agricultural world right now?
Suzuki: As a premise, customers are changing first. In Japan, the aging of agricultural workers is accelerating. Against this background, the trend is to consolidate and increase the scale of agricultural land, and many young people and corporations, who are said to be the leading farmers in the process, are also entering the market.
Looking at the technical side, is it the efficiency and labor saving of work due to the decrease in the agricultural working population? Specifically, in large-scale management, smart agriculture utilizing AI and data is becoming popular. For example, instead of looking around, the drone is flown, AI judges the growth condition of rice from the color of the captured image, and adjusts water and fertilizer, and the decisive factor of the taste of rice from the image of artificial satellite. A method of grasping a certain protein content and determining the optimum harvest time is becoming popular. I feel that the farming method itself has changed significantly.
-- So that's it. By the way, please tell us about your latest efforts in this area.
Suzuki: We sell "variable rice transplanters". It is becoming more common to plant rice while sprinkling fertilizer, but the "variable fertilizer rice transplanter" uses real-time sensing technology to check the fertility of the soil and plant rice while optimizing where and how much fertilizer is sprinkled. I will. By doing so, the rice will not fall down and the quality of the rice will be stable and delicious.
――Thank you for your teaching. Lastly, please tell us about Mr. Suzuki's "pride" as a designer of your company who continues to run as a front runner in the industry, adapting to changes in the environment surrounding agriculture!
Mr. Suzuki: Many customers have been using agricultural machinery for decades, so I always keep in mind a "bold and long-lasting design." In the world of agricultural machinery, new functions and operations are coming out one after another, but especially in UI design, we continue to make things that are straightforward in terms of appearance and operation, and that are really easy to use. I want to. I would like to continue to work closely with agricultural and farmer customers to create products that will expand their future.
As we conducted our interview, we asked Suzuki about the origins of his desire to become a product designer.
As for his formative experience, his parents' home in Fukui had rice fields, so he had many opportunities to use agricultural machinery. When Suzuki was a child, his grandfather, who was involved in agriculture, was planting rice and he was "somehow excited" as he handled the rice transplanter. This memory has remained with him ever since.
He was a boy who loved to draw manga as a child, but when he was in high school he became interested in industrial product design and majored in product design at a university in Shizuoka. During his job search, he focused on agricultural machinery manufacturers, and eventually joined Iseki Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. This was a very interesting story to hear.
"No one I know has ever worked for an agricultural machinery manufacturer, and I wanted to try something new in a place where no one else was," said Suzuki.
Following his own instincts, Suzuki decided to take on the challenge of working for a company in Shikoku, a place he had never even visited before joining the company. Contrary to his easy-going demeanor, we were reminded that he is a product designer with a strong core.
"New tools make life more convenient and provide value in the form of enriching it. I want to be active in creating new products and making them easy to use and attractive," said Suzuki. This interview left us with the sincere hope that our company's fonts, with "UDKakugo_Large" at the center, will continue to be by his side in the future.
Date of coverage: April 8, 2021
Iseki Co., Ltd.
Since its founding in 1926, it has contributed to the modernization of agriculture as a comprehensive manufacturer of agricultural machinery. We have consistently pursued the efficiency and labor saving of agriculture, and in the process, we have developed a number of agricultural machines ahead of others and supplied them to the market. Always thinking about the world's population growth and food problems, as well as today's food self-sufficiency and land conservation issues, we continue to work today to fulfill the social mission of agricultural machinery manufacturers.
https://www.iseki.co.jp/
