We have had the pleasure of working with Culpeper County Economic Development on the Farm Tour since 2010. Each spring, we begin by designing the save-the-date postcard and developing a color scheme that will tie together all the printed materials, as well as the website and social media marketing. Over the years, we have featured many different aspects of local farming from animals to flowers to iconic hay bales. For the 20th anniversary in 2017, we highlighted several of the past designs (see poster).Once the look is established, the website gets a fresh update, and we create social media graphics, the initial print ads, and the poster. The poster is the first printed piece that will list all of the participating farms so it can be challenging to collect those commitments, but a deadline often helps move that process along!
The final marketing pieces we design are the brochure and the tour t-shirt. The t-shirts are shared with the farms and volunteers. It’s really fun to still see the shirts being worn around town! The brochure is a bigger undertaking because it includes the descriptions of each farm, the scheduled activities, a map of the county…and a lot of changes because everyone involved needs to review their pages. I think we all breathe a sigh of relief once it is done.
Working on annual community events like the Farm Tour, has been important, meaningful work to us. We love to help spotlight what’s available right here so everyone can be a part of the fun, as well as help promote these events outside the county too. Tourism is an important piece of our local economy and with people staying closer to home, a day trip might be the perfect break.