Visual Rhetoric 1: SLC Downtown Farmer's Market 20th Anniversary tractor poster

          Within this Salt Lake City Downtown Farmer's Market poster lies a tractor. The tractor is presiding over freshly harvested rolling hills of crop. Behind the tractor and fields the city-scape of Salt Lake City can be seen. The fields are empty, with nobody near to give the produce. The nearest and only destination the poster to the fields is the city, implying that the fields were harvested to feed the city dwellers. The audience is, therefore, obviously those that live in or near the city. City folk see that this is where local food comes from, and the place to pick it up is the Salt Lake City Downtown Farmer's Market. The farmer is absent from his tractor, implying that after harvest he has headed into the city to sell his goods. In effect, the gap between farmer and consumer is depicted and simultaneously bridged.

          Despite this clear connection, the fields and tractor are not particularly appealing upon first glance. While the fields roll nicely and evoke idyllic notions of golden rural hills, no actual harvested or edible substance is shown on the poster. The word farmers is written in inviting, grassy block letters, but that is all. This is not necessarily conducive to a mouth watering diaspora of apartment dwellers to Pioneer Park for the farmer's market. There is certainly no impulsive hunger conjured up from the poster. Instead, there is a certain pride and respect evident. One man plowed all of those fields. His hard work and labor was all to provide for the people of the city. This captures the essence of modern agriculture, although usually the distances from farm to table are much farther. Then again, that is what the farmer's market is working against; the centralized industrial agricultural system. The image does not evoke organic, hippie agricultural stigma. Instead, it shows patriotic pride in the modern American farmer as idealized by film and country music. One lone man plowing fields from early in the morning to night. Working hard and providing for the American people. The classic red color of the tractor is common in such iconography. In fact, with the white horizon and blue sky, the image evokes even more subconscious American pride, appealing to adults, especially those who may have lived through the farm crisis of the 1980's.

          Despite the classic American symbols of the poster (mountains, golden hills, red tractors, etc.) the poster is not outdated. The use of popular modern day typeface for "downtown" and creative shadowing and lighting techniques make the poster relevant for a younger generation as well.

          Curiously, bees are emerging from the exhaust of the tractor. This is likely an ode to Utah's status as the Beehive State; a colony of hard working, independent individuals helping one another. The farmers that provide for the farmers market can be seen as busy bees providing honey for the city dwellers of Salt Lake. The image is not an appetizing one, but it is proud and evocative.