Darke County
Born & Raised Swine Show Banners
Vinyl banners designed and printed for the Born & Raised Swine Show at the 2025 Great Darke County Fair.
The Born & Raised show allows Darke County exhibitors to showcase their swine projects that were bred by a breeder part of the Darke County Swine Breeders Association.
Individual banners were made for the grand and reserve champions of each swine breed, as well as the top five market gilts, top five market barrows, and overall top five market hogs. One design was made for all 54 banners that were each individualized based on the class that was won.
Process
Since all hogs exhibited in this show were born and raised in Darke County, I wanted to include elements in this banner design that related to Darke County history, architecture, and geography.
Inspiration elements shown that were incorporated into the banner design include a street map of Greenville, Ohio (county seat and home to Darke County Fairgrounds), Darke County Courthouse, Carnegie Library, Henry St. Clair Memorial building, and a statue of Annie Oakley, a famous American sharpshooter from the Darke County area.
After selecting these elements, I took them to Adobe Illustrator to create vectorized versions of them. In addition to the Darke County landmarks and a street map of Greenville, I prepared vector images of show pig figures. In most swine show banners, you only see one pig figure that is a solid color and has pointy, erect ears. Since not all pig breeds have erect ears, I wanted to also have banners versions with pigs that have floppy ears. I also included a floppy-ear pig with spots on it, so the “Spot” breed could also be represented on those specific banners.
Vector Elements
Building the Banner
When I took these elements to Adobe InDesign to begin creating the banner, I left color out of everything until I felt that I had a strong layout.
I of course started with the most necessary pieces; the name of the show with the year, the title of the winning class, and a pig figure. I chose Nexa Rust Sans for these titles as I felt it was bold and easy to read, while also adding a rustic touch with its texture.
Then I added the the buildings and landmarks, along with the Greenville road map. Additional elements added at this point included the shape of Ohio, as well as stars circling the pig figure. These stars were meant to resemble those that are featured on the official Darke County flag.
Final Banner Design
Once I was happy with the layout and layering of this banner, it was time to add color. I decided to use multiple shades of blue as the overall color scheme, as blue is often associated with winning or first place. I added a gold gradient to the winning title and to the pig figure to make them stand out from the blues.
I then prepared my print files by creating 54 individual designs and files for each banner. The Grand Champion Overall Market Hog banner was made into a 24x36” vinyl banner, as well as Reserve Champion Overall Market Hog, 3rd Overall, 4th, and 5th. In addition to the top 5 overall banners, I made individual Grand and Reserve Champion banners for each pig breed. These banners were 18x24” – and along with the winning title change, this is where I changed the pig figure based on the breed.
All photos taken by Kasidi Meyers Design + Photo unless labeled otherwise