I hate this. I also disliked the one that came before it too, although the story behind the change is interesting. From September 2026, new EU regulations will restrict third-party certifiers from using imagery that features botanicals, animals or colours such as green, in an effort to protect consumers from greenwashing.

Having been raised by a vegan mother, the sunflower symbol is deeply familiar to me. When I became a designer, I began to question its visual integrity. Its illustrative depiction always felt uncomfortably incongruous (in some ways good) and its fine line weight had it teetering on the edge of perceptibility, bad, especially when scaled down. But, wow, it did have character!!

The new logo feels so-so-sophomoric. It consists of check marks, or ticks, depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on, rotated into something that vaguely wants to resemble a sun or sunflower without falling foul of the new regulations. The idea is painfully blunt, the visual impression cold and flat. It’s completely forgettable. It’s that first idea you’re happy to sketch and forget but here, made it into the pres. Filler that ended up fulfilling. Ugh.

The one advantage, of course, will be exposure. The sheer extent of its application will blunt force trauma it into our consciousness and build some transferable value over time.