Rob Vermeulen chaired the EU Organic Logo Competition
Friday 31 July 2009
On 20 July 2009 the cycling celebrity, Miguel Indur‡in, showed his support for the EU Organic Logo Competition organised by the European Commission. Miguel Indurain, famed for having won the Tour de France five times in a row and also winning the Giro d'Italia twice, met the competition's jury to choose the best logo submissions for the pan-European event. Miguel Indur‡in, the son of a farmer, has had a lifetime to polish his nutritional knowledge, and has personal experience of how this should be applied in practice. His determined athletic spirit and strong feel for a beneficial diet provided valuable help to the jury in deciding which logos best represented organic products and which will be put forward to the final stage of the competition.
The EU Organic Logo Competition Jury
The jury which Miguel Indur‡in joined for the final selection consisted of a group of experts from the field of organic farming and production, and internationally renowned design professionals. Prominent jury members included Creative Director & Managing Partner Erik Spiekermann from Germany; Riitta Brusila-RŠsŠnen, Professor of Graphic Design from the University of Lapland, Finland; Szymon Skrzypczak, a prize-winning young designer from Poland; Elisabeth Mercier, Director of Agence BIO from France; Urs Niggli, Director of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) from Switzerland; Tom V‡clav’k, a marketing expert for organic products from the Czech Republic and President of the International Organic Retailers Association; and Craig Sams, the Chair of the Soil Association from the UK. The competition jury was chaired by Rob Vermeulen, former president of the Pan-European Brand Design Association.
The top designs selected will be put to the European public for them to cast their vote for the eventual winner. The selected designs will be posted on www.ec.europa.eu/organic-logo by the end of the year. Every EU citizen can take part in choosing the winning logo.
From July 2010, the new logo will be applied to all organic products throughout the European Union. In contrast to the already existing EU organic logo which was used on voluntary basis, the new logo will be compulsory for all pre-packaged organic products that originate in the 27 Member States.
The new logo will help reassure European consumers that the products they buy are of genuine organic origin, and that the products are of a quality that is standardized throughout the European Union.
