The rejuvenated Conservative Party is staking a claim for the high ground on environmental issues.

Leader David Cameron drove home the message last week telling the party faithful: "Going green is not some fashionable pain-free alternative." Supporting the stance is a fresh logo - a stylised tree.

A Conservative Party spokesman told Media and Marketing : "We consulted members across the party about our new visual identity. The values they wanted to see represented were strength, endurance, renewal and growth. We tested a large number of different images, and the tree logo proved the overwhelming favourite."

The image was created by a small, London-based design agency called Perfect Day at a cost of £40,000.

But does it work?

We asked experts from three Birmingham creative agencies. Is the design an environmentally-friendly winner?

Ouch. People of a tender disposition might like to look away now...

* Richard Hunt, senior creative, with Z3

It wouldn't surprise me that the agency involved is probably not totally happy with this identity itself.

Our first impressions (as a graphic design studio) on the new identity are as follows: 1) It's a rest home 2) an Estate Agents 3) an Environmentally Friendly Construction Company 4) A garden product.

This is another Abbey National. A BT piper. An expensive rebranding exercise that led to the creation of... a tree!?

The brief was to produce an image of strength, endurance, renewal and growth; to reinforce the party's environmentally-friendly new direction.

If anything the identity does very little in terms of communicating these. The solution is over-friendly, too simplified and because of this, says very little.

The tree itself is the weakest element as it is more of a scribble than an "image of strength". The scribble is very childlike; what does this communicate about a major political party? Hardly, "we mean business".

It does nothing to communicate the party's values, and that in turn offers nothing to new or young voters. These people will already be highly sophisticated consumers, with a strong brand awareness, so it is important the right messages goes out.

Striking the balance between green issues and the party's image of strength, renewal and growth is by no means an easy task. The "Tree" concept is obviously not the most original solution in the world, but in this instance better execution of the idea would probably have paid dividends.

The new design feels very safe, unfinished with little impact and has nothing to shout about.

* Matt Clugston, creative director, Clusta

There's nothing offensively bad about it in terms of its overall aesthetic, although I would say stylistically it is far removed from their previous brand, and in a brand-conscious world they have probably alienated themselves somewhat.

For me it smacks of a classic Tory jumping on the bandwagon approach - "how can we get votes now?" style politics, mainly because it's such a massive departure from their previous image.

The logo itself has more in-common with a housing development organisation than a political party, I feel.

I think people will see straight through this - even the blue has had more 'green' added to it, as a viable alternative to the labour party.

I think the Tory's would have done better to stick to their guns - come across as a strong alternative rather than a party that's willing to do a u-turn on their previous image in order to win votes.

My overall feeling is it won't do them any favours and has probably cost them a bunch of money - but I guess we'll see.

* Karl Randay, senior designer, 3form

Changing an established identity is a tricky thing. You need to establish a link to the history of your organisation and its core values, while evoking a sense of stability and also appearing forward-thinking and dynamic.

For years the Conservative party has favoured the use of a two-toned arm, thrusting forward a flaming torch, symbolic of progress and sharing more than a passing resemblance to the powerful imagery of industrialist soviet propaganda posters from around the middle of the last century.

The current version of the logo is an attempt to evoke the green politics and environmental policies of the party, representing "strength, endurance, renewal and growth".

The party has always had a solid use of defining colour and power dominating their identity and I can only feel that this has been lost somehow, with their defining blue being watered down to a muted blue-green hue and the introduction of a stylised oak tree. A political party logo needs to give a sense power, stability and overall provide the confidence that they can successfully run the country.

Unfortunately, reducing the logo to an impressionistic sketch defeats this sense of being clearly defined, as does the choice of indistinct typeface.

The font feels slouchy and too relaxed to have any impact.

Overall, the logo is too much of an attempt to represent too little a part of what the party is about.