A seed, drawn from
the mathematics of growth.
How the FOAF mark was found inside a sunflower.
Three readings, one shape.
The mark is three nodes joined by two inward-curving arcs. It is built to be read three ways at once — and each reading is true.
A sprout
Two leaves rising from a stem-tip. The first impression is growth — something alive, just beginning.
Friend of a friend
The smallest indirect connection — node to node to node. The graph that gives FOAF its name.
Sharing & growth
Three points spreading outward — the universal shape of a share, of a network reaching.
Nature counts in Fibonacci.
Sunflower heads, pinecones, nautilus shells, the spiral of a fern. Across living things, growth follows one sequence — 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34… — where each number is the sum of the two before it.
The reason is efficiency. A plant adding new seeds, petals or leaves needs to pack them without overlap and without gaps. The solution life arrived at is a single, constant turn between each new element: the golden angle, about 137.5°. Turn by it again and again, and a perfect spiral packing emerges on its own.
The mark is a sunflower.
When seeds are placed by the golden angle, you can number them outward from the center — 1, 2, 3, and so on. The three nodes of the FOAF mark land exactly on seeds 3, 5 and 21.
Every one of those is a Fibonacci number. The mark was never drawn onto a sunflower — it was found inside one. Watch it assemble:
Three seeds, two golden arcs.
The seeds set the three points. Two arcs connect them — each a simple circular curve with a radius of 0.618, the golden ratio's reciprocal (φ⁻¹).
The arcs bow inward, not outward, so the two leaves lean toward each other like a real sprout closing over its center. The right node reaches higher than the left — the asymmetry of something growing toward the light, not a static, mirrored emblem.
- Left node
- seed 5 — Fibonacci level
- Right node
- seed 21 — reaching highest
- Base node
- seed 3 — where the arcs meet
- Arc radius
- 61.8 = φ⁻¹ × the frame
Cream and navy.
FOAF is the quiet protocol layer beneath the surface — so the palette is deep and grounded, with a warm light rising out of it. Cream on navy is the mark at rest.
The same rule that grows a sunflower, grown into a mark.