Well, I'm not sure I'd call them "asinine". Like any icon set, they require a bit of learning—they're not necessarily meant to be immediately recognizable to a

Well, I'm not sure I'd call them "asinine". Like any icon set, they require a bit of learning—they're not necessarily meant to be immediately recognizable to a first time user. They address a different problem: it's simply impractical to print laundry + care instructions in all 24 official EU languages (or even just a few of the most common ones) on a tag the size of a postage stamp. European road signs[1] are another example where text labels wouldn't be practical. Many of the symbols are meaningless in and of themselves, but you of course pick up their meaning pretty quickly when you're learning to drive. If you're an American driving over here for the first time, you wouldn't expect to automatically understand the system without first at least glancing at a travel guide or some other reference. All that said, I do think it sucks that the whole laundry symbol system is copyrighted.[2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Road_Signs_and_Signals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Road_Sign... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laundry_symbol#National_and_international_standards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laundry_symbol#National_and_in...