The main idea behind designing an icon is to communicate a concept without words, surpassing language gaps and to save space in the place where the concept must be.
That’s why is so common to see icons on buttons, highways, street signs and in clothes. The problem is that, yn cloth, the icons are anything but easy to understand.
An icon must communicate a concept in an easy way, like an arrow meaning direction or a strike cigarette means a prohibition to smoke.
According to the book “Universal Principles of Design”, there are 4 types of icons: by resemblance (pretty recognizable representation of the concept), image (a plane represent an “airport”), symbolic (representation of something more abstract, like a lighting meaning “electricity” or a broken glass means “fragile”) and arbitrary (those icons that are universally accepted although they don’t represent something recognizable, like male and female icons).
In cloth care labels there are a mix of different type of icons, since you can find “resemblance” (a hand on a cube of water means “wash by hand”), image (an iron means instructions to iron) and arbitrary (a triangle represents “bleach”).
Ginetex (Groupement International d’Etiquetage pour l’Entretien des Textiles) is the responsible of this icon set design and it’s international spread since 1963. Every symbol is a trade mark and must be used according Ginetext rules.
What amazes me the most is that Ginetex claims to follow certain principles:
Symbols were created to avoid interpretation problems between consumers.
Symbols are easily understandable on every country, without the limitations of language and provides as many information as it’s needed for good care of clothes.
Easy to understand? Who can tell me the relation between a triangle and bleach? Or between a perfect circle and dry cleaning?
BTW, if the circle has a “W” inside then the icon means professional cleaning with water (so, language is an issue, because it resembles “wet” which is an English word).
I am amazed that nobody has ever thought that this icon set is poorly designed and, worst, that it has been adopted as an standard without worrying about consumers.
Is there anybody who wants to propose a new standard?
