Well, I&#x27;m not sure I&#x27;d call them &quot;asinine&quot;. Like any icon set, they require a bit of learning—they&#x27;re not necessarily meant to be immediately recognizable to a first time user. They address a different problem: it&#x27;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.<p>European road signs[1] are another example where text labels wouldn&#x27;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&#x27;re learning to drive. If you&#x27;re an American driving over here for the first time, you wouldn&#x27;t expect to automatically understand the system without first at least glancing at a travel guide or some other reference.<p>All that said, I do think it sucks that the whole laundry symbol system is copyrighted.[2]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Vienna_Convention_on_Road_Signs_and_Signals" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Vienna_Convention_on_Road_Sign...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Laundry_symbol#National_and_international_standards" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Laundry_symbol#National_and_in...</a>