Designing the Universal Language of Reuse

Designing for a reuse future: Our entry into the Rebrand Reuse competition

Back in June 2025, we set ourselves a brief unlike any other: design a symbol that could sit on packaging in every corner of the world and mean the same thing to everyone who saw it. No language. No cultural assumptions. Just clarity, at a glance, that says this is reusable.

That was the challenge set by PR3, The Alliance to Advance Reuse, through their global Rebrand Reuse initiative. The brief was simple to state and genuinely hard to solve: create a universal symbol for the reuse movement, one that could stand apart from recycling iconography and give reusable packaging systems a mark of their own. We were proud to be one of 225 agencies and designers from around the world who submitted a concept.

Starting from the problem, not the picture

Before we sketched a single mark, we spent time with the problem itself. Recycling has the infinity loop. Composting has its own visual language. But reuse, a genuinely different behaviour with a different relationship to the object in your hand, had nothing to call its own. Every existing symbol nearby either implied disposal or borrowed too heavily from systems that reuse is trying to distinguish itself from.

So our starting point wasn’t aesthetic. It was behavioural. What does reuse actually ask of a person? It asks them to pause, to redirect an object rather than discard it, and to trust that the loop will close again through their own action. That insight shaped everything that followed.

The thinking behind the symbol

The mark we developed brings together a grounded square with a clear directional fold, echoing both structure and movement, like turning a corner with intention. Within the central negative space sits an embedded arrow, marking a deliberate shift and encouraging action. Beside it, a solid circle represents continuity, human presence and the cyclical nature of reuse itself.

Unlike traditional recycling icons, we didn’t want this symbol to be passive. It needed to be bold, directional and compelling, suggestive of progress rather than simply process. Every stage of its development was guided by user testing and visual research, with a clear goal in mind: create something visually distinct from the infinity loop and chasing arrows, while still carrying the same underlying idea of systems thinking and circularity.

Practically, the symbol also had to work hard. Its minimal, geometric form was built to be easily recognised, hand-drawn, embossed onto containers, or applied digitally at any scale, whether that’s a small label on a coffee cup or signage across a washing facility. And because the brief called for global relevance, we designed the symbol to avoid any language or cultural dependencies, so it could travel across regions and reuse systems without losing its meaning.

Above all, we wanted the shape itself to spark curiosity. A symbol that’s bold yet friendly invites people to rethink their relationship with packaging, not as something disposable, but as something purposeful and reusable. As part of the wider reuse movement, we felt the symbol shouldn’t just mark participation. It should actively encourage it, signalling a confident, collective step forward in sustainable living.

Where our thinking met the brief

Looking back at the brief PR3 set out, what stands out to us is how closely our process mirrored their intent. They needed a mark that could differentiate reusables from recyclable and single use waste, one that could unify reuse systems already launching across the globe under a single, recognisable icon. Our approach, starting from behaviour rather than decoration, testing with real users, and designing for global scale from day one, was built to answer exactly that kind of challenge. It’s a good reminder that the strongest design outcomes tend to come from agencies willing to sit with the problem for longer than feels comfortable, before reaching for the pen.

A well-deserved win

The final symbol, now trademarked by PR3 and built into the PR3 Labelling Standard, was designed by Epigrama Studios, a design collective from Colombia. Their winning mark was selected from over 225 entries across 29 countries by both a global jury of designers, business leaders and cultural influencers, and PR3’s own Standards Panel. We want to offer our warmest congratulations to the Epigrama team. It’s a beautifully considered piece of work, and we’re genuinely looking forward to seeing it appear on packaging and reuse systems around the world in the months and years ahead.

Why we entered

Competitions like Rebrand Reuse matter to us because they push our thinking into different spaces. They ask big, structural questions about behaviour, systems and global communication, the kind of questions we love getting our teeth into. The process sharpened how we think about symbol design, systems thinking and designing without words, and that’s a value we’ll carry into every brand we build from here.

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