Regulatory Marking and Label Translation

Quick answer — Required markings are a compliance list, not a content decision. What matters operationally is that most of them live inside artwork as pixels, so they need image-level translation and a controlled version per market.

Vitra.ai Universe keeps one product vocabulary across box, app, page and video.

The list is not yours to write

Which markings a device must carry, in which language, and whether they may appear on screen instead of on the housing, varies by market and product class. That list comes from the compliance function.

Treating it as a content question is how a launch discovers late that a market needs something the artwork does not have.

What content operations own is different and narrower: making sure the approved text reaches every artwork file, in every language, without drifting.

Most of it is pixels

Rating plates, package panels, symbol blocks and on-device labels are artwork. The text inside them is not addressable by a document pass, which is why a project can be "fully translated" and still ship an English rating plate.

Image translation is the tool for the first three, working on the rendered layout so a longer local string is caught before the plate is tooled rather than after.

Symbols stay, words vary

Standardised symbols are the same everywhere and must not be redrawn or substituted. Only the accompanying text changes. That sounds obvious and is broken regularly, usually by a well-meaning regional redesign that swaps a symbol for a locally familiar alternative. Locking the symbol set as untranslatable assets in the asset manager prevents it.

E-labelling changes the calculus

Where a market permits information to be shown in the device's settings rather than printed on the housing, the required text becomes firmware strings — which means it now moves on the firmware release train and needs the same review as any other shipped string.

That is usually a saving on artwork and a new obligation on engineering, and the handover between those two teams is where the text goes stale. A marking updated on the plate and not in the menu is a discrepancy that an inspection will find.

Version control is the real work

A device selling into a dozen markets carries several artwork variants, and the difference between them is a few lines of text.

Keeping those as controlled variants of one master — rather than a dozen independently edited files — is what makes a wording change tractable. Translation memory holds the approved strings, and quality control checks that every variant carries the version compliance signed off, not a near-match. Compliance approves. The pipeline's job is that what reaches them is complete, consistent and traceable. Content with a compliance owner behind it is its own discipline, set out in regulated content localization. Warning text on the same surfaces follows its own rules — electronics safety warning translation.

FAQ

Who decides which markings a device needs? The compliance function, because requirements vary by market and product class. Content operations own only the delivery — getting approved text into every artwork file in every language without drift.

Why do rating plates ship in English? Because the text is inside artwork rather than in a document, so a document-level translation pass never touches it. It needs image-level translation working on the rendered layout.

Can standardised symbols be redesigned for a market? No. Symbols stay as specified and only the accompanying wording changes, which is why the symbol set should be locked as untranslatable assets rather than left editable in regional artwork.

What changes when a market allows e-labelling? The required text becomes firmware strings and moves onto the firmware release train. That shifts the risk to the handover between artwork and engineering, where a marking updated in one place and not the other goes unnoticed.