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Website concept & direction

FSG Returnables. Time for a fresh look.

Prepared for the FSG Returnables team · Ratdog Industries
A fresh look · prepared for FSG Returnables

Fifteen years getting the hard part right.
Now let's make the world see it.

A short walk through what we've learned, what's holding you back, and three ways we'd change it.

What we understand

You're not a start-up with a story. You're a pioneer with a track record.

Since 2009
Reusable packaging in UK food service, years before it was fashionable.
358m+
Single-use disposables diverted from landfill, litter and incineration.
First, in 2013
The UK's first returnable token scheme, built by you.
NHS-proven
Live across whole hospital café estates and leading universities.
Real model
A genuine deposit-return loop. Not recycling, not greenwash.
One founder
Lynn's conviction, fifteen years in the making.
The challenge

The problem isn't the business.
It's that no one can see it.

01
A market of look-alikes
Every competitor whispers the same pastel sustainability slogans. Nothing stands out.
02
The best story is buried
The 358 million, the 2013 first, the NHS proof: all there, all lost in the noise.
03
The mechanics are missing
The site never once explains how returnable actually works, the most interesting thing you do.
Where things stand today

A good business, wearing the wrong suit.

fsg.uk.com
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Be Circular Pioneering a Circular Future Sustainability Journey Don't be Square Reduce · Reuse · Recycle Our Green Promise Towards Net Zero Planet-Positive Closed Loop Thinking For a Greener Tomorrow Zero Waste Eco-Friendly Solutions Think Sustainably™
Too much to say. Nothing lands.
And it is not only how you look

A customer accepts. It bounces.

Here, as an example, from this week. You send a customer a meeting request. They accept, and their acceptance immediately bounces straight back at them.

That is the real cost of a shaky digital foundation. Before you have said a word, they have you marked as a business that does not quite work.

What's changed · the new search engine

AI is the search engine now. It reads code, not design.

More and more people ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI and act on the one answer it gives back. To be that answer, a machine has to understand your site, and that lives in the code underneath, not the picture on top.

01
It reads your markup, not your looks
A site can look great to a person and be almost invisible to an AI reading the raw code.
02
It wants facts it can trust
Labelled, structured data: the 358m, the NHS names. Not claims buried in images and slogans.
03
It picks one answer, and a few sources
You're either the name it repeats or you're nowhere. There is no page two to climb.
What's changed · and what to do about it

AI now influences everything online. Here is what to do about it.

01
Structured data on every fact
Hand-coded Schema.org so AI reads your proof as fact. On WordPress, a patchy add-on plugin.
02
Clean, semantic, fast code
Lean pages an AI can parse in full, not the plugin bloat that slows a template to a crawl.
03
Answer-shaped content
How returnable works, written so a machine can quote it and a person enjoys reading it.
04
We decide who gets in
An llms.txt rules file telling AI assistants what they may use: control most sites never touch.
What we propose

Say what's true. Say it clearly.

01

Clarify the message

One sharp idea above the fold. Cut the slogan soup.

02

Show the loop

Make "how returnable works" the hero, not the mystery.

03

Prove it with numbers

The 358m and the NHS names, front and centre.

And then give it a personality that fits the room you're pitching to.

The idea

One story. Three personalities.

Because the right site depends entirely on who you're talking to. Click any to walk through it.

Use it. Return it.
01 · Voltage
Bold, electric, disruptive.
Walk through →
Considered by design
02 · Editorial
Calm, premium, authoritative.
Walk through →
Small swap. Big difference.
03 · Bright
Warm, friendly, human.
Walk through →
Concept
One more thought: the mark itself

Keep the equity. Lighten the touch.

You've built real recognition into this mark: the tree, the two colours, the name. We'd never throw that away. But a website lets it breathe: the same idea, drawn a little cleaner for the screen. A few ways it could wear lighter online. The tree stays, the colours stay.

Current FSG Returnables logo
The mark todayOwned, recognised, and doing its job in print & on the vans. This is the starting point, not the problem.
Today
FSGReturnables
Direction A

Refined roundel

The same emblem, redrawn on a clean grid: one confident tree in a tidy ring. Reads instantly at favicon size.

FSGReturnables
Direction B

Return loop

The tree grows inside a returning arrow. The mark finally says what you do. Orange earns its place as the loop.

FSGreturnables
Direction C

Growth monoline

Two leaves from one stem: the lightest, most modern read. A single-weight glyph that scales anywhere.

A concept only goes so far. The rest is yours to drive

What only you can decide.

A concept can only take this so far. From here the direction is yours to set: the calls no one outside FSG can make. Set them, and this stops being a concept and becomes your website.

01

You set the voice

How should FSG sound: bold and challenging, calm and expert, or warm and human? You pick the lane.

02

You name the positioning

The one thing you want to be known for above all else. You choose it, and everything else falls in behind it.

03

You choose the audience

Who you're really for: NHS and procurement, universities, corporates, or the public. You decide who comes first.

04

You bring the proof

The numbers behind the 358 million, and your say-so to put real results next to each client name.

05

You hold the assets

The logo files, brand colours, photography and footage you already own, or your green light to create new.

06

You own the guidelines

Your brand guidelines, if they exist, so nothing drifts from the style you've built. No set yet? You decide whether that's worth sorting now.

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