You’re not thinking about the Digital Product Passport yet. I am.
There is a good chance that, as an upcycling or circular furniture designer, the Digital Product Passport (DPP) is not on your radar today. You are focused on materials, clients, prototypes, storytelling and getting your work into the right spaces. That makes complete sense, because that is where your energy should go right now.
And yet, by 2028, this will become part of your reality.
Not as a distant policy idea, but as something that will directly affect how your work is documented, evaluated and positioned in the market.
This is exactly why I am already on it.
Not to overwhelm you with regulation, but to make sure that when this lands, you are not catching up, but already ahead. Because hidden inside this framework are not just obligations, but opportunities that most designers are not seeing yet.
This is not about compliance. It is about positioning.
If you wait until the Digital Product Passport becomes mandatory, it will feel like a checklist. Something you have to fill in, something that slows you down, something that sits outside your creative process.
But if you start understanding it now, it becomes something else entirely.
It becomes a way to position your work.
Because the DPP will shape how:
clients compare products
projects are selected
sustainability claims are trusted
long-term value is evaluated
And that means your work will not only be judged on how it looks, but on how clearly it performs across time.
The designers who understand this early will not just comply with the system. They will use it to stand out.
Your design will need to speak to different people
One of the most important shifts is that your design will no longer be explained in one single way.
Different people will need different information about the same object. A client will want clarity and reassurance. A repairer will need to understand how to take the piece apart. A recycler will need to know exactly what materials are used and where they are located.
This means your work becomes layered.
Not fragmented, but structured.
And here is where the opportunity lies. If you start thinking in these layers now, you can decide what each audience sees and how they understand your work. You are no longer reacting to requirements; you are designing the narrative and the logic behind them.
You can protect your uniqueness while being transparent
A lot of designers assume that more transparency means giving everything away. That fear is real, especially when your strength lies in how you source materials or how you experiment with them.
But the system that is being developed does not work like that.
Information is shared based on who needs it. Not everything is visible to everyone. This means you can remain in control of what makes your work unique, while still contributing to a system that values transparency and accountability.
For you, this is a chance to be strategic.
To decide what becomes part of your public story.
To decide what supports repair, reuse and recycling.
To decide what remains yours.
Your work will be judged on what happens after it is made
Until now, most design decisions were evaluated at the moment of delivery. Does it look right? Does it fit the space? Does the client love it?
That moment is no longer enough.
Your work will increasingly be evaluated on what happens next. Can it be repaired easily? Can it be adapted to a new context? Can its materials be recovered and reused?
For upcycling and circular designers, this is where you already have an advantage. You understand materials in a deeper way. You already think in terms of transformation.
The difference is that this way of thinking will need to become visible and usable for others. Not just felt, but communicated.
Clarity will become part of your design language
There is a subtle but powerful shift happening in what defines quality. A design that is visually strong but impossible to understand or take apart will struggle in a circular system.
Clarity becomes a strength.
When someone can understand how your piece is built, how materials are combined, and how it can be disassembled, your design gains longevity. It becomes easier to repair, easier to adapt and easier to keep in use.
This does not limit your creativity. It challenges you to integrate clarity into your work in a way that feels natural and intentional.
This is exactly where I come in with May Again
You should not have to figure all of this out on your own.
Because while you focus on designing, I am following what is coming. I am translating these frameworks into something usable, something that fits the reality of your practice, and something that strengthens your position instead of complicating it.
May Again is not here to add another layer of complexity.
It is here to:
filter what actually matters for you
translate regulation into opportunity
position your work within future systems
and make sure you do not miss what is coming
This article is part of that.
Not to explain everything, but to start showing you what is possible when you approach this early.
A final thought
By the time the Digital Product Passport becomes mandatory, it will be too late to think about it for the first time.
But right now, you have space.
Space to experiment.
Space to position yourself.
Space to turn something that could feel like a burden into a strategic advantage.
You are already working with materials that others overlook. You are already thinking in terms of transformation and continuity.
This is simply the next step.
And I will make sure you are ready for it.
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This article is informed by insights derived from:
Chawla, K., Chirvasuta, T., Wolf, M.-A., Wolf, K., Rongen, S. et al., Methodology for defining data requirements for the Digital Product Passport under the ESPR framework, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2026, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/4511279, JRC145830.
