The Greek flag, with its white stripes and the ends of the cross, crumbled like wagons after being crushed or from a head-on collision. The frame, in black, takes up a lot of space, as does mourning. With this simple and painfully read image shared on social media yesterday, the Beetroot Design design team summed up their feelings about Tuesday night’s deadly train crash in Tempe.

“Our reaction was to use our creative thinking to visualize some inexpressible feelings,” says Beetroot co-founder Yannis “K” Charalambopoulos, and continues, “There are no words for what happened. From the very morning we hear from everyone: “I have no words”, “I can’t describe what is happening”. So we tried to take it one step further.”

As the designer explains, Beetroot’s move was spontaneous and was not the result of any meeting about the band’s reaction. “We wouldn’t have time anyway – you see, the image was posted early (yesterday) morning,” he says characteristically. And he adds that the plan itself is a product of collective work. The response that Beetroot has received since yesterday is overwhelmingly positive. “Of course, in the midst of all this pain, what congratulations,” says Yannis Charalambopoulos, “however, we felt that the image also expressed peace. Overall, we received very positive feedback.”

When he arrived at K’s office, Bitroot’s “crushed flag” digital file was labeled “crushed”. It translates as “crushed”, but also as “ass”. However, the work does not have a title. “He doesn’t even have that many words,” concludes Giannis Charalambopoulos. “The explanation is simple: we also felt emotionally broken. We wanted to express this grief and emotional breakdown in the way that we do best: through images. Everyone can choose which image reading to do. We created it to express our emotional distress.”