There's a designer in every one of us. When we see a product that looks bad or works poorly, we're the first ones to criticize it. And we even know precisely how it could be better! But the profession of the designer has a lot more to it than what first meets the eye. And if you think you've seen bad designs before, you're in for a surprise.
You see, when designers don't go to college to learn the subtle aspects of their art, the result can be disastrous. In the next pictures, we will see exactly what happens when the job of a professional designer is given to an overconfident amateur. Brace yourselves, get ready to laugh, and be prepared to see some otherworldy cringy images.
We've Heard of Bad Seats Before, But This...
A stadium is a massive construction project that involves a million-dollar budget and a big crew of professional workers. But after spending so much money on concrete and staff, the owners of the stadium just don't have enough to pay for a designer. That's when they give a call to their nephew, who says he "really likes sports," and get him to design one of the stands.
The result is, as expected, not the best. While it's obvious not all of the stadium seats can have the same high-quality view of the field, we feel like this seat is taking the concept of the "low-cost ticket" way too far.
Watching The Perimeter
At this building, the security officers are in charge of one thing, and one thing only: to make sure that nothing happens to the back of their television! Either that or someone committed a hilariously bad design error. We put our money on this second hypothesis.
After admitting this was a massive design fail, the question remaining is one that resembles the eternal egg vs. chicken dilemma. After all, which came first? The security camera, or the TV?
So Inspiring
Tasked with making inspirational mats, college-dropout designers might try to make your life miserable. There's nothing like a constant reminder of our powerless place in the world to start every day with the joy and confidence we need.
When the worst font and background colors are combined to make the worst possible inspirational mat, nothing seems possible. But if you happen to own this terrible mat, make sure you see it for what it is: not an accurate description of the world, but rather a terrific monument to incompetent designers. Suddenly, you'll feel like smiling again!
The Black Sheep
In this building, all rooms share the same rent price. All rooms, but one. Why? Well, maybe due to some creative epiphany, one of the rooms happens to come with a Picasso-like window that defies gravity and offers a confusing view.
We expect this sort of window in a modern architectural installation. But we don't think that's really in the spirit of this seemingly ordinary city building. Now that the deed is done, all that's left is to fire the designer and lower the rent on that one room. It's only fair.
People Will 'Fall' For This Pattern
Most bad designs out there result from a lack of hard work. But there's a couple in which the opposite happened. An extremely diligent designer decided to work so hard that he ended up conjuring something as ugly as it is injury-prone.
These mean stairs come with an optical illusion pattern that's designed to make people fall and break a couple of bones. And if that's not the real intention of the designer, we don't know what he was thinking!
Something's Gotta Give
Design is a game of balance. But some designing dilemmas could be easily avoided with common sense. Take this bathroom, for instance. After the toilet was installed way too close to the door, there was no turning back. They needed to find a way of fixing the issue.
A great solution would've been to make the door open the other way. But that was just too much hassle. Instead, our genius college-dropout designer decided to go with the easy fix. So he sawed a dent in the door. Problem solved!
A Headturning Design
The word 'Stop' is amongst the most recognizable in the world. You don't even need to know English to understand what it means and represents. But when 'Stop' gets turned upside down, we feel like the content of the message can be irreparably lost.
When the bus company decided to hire what must have been an intern designer to put their buttons in place, they could have never imagined that the result would be so wrong. In a world where 'Stop' becomes 'potS,' does anything even makes sense anymore? We need to STOP bad designs immediately!
Unwanted Workout
A talented designer is someone who pays attention to people's needs. When designing a room, you want to make sure every element sticks to specific rules. The primary goal is to develop something that can be used; something that prevents people from getting in uncomfortable situations.
Some designers seem to love to make things as hard as possible for their clients. People need to use a sink every day, right? So, why not make them sweat and work hard for it? Turning on the tap never looked more like a workout routine!
A Last-Place Trophy?
If there were an award for the worst trophy, this one would probably get it. Confused? We're confused as well since we cannot make sense of it. This would look like something you'd give to a golf champion if it weren't for the fact that the figure is holding the club incorrectly.
What should be paying homage to the honorable sport of golf turned out to be nothing more than another example of poor design. Next time you're making a golf trophy, it's maybe better to go with someone who knows a little more about the sport.
Being Private in Public
Remember when people were forced to use public phones to, well, make a phone call? Back then, phone booths were conveniently installed on the street to keep the phones safe and to ensure everyone was entitled to his or her privacy.
It's the most straightforward design in the world. You make the thing that's supposed to go around the phone... go around the phone! Still, college-dropout designers were able to find a way to get it terribly wrong!
Pregnancy Ad Gone Wrong
Pregnancy tests are crucial for future moms and dads to plan their future. But this pregnancy test ad doesn't seem to be connected with reality at all. The purpose of a pregnancy test is to inform a woman that she's pregnant. But does the lady in the picture even needs a test to learn that?
The best part is how surprised this couple seems to be. As if they didn't suspect at all that they were going to have a child. Where could that tummy have possibly come from?
Designer Miracle
We know that we've been harsh on designers. And for that reason, we need to admit that, sometimes, designers are capable of making the most amazing things. The most brilliant designers out there are so good that they're even capable of bending the rules of physics.
There's no better example than this round cube. For our entire lives, we thought that the concept of a round cube was not only unattainable but mathematically impossible. Now, this brilliant design piece has finally proven us wrong. Funnily enough, we could have never guessed that round cubes would end up looking so much like a cylinder. Life is full of surprises!
Save the Environment, Die in the Process
This bike lane was either sponsored by a major oil company or designed by a college-dropout. Either way, one thing's for sure: biking in this part of town is not advisable for the faint of heart.
Riding a bike has tremendous benefits for your health and the environment. But in this town, it's better if you stick to a nice walk in the park. And if you have to ride a bike, please don't forget to bring a helmet, a lifesaving jacket, and, just to be safe, a bulletproof vest!
Back to The Future?
Time is a mystery. It rules our day-to-day lives, but it's invisible. It's relative and unstable, but it can be measured in detail. And sometimes, it even goes the other way around... Well, not really. But at least in the imagination of this designer it does.
Not knowing the difference between clockwise and anti-clockwise is yet another reason why designers should always go to college. And do you know when making that simple distinction is especially important? When you're actually designing a clock! This schizophrenic product is so poorly designed that it defies our understanding of the world and should be taken off that wall immediately!
Solar Power in the Dark
It's not that hard to understand how solar panels work. What happens is that the sun shines on the panel, and it stores its energy in a green and convenient way. Some poor designers, though, seem to have not been able to... make light of the situation.
The result is this monument to design incompetence that's doomed never to work. A solar-powered parking meter that happens to be placed in an underground garage. What a brilliant idea! Who would've thought solar panels would work when there is no sun?
Innovating For What?
One thing is to blame designers who don't know any better. Another thing is to see a picture like this, in which the designer got it right the first time, and then ruined it all by deciding to 'innovate'! Couldn't he stick to his simple task?
If there's one thing we all know about urinals, is that they're better when they're facing the same way. But this designer ended up making this disastrous choice. They say virtue is in the middle, but it clearly doesn't apply here.
Bring a Friend or Two
Parcopresis is a psychogenic condition in which people are unable to excrete without having a certain level of privacy. It's so common that every bathroom in the world is built according to specific privacy parameters. Well, almost every bathroom in the world.
Some creative designers out there prioritize quantity over quality, and the result can be disastrous. This public bathroom is not only a proper design fail, but it's also a public health hazard. Can you imagine five people doing their thing simultaneously in there? We can't either, but someone somewhere thought it was possible.
How Can You Get This Wrong?
There's nothing like planting trees to make a city look beautiful and homely. Trees provide oxygen that improves the quality of the air, helping to decrease urban pollution. But since trees have an unstoppable tendency to grow, they're usually planted in their proper place. This prevents their roots from eventually damaging the sidewalk.
Everybody seems to know that, except the people who were in charge of planting these trees. Somehow, they missed the dirt squares and opened a new hole in the concrete. This design fail is so blatant that even the poor trees seem to be embarrassed about it.
The Importance of Colors
Some things can make your life as a designer a lot harder. One of such things is to suffer from daltonism. When you perceive colors in a completely different way, working effectively as a designer can be almost impossible.
This ATM is the living proof that daltonism and design don't go well together. When 'Enter' is red and 'Cancel' is green, you have a recipe for disaster. Can you imagine how many people have inadvertently canceled their withdrawals when using this confusing machine? Getting your cash was never this puzzling.
Handicap Trap
Probably looking for an easy way to cheat accessibility legislation, the designer of these steep stairs decided to install a wheelchair ramp. The only problem is that it looks more like an extreme skate ramp than something that could be legitimately used by disabled people.
As if being in a wheelchair wasn't hard enough, designers out there still find a way to make people's life even harder. Accessible? No. We think life-threatening would be the proper word.
Pre-Made Menu? Consider It Done!
Products are a little bit like people. In the beginning, as babies, we look more or less the same, sharing a common interest in sleeping and wearing a diaper. But as we grow, we start developing our personality, until we finally become unique individuals with a distinctive taste, style, and sense of integrity.
But, contrary to people, not all products grow to become independent. Due to a lack of design work, this restaurant menu still looks as if it has just now left the factory. Spend money to put the restaurant logo on the menu? Why should someone worry about something dumb like that?
Crash-Inducing Irony
Sometimes, we don't know if designers are just bad or merely sadistic. This pop-up car message is so ironic that it had to be made intentionally! After all, why would someone try to remind drivers to pay attention to the road by using an unnecessarily lengthy message?
Even the tautological use of the terms "too long" and "too often" seems to confirm our worst suspicions. This is the type of warning that should come with a warning or not exist at all.
Climbing for All
This high-security gate looks like a great tool against robbers. At least, if you don't pay it too much attention... Because when you look closer, you realize this gate is far from being effective against intruders. Why? Well, because it was designed in a ladder shape!
All a robber has to do to surpass security is to comfortably climb to the other side. Fortunately, this door seems to be protecting nothing but a dark and shady alley.
Anti-Robbery ATM
The designer of this ATM was so concerned about making it safe that he forgot all about the people who were supposed to use it. This ATM is so high up that it takes two men on top of each other to reach it properly.
We've heard of high withdrawal fees before, but this ATM is merely going over the line... This is yet another reason why people are giving up on cash more and more.
Have a Seat!
One of the critical traits of a good designer is space awareness. When making something, it's essential always to pay attention to the surrounding environment. A good designer would have found a way around this pesky street pole. A lousy designer, on the other hand, decided to simply ignore it.
The result is this unexplainable, useless seat, with the sole purpose seeming to be making people laugh. Sitting with a friend was never this uncomfortable before!
Tasty Sushi
To be fair, we cannot exactly blame the designer for this one. It's nothing but a hilarious coincidence! But we do find it odd that someone has decided to place a trash bin right in front of an advertising sign.
While this comic scene will make the day of the people passing by, we're not sure it will help this company to sell any more sushi. Japanese food suddenly looks less appealing when you feel like it's been taken off the trash.
Problems at The Source
College can teach you a lot about proper design techniques, but not all schools think the same. Believe it or not, this postcard was made by an actual design school and is as confusing as you read it to be.
Ignoring the fact that most people are trained to read sentences horizontally, this design school is showing that that's not the answer to all of our design problems. We will give you a couple of minutes to decipher this inspiring message to students.
Brilliantly Deep, or Deeply Wrong?
The best design fails are the design fails sitting right between the line of right and wrong. This graduation picture is either the result of a very reckless Photoshop fix or a profound metaphor to what life after college feels like.
In the end, it works as an unexpectedly effective illustration of what having a college degree is like. You can either walk peacefully into your auspicious professional future like a champ or end up being trampled by a fast train made out of debt and unemployment.
Staying Anonymous
The bathroom is at the center of some poorly-made design choices, but this is arguably the funniest you will see. The responsible person is so bad at his job that he messed up on something as simple as putting a door in front of a toilet.
When people go to the W.C., they don't generally ask for much. But in this crazy bathroom, not even their basic requests will be met. And to top it all, have you noticed that there are no side partitions either? It's as if privacy didn't even cross their minds!
Please Wear the Hood
Choosing the right clothes is an excellent way of expressing your values. That's why designers do their best to create the most original patterns and messages for the clothing industry. But sometimes, things can go wrong...
This girl thought she'd be supporting animal rights all through the day. Then, she took the hood off. In less than a minute, she went from being a pro-animal rights activist to becoming her own worst enemy. Joining the wrong club can be as easy as that!