82 Designs That Must’ve Looked Good On Paper Because They Make No Sense In Real Life (New Pics)

The question of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ taste is a complex one. Often, you can intuitively tell whether something is designed well or not, even if you don’t quite have the vocabulary to explain why you think so. No matter your subjective preferences, there are objective factors that improve a product’s quality or detract from it.

Legendary designer Dieter Rams argued that good design has 10 core principles. From his perspective, good design is innovative, aesthetic, unobtrusive, honest, long-lasting, thorough to the last detail, environmentally friendly, and not overdesigned. What’s more, good design makes a product useful and understandable.

According to Sterlin L. Mosley, Ph.D., a professor of human relations at the University of Oklahoma, there is no “clean answer” as to whether or not taste is objective or subjective.

From his perspective, the question itself is “malformed.” He argues that Western design’s idea of good taste “reflects cultural institutionalization, not universal truth.”

“Taste is both [objective and subjective], and the relationship between the dimensions is dialectical rather than hierarchical, always contextual, always relational, always in conversation with who is doing the designing and who or what they are designing for,” Mosley writes in a post on Psychology Today.

He emphasizes that coherence, rather than something “too variable and too culturally embedded” as beauty, should be the standard.

Mosley explains that, for him, coherence is “the degree to which a visual environment accurately externalizes the inner logic of the person or community to which it belongs.”

“It cannot be used as a bludgeon the way ‘good taste’ has historically been used, but it is also not arbitrary; most people can feel the difference between a space coherent with their inner experience and one that isn't, even when they lack the vocabulary to say why,” he states.

“That level of attunement with the self is what I mean by taste, if I mean anything precise by the word at all. Not a ranking of objects according to an inherited hierarchy of refinement, but a sensitivity, both to oneself and to the world being made, and the ongoing dialectical conversation between the two.”

Objectivity and subjectivity aside, professionals disagree about core things, such as whether you can learn and teach good taste. For some, it is a question of acquiring new ideas. For others, taste is something deeply personal, something that you’re born with.

Meanwhile, Emmanuel Platt, the director of merchandising at MoMA, explained to House Beautiful that everyone can learn taste. It is a question of studying, research, exposure, and experience.

“You learn from different people, different travels… You meet with artists, designers, manufacturers.”

On the other hand, Omar Nobil, creative director of Design Within Reach, sees things differently than Platt.

“I don’t think you can teach taste. Our job is to expose and educate people to what we think is important and to explain to them why. What they take from that is up to them and how that evolves their perspectives.”

From Nobil’s perspective, taste is individual. “If you’re lucky, you're exposed and connected to the people who will bring out the best of that.”

Meanwhile, interior designer Jeremiah Brent noted that taste isn’t something that you’re born with, like your genetics. For him, it is a question of being curious and imaginative, and expanding your horizons through exploration.

“The most beautiful taste is just when you see the curiosity of someone's spirit through their work or what they're gravitating towards,” Brent told House Beautiful.

The ‘[Bad] Design’ online group we’re featuring is a legend on the internet and one of the best-known communities in its niche. It was first created in 2011 and has been entertaining netizens and shaming bad designs for more than a decade and a half.

According to the moderators, not everything that feels like bad design at first glance actually belongs on the sub. For instance, amateur artwork and signs aren’t considered worthy of posting. Neither is anything that’s broken, cursive handwriting or fonts, clocks with the Roman numeral IIII instead of IV for 4, novelty items, off-brand products, satire, typos, grammar errors, or bad translations.

Previously, one of the friendly moderators who helps keep the online community running smoothly told us about the idea behind the project.

“The original motivation for the subreddit was to point out [bad] designs. Nowadays, most subscribers probably come here for entertainment. However, it is common to have meaningful discussion here on why or why not something is [bad] design,” they told Bored Panda earlier.

They stressed that the group is incredibly popular online.

We want to know which of these horrendously hilarious and hilariously horrendous designs offended you the most. On the other hand, maybe there were some designs that you genuinely thought were (kind of) good?

Personally, what do you look for in terms of great design? On the flip side, what are the biggest red flags for you as a customer and consumer?

Tell us what you think in the comments under the pics or at the bottom of this list!