School. It's somewhere we all have to go, whether we like it or not. They could at least make it a pleasant place to be, couldn't they? Well not really, no. Most public schools are formulaic, functional places that hardly make students want to be involved in the learning process, let alone inspire creativity, and the joy of knowledge.
With budgets being further slashed under conservative governments in the U.S. and UK, the situation in these countries at least isn't looking up. Not only are students and teachers dealing with boring architecture design, dilapidated school buildings and classrooms, but many also have to live with shortages of basic materials too, prompting teachers to leave the profession en masse. So much for caring about the next generation!
Bored Panda has collected a list of examples of school designers either taking shortcuts, not caring, or needing to go back to school themselves. From thoughtless toilet placements to hilariously offensive murals, these students can at least have a wry chuckle at the ridiculousness of crappy design.
Scroll down below to check these design fails out for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments!
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German School
So we've seen the consequences of bad design, so what makes for good design? There are a few basic principles to stick to if you want to make sure your design is practical, relevant and makes sense!
According to Dieter Rams, a German industrial designer who was responsible for the design of Braun’s consumer products for many years, there are 10 principles of good design, also known as the '10 commandments.' Even though they were written long ago and technology has advanced beyond his wildest dreams, Dieter's principles still apply today!
New Statue At A Catholic School
This School Bus Ad
Furniture designers Vitsoe have worked closely with Dieter Rams for decades, and helpfully summarize his founding principles of good design with the following explanations:
Good design is innovative The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
Good design makes a product useful: A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
Good design is aesthetic: The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
It's Even More Fascinating When This Shit Happens In A Design School
Hangers At School...
Good design makes a product understandable: It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.
Good design is unobtrusive: Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
Good design is honest: It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
"A Man Plowing A Field" On A Local School Building
Interesting Take For A School Quote
Good design is thorough down to the last detail: Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the user.
Good design is environmentally-friendly: Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
Good design is as little design as possible: Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.
So three you have it, pretty simple right? If you are tasked with designing something and want to avoid the hilarious mistakes found in this list, check these principles off first and you should succeed!
Being Helpful For The Blind
The Way My School Installed The New Projector
The Absolute Crap Design Of My School. This Is The Place Where Every Hallway Intersects
And dangerous in case of fire. Hopefully there are a lot of emergency exits in the building.
This School Just Renovated The Toilets At Their Gym
The Pie Graph In My School's Newspaper
High School Gym In Pontiac, Mi. There Are No Words...
This Machine At My School Sound Painful
My Schools Attempt At Being Multicultural
My School Has This Mini Park Inside It But No One Can Get Inside
Our School Has Fantastic Fans
Seen At My School
My School Locker Can’t Even Fit My Backpack Because Of Those Shelves
Front Door Of A Middle School
Extreme Entrance To School Gym
One-Way Window Tint At School, So We Can't See Shooters, But They Can See Us
It's really sad that their first thought has to be about someone using this to massacre them more easily.
School My From Words Inspiring
There Is So Much Wrong With This Map At My School
This is shocking to have in a place of education. Wars have started over less. Mexico are bound to be annoyed
Canada would like the rest of our country back and Mexico would like to exist.
As usual, Canada is disappearing out into space... Used to see it all the time in American weather forecasts.
I know! What's the deal with that??? Do they think winter storms just manifest at the American border?
Load More Replies...It got cut partly off the map as well as South America...
Load More Replies...Excuse me, hello, we Scandinavians demand an explanation...... Oh wait, okay, yeah Trump.
Be Grateful. You can still see most of Scandinavia and also you can identify Spain/Portugal and a bit of france. But where are the british islands? Denmark and Germany also disappeared.
Load More Replies..."We don't need no stinkin'" Alaska, South America, Hawaii, New Zealand, and very little Canada.
also it looks to me like you can see Earth from Earth :D
Load More Replies...A teen dystopian novel but their future world is based off of this. "Soon, the ambassadors from Northern Doll Asia and Southern Japanese Asia will be coming to see all the progress we're making in our colony of New Atlantic Maryland."
Can somebody tell me what is near the west coast of Africa? Is it steaks? (Don't downvote me, please. I really can't make it out.)
They do kinda look like steaks or butterflies maybe? So weird.
Load More Replies...Somewhere on the east coast of Africa, Captain Fred in his Yellow Submarine go to Pepperland ( somewhere in the Antarctic) to free it from the music hating Blue Meanies .
South America and Australia got cut off the map almost entirely... The Earth is above the map, along with all the other planets... Canada is tiny while U.S.A. takes up almost all of North America (Canada is bigger than the U.S.A.)... The Eiffel Tower’s bottom is in the ocean... Maryland is as big as the other continents... WHY, JUST WHY???!!!
Maryland has seceded and become a communist state while using paddles to break away from the east coast
Where is Canada? Mexico? ANY other country? I mean, we have some borders, but....USA is it? Really? Did the Germans start WW3 and expand for Europe (sorry Germans, but given the history it is somewhat relevant)? South America is all but missing, Maryland is....maybe Atlantis? Obviously not an official map by any means but...wow....
I love it that Israel is a real part of Europeeeee, i feel like Ariel the little mermaid
Same fault as usual! Everytime when i see a wrong world-map. hahaha! I think the proof of excellence of an irregular map is if there's no Turkey. It's like forget about that Australia is an island on an irregular map :)
Also Italy has some vein issues therefore the view of their land looks like the under-leg puffed up :D
Load More Replies...By the way - what happened to Michigan and ALL of the Great Lakes!!!!!!!
I guess the compass was more important that showing Alaska and Hawaii in its usual crop boxes on the lower left.
I suspect the school is located in Maryland. But it is such a short distance to Mars from Canada that I am surprised we don't have colonies there yet.
How did the opera house move to Perth Western Australia? When it is in Sydney, (in Eastern Australia). Where is the bite in Australia. So many things wrong in this map in Australia alone.
hahaha australia is now half the size of usa crammed in as an afterthought (actually same size)
Also, why are the continents under water and what happened to South America?
Never mind Maryland, how did the UK get to be physically connected to Europe? Mind you, if that map was true, we probably wouldn't be in the stupid brexit mess we're in now.
Poor South America. And it looks like Trump f'ed up on where to build the walls.
1.It's a flat earth map 2.Yes, earth is the center of the the solar system 3.Maryland actually is Atlantis 4. Where dafuc is mexico
What... why is Maryland its own continent? Maybe this school is in Maryland, but still...
That's an incredibly insulting map for the rest of the world. Then again, people from the United States are taught they are the world.
Okay... wow... so... Maryland obviously detached and separated from the USA because it reached its final form and was just too large for the USA to handle the sudden increase in landmass.... and... Canada has disappeared, now just being called the vague "North"... and 3/4 of South America was cut off by a giant pizza slicer?... and... oh good grief... Random Lighthouse? What??...
It looks like a mural project done by kids, I think they did their best and it looks fun. I'm guessing their school is in Maryland which is why they drew that bigger and it's not like the size of the wall would fit an entire world map in the best way so why are people complaining?
I like this map. It is colourful, it is joyful, it is playful, and it is more accurate than the very best of maps 600 years ago!
How do you know? I would gues it is a school in Maryland cause that state is pretty prominent on that "map".
Load More Replies...Our School Must Be The Crappiest Design I've Ever Seen!
The Wall Decoration At My High School, Red Is Supposed To Represent The Freshmen
The Pamphlet For My School's Special Needs Program
My Schools Fine Arts Department Had Some Interesting Stickers
This Graph In A High School Year Book
This Is On Our Wall In The School...
These Signs Are All Around My School, Let's Sell Some Children!
At First Glance, The White Lettering On This Pride Poster At My High School Blends In With The Yellow Background. Changes The Meaning Drastically
The Mirror At The Men's Bathroom At My School
This Door In My School
My High School’s End Zone For Over 90 Years
This Person In My School Book
Off Centre, Misspelled, Hard To See Road Markings At A Local School
My Friend's New Locker Has A Huge Pipe Running Through It
Stalls In School's Bathroom
"High School"
This Graph In My School's Yearbook...
This Sign At My School
After My School Had A Fire Alarm (Planned) I Noticed This
There Are Several Of These At My School And I Am Unlucky Enough To Be Right In The Corner
The Unfortunate Overhead View Of My School's Library Desks
Poster At My School. Lightbulb Looks Like A Noose
This Wrestling Painting At A High School
To be honest, only with the outlines wrestling always looks like a sex scene.
My High School Science Departments Lights
Found At My School
for people wondering what it says: You will never have this day again, so make it count
The Design School I Graduated From Sent This Postcard Out
Good thing you already know how to design because they can't help you there.
Cover At My School That Is The Perfect Size To Not Cover The Benches
Found This Interesting Little Corridor To Nothing At My School
This Is What 2018-2019 Looks Like According To My School
My Schools Name Is “Analy”
This Ticket Gate At My School
Found This In My Schools Chill Room. I Dont Know What To Say
The New Signs At My School Have Brail That Is Not Raised
(In My School Textbook) Coloured Bar Graph Displayed In Monochrome
These Trash Cans At My School
The Shirt Of Our School Swim Team, The Message Makes Sense But It Sounds Like You Want Us To Kill Our Selves...
Seen At My School, Not A Good Idea To Use Yellow On Yellow...
This Sign For A Private Catholic School
After all the cover ups, it is nice to see the Catholic Church are starting to change, now they are honest about what they are doing, it would have been nicer just to stop it.
My High School Felt The Need To Install A Fence Separating The Student Parking Lot And The School. And To Block Off The Crosswalk
My School
This Advertisment Posted At My School For An Event
Stairs Leading To Nowhere At My School
it's like a parabola, something like: when you get to the top you have nowhere else to go further
This Photo In My School Yearbook
My School Decided To Use An Interesting Picture For Net Neutrality...
No Sharing Food Allergies In The School
The Crappy Toilet Roll Holders At My School
My School Bathroom
Emb Ra Ce Dive Rsit Y,e Xplo R Ethe W O Rl D! (Found Inside A High School's Hall)
Motivational Announcement Screen At My School
My School
My Schools Idea Of Eating Healthy
These Stairs At My School
let's imagine what was there in the past, there were some platforms, there were some buildings (otherwise the stairs would have been continuous), or maybe there was a garden and that was the landscape, or maybe those stairs are with purpose: the stairs for nowhere
My Schools Urinals
So My School Decided They Needed New Wall Decorations
This Sign At My Daughter's School
Well That's An Unfortunate Desk Design
Half these schools look like they were designed by middle schoolers. (11-13 year olds) right when potty humor is at its strongest
Another example of no one taking responsibility for seeing things are done right. Some of these are too stupid for words. The money spent on these mistakes could surely have been better used for education. A truly sad comment of our times and county.
I would like to point out that these are the only problems with my school. None are up to the admins.
And we wonder why kids in junior high and high school take drugs - it isn't to get high - it is to unscramble their brains!
I'm astounded at the stupid! Where was the logic, the inspections, the peer review? What a huge waste of the education budget.
My school has a pattern of tiles on the floor, but there are a ton of misplaced tiles. It’s infuriating.
Half these schools look like they were designed by middle schoolers. (11-13 year olds) right when potty humor is at its strongest
Another example of no one taking responsibility for seeing things are done right. Some of these are too stupid for words. The money spent on these mistakes could surely have been better used for education. A truly sad comment of our times and county.
I would like to point out that these are the only problems with my school. None are up to the admins.
And we wonder why kids in junior high and high school take drugs - it isn't to get high - it is to unscramble their brains!
I'm astounded at the stupid! Where was the logic, the inspections, the peer review? What a huge waste of the education budget.
My school has a pattern of tiles on the floor, but there are a ton of misplaced tiles. It’s infuriating.