41 Design Fails That Are Beyond Ridiculous

The subreddit has been poking fun at horrible and hilarious designs all the way since 2011. Over the past 12+ years, the community has grown absolutely massive. At the time of writing, the group had 3.4 million members.

Years pass, seasons change. But what stays constant is people’s appetite for shaming truly awful product and ad designs. (What changes, however, is how the internet reacts to names like the subreddit’s that use gentle curse words. These days, you can’t even mention them in full without some social media megacorps frowning in your general direction!)

The subreddit’s moderators have created a fantastically detailed wiki that explains what does and doesn’t count as a bad design. For instance, amateur artwork or signs don’t belong in the online group because they were made by, well, amateurs. Similarly, broken things also don’t count.

And don’t even think of posting the Roman numeral for 4, IIII, as an example of awful design because it’s a fairly common alternative way to write IV. Meanwhile, unintentional errors like manufacturing defects also don’t count as examples of bad design. Neither do novelty items or obvious satire.

The mod team encourages its members to be original. So you shouldn’t be sharing any pictures that fall into the list of the top 150 most popular reposts. Software designs, hate symbols, and memes also don’t have any place on the sub. Meanwhile, all members ought to be as civil as possible, avoid sharing any personal information, and ensure that they write awesome descriptive titles for their posts.

A while ago, interior design expert and then-editor at These Three Rooms, Ariane Sherine, had shared her thoughts on taste and aesthetics with Bored Panda.

“When it comes to aesthetics, 'bad design' is a very individual thing that comes down to personal taste,” she said that our personal tastes and (dis)likes affect our judgment of products and interiors. 

“It's perhaps more helpful to talk about 'bad design' as design that doesn't function as it should—for instance, a kitchen that doesn't have what's called 'good flow', where you have to walk impractical distances between complementary appliances and where the dimensions of the 'kitchen work triangle' (the distance between fridge, sink, and hob) aren't practical,” the design expert said.

“A kitchen where there isn't enough storage, where potentially dangerous appliances aren't located safely, and where cornflakes and milk are placed at opposite ends of the room is what I'd call 'bad design,'” she shared that a poorly-crafted space can be a huge headache for someone in their day-to-day lives.

“‘Good design' is where a lot of thought and effort has been put into structuring and renovating a house so it's perfect for the people living in it. It takes account of their aesthetic preferences but also focuses on the concepts I mentioned before, paying close attention to detail,” she told Bored Panda.

"The only true way to ascertain whether a design is going to be a commercial success is to make it available for sale, market it widely, and see how many people buy it. But success is different to taste. Personally, I think taste is all about understatement, minimalism, and neutral decor. But again, that's only my personal opinion!" the design expert told us during another interview, earlier.

“This will differ for each person, but for many people, loud and garish colors used liberally in the home would signify a lack of taste. Then again, I can think of designers who have based their entire career around the use of color and loud prints," she said that there aren’t any hard and fast rules.

When it comes to furniture, you have to consider functionality, not just aesthetics. "Does the furniture function as it should? Is it likely to collapse or break easily? If seating, is it comfortable? I mean, my idea of aesthetic h**l would be a bright purple inflatable sofa with lime green spots, but your mileage may vary! The question of comfort and function is a less subjective one,” the design expert shared a few of the considerations you should keep in mind when thinking about interiors.

Tell us all about which of these pics and fails made you cringe the hardest, Pandas. Meanwhile, for some more amazingly awful designs, check out Bored Panda's previous features right here, here, as well as here.

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