Have you ever walked around a mall, a grocery store, been in a restaurant, or the corner of a street just to come across the most outrageous design mistakes? Maybe a distorted face, extraordinarily long arms, or just weirdly inappropriate design placements? While they may be the funniest things you’ve ever seen, it probably also makes you wonder how these designs ever went through in the first place. Was there anyone there at the company to finalize the design? Did the designers double-check the spelling errors or sizing prior to production?
Just to give you a good illustration of these errors, here are 10 examples of epic fails in design that we’ve compiled for you. Now, enjoy while you’re at it and just be thankful you did not make the same mistakes!
1) A sign that clearly escalated
Image source: Bored Panda
“Please pay your parking fee before existing”, how intense! This example makes you realize just how important spell checks are! If you’re going to end up printing a sign this large, and for a widely used space like a parking lot, you better check your spelling beforehand. Otherwise, you’ll end up sending quite the wrong message just like this one!
2) The not so child-friendly Christmas sign 
Image source: Bored Panda
Christmas is a holiday that’s supposed to be enjoyed by families, kids included! Yet, this sign sends a message that is nowhere near child-friendly. It’ll most likely not bring joy and happiness to any of the parents seeing it at their local store with their children around!
3) The poster that had more legs than expected
Image source: Bored Panda
When you have three women on your poster but four pairs of legs, that’s when you know you’ve made a huge design mistake. While some other Photoshop fails on posters or magazines may be less noticeable, this one definitely isn’t. If you look closely, you’ll even see that the skin tone does not match any of their faces! How natural!
4) The facial distortion
Image source: Bored Panda
Guess the person in charge of applying the car wrap didn’t check its placement beforehand. Half of the man’s teeth, mouth, and his entire nose are long gone. We’re pretty sure he doesn’t look like that in real life. Poor man!
5) Water measurements on an opaque bottle
Image source: Bored Panda
Water measurements on a water bottle are the perfect health-conscious design idea to help you keep track of your daily water consumption. But what’s the use of it if we can’t even properly see the water level itself? Unfortunately, opaque bottles are not the right choice for this. Sticking to a clear bottle will be best.
5) Another reason why you need to check your spelling
Image source: Bored Panda
We’ve given you one example earlier of a spelling error in a parking lot sign. “Shapes Ealth Club”, in this case, is another one to show just how bad the result of spelling errors can be. If there should be one rule, it should be that all designers should clearly check for spelling mistakes before submitting any design!
6) The ultimate warning fail
Image source: Bored Panda
When all you wanted to do was to protect your customers and warn them for any danger, but instead you accidentally create an offensive message directed towards another country. From this, we can already expect some customers from China who won’t be so happy with this label. Beware of where you place each sign or text on your packaging and make sure that this mistake does not happen with yours!
7) Fine what?
Image source: Bored Panda
Placement is everything. As you can see here, the “F” has ruined it all for the text on this packaging design. Instead of “Fine Art”, you’ll most probably see “Fine Fart” which is obviously not the product being sold. If you don’t want to miscommunicate, make sure you check the placement and position of every single text in your design!
8) Keep calm and what?
Image source: Bored Panda
Again, another issue with placement! How exactly are we supposed to read this sign? Does it say “Keep carry calm and on”, “Keep calm and carry on”, or “Keep calm carry and on”? Although this is one of the most famous sayings that people will recognize, there could be so many different interpretations of this sign. When placing text, make sure that they are positioned in a way that doesn’t leave any confusion with how it’s supposed to be read!
9) The most offensive book title award goes to…
Image source: Bored Panda
As the caption for this example states, this is probably the most offensive book title ever seen. While it can be obvious to many that “Kids Are Weird” is the actual title and that “Brown” is the author’s last name, putting these two closely side by side can totally change the entire impression of the book. It now seems as if the title is called “Brown Kids Are Weird”, which is completely inappropriate and disrespectful. We hope that the author, publisher, and designer did not get into too much trouble with this!
10) Can you imagine mixing up these two?
Image source: Bored Panda
Here are two completely different products, used for completely different purposes, that share the same exact packaging design. Now, this is what we can easily recognize as a call for disaster. Could you imagine people mixing up the two products, spraying fly and insect repellent on your cooking pan instead of canola oil? The worst part is that we can’t blame them either because anyone can accidentally end up using one product for the other.
The lesson to be learned here is to make your design between two different products different. While you can stick to the same design template or theme, you can always use a different color so that customers will be able to tell the two apart.
How to Avoid Design Mistakes
By deliberately checking your design prior to production and even asking your colleagues for feedback, many of the most common design mistakes can definitely be avoided.
When using text in your design, whether it is in a logo, packaging, website, or poster design, one thing that you have to be aware of is the placement and position of your text(s). While you can choose to resize or position some parts in a certain way to make the text appear more artistic and unique, make sure that it remains legible. Once people see it, they should be able to read your text the same exact way you intended it to be read. Take the “Keep calm and carry on” or “Fine Fart” design mistake we’ve seen earlier as an example of what not to do!
Another common error that designers make is unfortunately spelling errors. While these types of epic fails can be avoided, it can still happen to the best of us. So, before submitting in any work, make sure that all of your spelling and grammar are correct. But most importantly, make sure that your text does not end up sending the wrong or inappropriate messages as this can be disastrous! If you need any help, you can always ask a second or third person to reread your work.
At DesignBro, we have professional designers who can help you design the logo, packaging, or brand identity for your business. With years of experience, our designers are able to deliver top-quality and faultless designs. By choosing our service, you can trust that such design fails will be avoided! Contact us here to find out more about how we can help you.
Besides having grown up in the design Industry, Christiaan has advised some of the world’s largest companies on their branding & packaging designs. Has been the resident judge for design awards, and has spoken at numerous global design & marketing events. Christiaan founded the London office of the award-winning Cartils agency, and has founded the DesignBro.com platform.
