Is this the most embarrassing design fail ever?

Anak Malaysia
(Image credit: iQIYI)

We may have seen more than a few unfortunate design blunders over the years, but last year gifted us one that truly hit a bum note – and we're still giggling. Back in September, a Chinese streaming service was forced to apologise for an embarrassing Malaysia Day poster that was, shall we say, rather easily misread. Read on for our original story...

The design is supposed to read 'Anak Malaysia' (which translates as 'Child of Malaysia'), and was designed to promote local shows available to stream for free during Malaysia Day 2020. But the phrase was given a stylised typographical treatment to incorporate the crescent and star of the Malaysian flag, resulting in some, er, legibility issues. Perhaps the designers should have played it safe with one of our best free fonts

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Daniel John
Design Editor

Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of art, design, branding and lifestyle tech (which often translates to tech made by Apple). He joined in 2020 after working in copywriting and digital marketing with brands including ITV, NBC, Channel 4 and more.