At first glance, it looks like the epitome of abominable graphic design. Comic Sans? Check. Clashing colours? Yep. The unmistakeable essence of Microsoft Paint? Without a doubt. It all adds together to create what's possibly both the worst and best job ad of all time.
Shared on Reddit this week, The City of Los Angeles' 'Graphics Designer' job ad shows exactly why the council needs a graphic designer. The hilariously shoddy ad takes several famous tropes of bad graphic design and slaps them together in a veritable smorgasbord of poor taste. Whoever made it clearly hasn't been within a country mile of our Photoshop tutorials.
It’s a very meta design that really does that job from r/DesignPorn
Of course, the whole effect is deliberate. The ad was a social media hit when first shared by the City of Los Angeles in 2018, and is still making people laugh. "I think it's rather genius!" One Reddit user exclaims, while another adds, "Whoever made this monstrosity clearly had fun making it."
Like many of the best graphic design memes, the ad embraces the fun side of terrible design – and it's still striking a chord with designers today, with Twitter users continuing to share the City of Los Angeles' original 2018 tweet (below) three hundred years later (at least that's what it feels like) in 2021.
i think about this a lot https://t.co/zUNGARrjIaDecember 12, 2020
#DesignPorn https://t.co/4hCTvWx7McJanuary 19, 2021
The marketing department however doesn’t need any help 👏 https://t.co/tjWTOZM0fYJanuary 19, 2021
The actual listing for the job on the City of Los Angeles' website was a touch more professional, detailing a required minimum of two years' full-time paid experience. It still refers to the job title as 'Graphics Designer', though – perhaps a 'mistake' from the comedy ad that slipped through the net? Either way, we hope whoever ended up getting the Graphics Design job knew their way around Microsoft Paint – or at least another piece of free graphic design software.
While there's nothing we love more than a genuinely stunning piece of art or design, it doesn't mean we can't appreciate a good old shocker every now and again. Check out the 12 design fails that make up our graphic design hall of shame.
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