I loved Cinnamon Toast Crunch as a kid, but it was never the same after they renamed it 'Cinammon Grahams'. I mean, what a shitty name.

Cinnamon. Cinammon. Whatever.

chrismear - I'm with you on that. They shouldn't have renamed Super Sugar Crisp, either!

I gotta say I always like the Cheerios box because it was so simple. And yellow. And reliable - something you could count on - like gravity.

I don't have the design disease myself, but I live in a neighborhood that is bung-full of a lot of seriously affected architects/graphic designers/etc. I vividly recall a neighborhood-organization meeting some years back where a fistfight broke out over the proposed roof pitch of someone's garage remodeling; and I know one couple whose divorce, I was always told, grew out of a bitter dispute over selection of bathroom faucets. And I always enjoyed driving around town with my architect friend J.--she'd say "Pull over!!" and then embark on a five-minute rant, with arm-waving, about the horrendously misproportioned fenestration of the building across the street.

I guess I'm a much more of a passive designer than most. I recognize good design, but I never really get worked up over it. If it's bad design however, I've been known to rant on for a good half hour about the need for proper kerning in headlines, the lack of entry points in editorial spreads, and the use of Helvetica AT ALL!

I don't know if that counts as "diseased" though.

great post. it makes Graphic OCD look less scary for all those of us who suffer from it

I love the Mrs. Butterworth bottle. Oh and I really like Comic Sans.

The exit doors at my local Borders have PULL handles on the inside. So if you've never been there you think that you have to PULL the doors in to get out.

The blocks north of here are mostly craftsman bungalows and most of them are in good shape - painted in historically accurate colors, well maintained simple yards...and then right in the middle of it - there's a bungalow that's bright screaming neon blue. I don't know if they got the paint from the oops bin or what but every time I'm by it (which is quite a bit because it's on the nightly dog walk route) it occupies my mind for a couple of blocks. WHY WHY WHY?

One of the home supply stores here in the last year has had deep discounts on yellow siding + red shutters. So there are now a bunch of houses around with yellow siding (the yellow siding is actually a pretty good soft yellow) with bright red shutters (it's just a strange non-matchy shade of red).

The quiet study room at the library is located on the second floor at the front of the building...there's a park in front of the library and all sound of children playing comes right up and into the study room.

(I lean more towards the usability portion of design.)

great post. it makes Graphic OCD look less scary for all those of us who suffer from it

Yes. Thank you.

she'd say "Pull over!!" and then embark on a five-minute rant, with arm-waving, about the horrendously misproportioned fenestration of the building across the street.

This, sadly, is me.

I'm a sucker for good packaging ..er.. design. Seriously, if I run across something in a store (food, whatever) I'm more apt to pick it up, check it out and buy it. And yeah, ugly buildings (or whatever) are like fingernails on a chalkboard. I'm always mentally redesigning them.

I was cured of design disease when I grew old enough to realize what walking around 24 X 7 with a pained expression was doing to age my face.

I'm not a professional designer (yet! anyone want to be my mentor?) but I've always noticed many things mentioned - especially poor kerning, even before I knew what to call it - and have played name-that-font for years (it all began with 24's credits and Bank Gothic). I'm also a sucker for slick packaging.

Hi, I'm Åsk and a package-oholic. I currently own several jars of silver polish, but no silver to polish. It's just that they look so damn good. I can't help myself!

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I've also been known to smoke these.

deborah, I do that with cement- I'm always mentally ripping up sidewalks and driveways and replacing them with plants or at least stones.

Traffic design in my town is dreadful, and I complain about it a lot, because it is so freakin dysfunctional. With buildings, I like to imagine how it will look in 50 years when the current vernacular is history. There's a building on campus that has some detail work that really looks unfinished, which makes it look stupid. I'd like to find the architect and ask why they made that choice.

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I only ever drink this as hot coco.

gah. i'm the progeny of 2 liberal arts majors, one of whom went on to become an architecht. i'm so sick of my mom's pet rant about modern crappily designed 'mcmansions' that i've long since tuned it out.

and the x i spent ten years living with? he spent six years and tens of thousands of my dollars attempting to graduate design school and get a job in the field which failed miserably because, well, he's a shitty artist but christ on a leash is he ever an egregious design whore/snob.

all in all i'm happy to be the only one in a biotech who really much cares what font we submit our technical papers with. now i do admit packaging can be really sexy... woo, apple product design, anyone?

dabitch, I certainly expected you to be a Design Disease victim, but smoking Cigarettellos? That's deep! And while I love the Fazer Cacao package, I'd be a little creeped out by having my cocoa staring at me.

For hojoki and other Comic Sans fans, there is treatment available: visit the fonts page at Blambot.com, and download some of their free comic lettering fonts: Anime Ace, Digital Strip, Letter-O-Matic, and a bunch of other variations that blow CS away! It's like chocolate-flavored Methadone to the Comic Sans Heroin. :)

And is anybody else following the 120px by 40px adventures of the Reddit Alien?

And how many of you will buy Ben & Jerry's Stephen Colbert Americone Dream no matter how it tastes?

Vinyl diggers are known to buy a record because of the cover. Indeed, most of us may have done this at some time.
Vinyl diggers of a certain pedigree (who might be known as uber-geeks in other areas) have knowledge not only of the artists, producers, pressing plants, releases and labels, but also of the album cover artists.
Here's a good example of a house style for a label. The records are difficult to find, as they are imaginary.

Oh yeah, my symptoms are being constantly appalled by design that doesn't seem to make any concession to the people, location or environment that it is intended for.

I remember being aghast at a building under construction in a nearby town. The way the large windows were designed, along with the concrete/stucco exterior - it honestly looked like a swastika. I can't believe it wasn't noticed before they built it. Someone did take notice, because they half-filled in the top window, cutting off that "arm" of the swastika.

I also can't stand houses with unwieldy additions or awkward design plans.

I didnt even know i had the design disease, till i read the article and saw that i also pick wine bottles by the labels. And I use only certain fonts. And am very particular about wallpaper for the desktop. And i plunked down cash to buy my first ever software (scrivener, if you must know), just because it was designed so well. And it takes me forever to buy a notebook, and if its not nice paper, i just cant write in it. :)

I have been diagnosed. :) If there are several printings or several translations of a book, I always buy the one that looks the best to me. I am still almost thinking about buying that 'A Million Little Pieces' book because I like the illustration on the cover - a hand covered in sprinkles. I'm extremely picky when I select a journal, get highly annoyed at poor alignment and spacing in print, and find many websites painful to look at because of the lack of proper design.

Oh yeah, my symptoms are being constantly appalled by design that doesn't seem to make any concession to the people, location or environment that it is intended for.

Gods, yes! Once in a while you'll run across a Mission/Spanish style home here in British Columbia. Red clay (probably fake) roof tiles and all! What the heck? I love a nicely designed Mission/Spanish style home (it's one of my favourite styles), but they don't belong in the PNW.