Gerrymandered districts are perhaps the most visible forms of political corruption, dramatically redrawn into implausible shapes to benefit one political part or another. The idea for this font dubbed “Gerry” by Ben Doessel and James Lee explores just how many forms these places are bent into — as it turns out, one can make an entire alphabet out of them.

“To ensure the eroding of democracy isn’t an issue that is lost in the news cycle, our design team from Chicago concocted a creative way to keep our warped voting districts top-of-mind,” says the font’s makers. “What looks like a ‘G’ is really the 4th Congressional district of Ohio, the ‘E’ is actually Missouri’s 6th district, and so on.”

The font, downloadable for free, started with Chicago’s 4th District, which the designers noticed had a distinctive “U” shape. Searching around, they found more and more letters, and realized they could create a full typeface from their discoveries. Since then, gerrymandering has stayed in the spotlight, and Gerry has been used on things like the US constitution. Its hard-to-read letters make it less than ideal for legibility, but that isn’t the point — the message is in the shapes themselves.

Some buildings are so ugly, the only thing that could possibly improve them is a wrecking ball. It’s even worse when the structures are high-profile and expensive, making you wonder how many people who had to sign off at each stage of planning and construction actually thought to themselves, “Yes, this looks good.” Here are 15 examples of astonishingly ugly architecture that only a mother (or rather, the designers responsible) could love.

The Rock, Wellington International Airport, New Zealand

Perhaps this addition to the Wellington International Airport by Warren and Mahoney was designed to resemble a robotic cockroach in order to remind us of what will rise up and take our places on earth once we’ve succeeded in making ourselves extinct.

Renmin Ribao Building, Beijing, China

Beijing’s ‘penis building’ aka the headquarters of the communist People’s Daily newspaper has drawn wonder and incredulity from local residents, as well as worldwide notoriety. But the building will soon be sheathed, as the architect decided to give it a makeover after all the backlash. There’s probably a joke about state-sponsored journalism in there somewhere.

Frank Gehry’s Australian Blunder

“The building so ugly, it has to wear a paper bag” is Frank Gehry’s first project in Australia, inspired by a mashup of Sydney architecture and a treehouse. The curving structure was created using 320,000 custom-designed bricks.

ArcelorMittal Orbit Sculpture, London, England

Famed artist Anish Kapoor teamed up with engineer Cecil Balmond to create a sky-high tower in London that looks like a tangle of junk you pulled out of a drawer in your garage. The ArcelorMittal Orbit is a 376-foot-tall sculptural observation point overlooking the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The Elephant Building, Bangkok, Thailand

Shaped like Thailand’s national animal, the Elephant Building in Bangkok is a 32-story mixed-use complex housing condos, offices and a language school.

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Ugly Architecture 15 Of The Worlds Most Hideous Buildings

While the most theatrical Brutalist buildings remain in the former USSR, there are plenty more of these controversial concrete complexes around the world, and they draw both admiration and ire in Britain and the United States. While Prince Charles of Wales likes to call them ‘monstrous carbuncles,’ and sloppy Brutalist blunders certainly exist, many modernist concrete structures built between the 1950s and ‘80s are striking in their minimalism and solidity.

Geisel Library, San Diego, California

The Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego (named for the author best known as Dr. Seuss) was made of reinforced concrete to save money, which enabled a more sculptural design. The 8-story structure by William Pereira has two subterranean levels and was “deliberately designed to be subordinated to the strong, geometrical form of the existing library” on the campus.

Tricorn Center, Portsmouth, England

This weird building called the Tricorn Center was a retail, nightclub and parking garage complex completed in the mid-1960s and so named because it resembles a tricorn hat from above. It was voted the third ugliest building in the UK in the ‘80s, and demolished in 2004. Charles, Prince of Wales famously called it “a mildewed lump of elephant droppings.”

Barbican Estate, London, England

This residential complex built in the ‘60s and ’70s stands right in the financial district of London, one of the few examples of British brutalist architecture that’s still mostly intact. There are three tower blocks and 13 terrace blocks positioned around a lake and green squares; the towers are each 404 feet tall.

Brunel University, London, England

Built in the ‘60s and designed by Richard Sheppard, Robson & Partners, the Brunel University Lecture Center was one of two ‘high Brutalist’ structures prominently featured in Stanley Kubrick’s film A Clockwork Orange.

Brownfield Estate, East London

Balfron Tower at the Brownfield Estate, an area of social housing in East London, is often considered the sister building of Trellick Tower. Designed by Erno Goldfinger in 1963, it contains 146 residences and features a separate elevator shaft with skybridge connections on every third floor.

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Concrete Wonders 13 Brutalist Buildings In The Usa Britain

Furniture taste is a variable thing, but there’s no denying that these pieces are weird. Avant-garde, modern, and just downright painful, this furniture is not for the faint of couch.

(Images via godotit, decorationtricks, technabob, furniture-care)

These pieces seem to belong more in a museum than a living room. Defying expectations of what furniture should look like, and still managing to be aesthetically interesting is an admirable feat.

(Images via visiondecor, coolsfurnitures, yourdecoratinghotline, design-crisis)

This is what happens when people wear their thinking cap too long. Creativity leaves the realm of the cool into something much stranger.

(Images via blog.co.uk, dezeen, 2dorks, dreemzology)

There’s no denying that these items would spice up one’s decor. There is some denying that it would improve it…

(Images via thetenerifeforum, funphotoo, thatsweird, freshpilot, oddee, trendirs)

These are examples of how to truly anthropomorphize furniture; with some terrifying results.

(Images via yankodesign, pichaus, coolbuzz, yankodesign)

This furniture looks absolutely painful. Several of them were made for a gallery exhibition, but some of them were not. Half the fun is figuring out which is which!

(Images via pipocaglobal, inspirefirst, homeize)

There is plenty of room for creativity in furniture, but this typically requires that functionality be maintained, and that users can figure out how to use it.

(Images via introverticalillusion, introverticalillusion, planetoddity)

A bit of industrial engineering with explosive results. Here are some examples of what to do with the defused naval mines sitting in grandma’s attic.

(Images via dumage, dumage, 4interior-design, vyperlook, casasugar)

There is ugly furniture, characterized by floral prints and outdated patterns, and then there is ugly furniture, characterized by looking like a hunk of meat, a scaly creature, or a pile of cow pies (middle right).