Quick Response codes or QR codes have often been disliked by graphic designers - as a clunky or even ugly solution - getting users to a specific webpage while on-the-go.

They required a world where everyone had a smart phone, a connection to the internet, a QR code scanner application and a desire to engage. Many designers who have reluctantly used these ‘barcodes on steroids’ on client collateral in the past - have to admit their recent uses in the COVID-19 pandemic.

QR codes were invented in 1994 and the technology supporting them has advanced dramatically. Smart phone sales have accelerated in the past 10 years and their is often no longer a need to download a dedicated QR scanner application with many smart phones being able to scan the QR code directly from their camera.

In the touch-free era QR codes are having their moment as a less transmissible way of communicating all types of modern day information - from restaurant and bar menus, contactless hotel check-ins to Covid certificates and vaccine passports.

Romance of print ephemera aside - it looks like QR codes will be around for a while yet.