Alice Rawsthorn shares her wisdom:

'But both symbols are alike in reflecting the design values of their respective eras. Just as the 60-year-old bar code exudes the discipline, consistency and imperiousness that people expected from mid-20th-century design, the QR code has the idiosyncrasy and spontaneity that we now crave — or at least it seems to.' – Originally published on the International Herald Tribune January 8, 2012