I'm as sick of QR codes as the next guy, and honestly doubt how much they actually get used by the public. But it doesn't look like the fad is going to fade anytime soon, so why not make them look cooler.

This article explains how the coding works and how you can alter the look of them to add color and images to the boring black and white mark of the beast. 

http://hackaday.com/2011/08/11/how-to-put-your-logo-in-a-qr-code/