DEBORAH ADLER’S “CLEARRX” PRESCRIPTION SYSTEM CLARIFIES LABELING INFORMATION AND PROVIDES COLOR CODING THAT MAKES MISTAKES LESS LIKELY. THE SYSTEM INCORPORATES NEW, MORE INTUITIVE WARNING ICONS AND A NEW CONTAINER SHAPE THAT ALLOWS THE NAME OF THE MEDICATION TO BE VISIBLE FROM THE TOP AND SIDES.

Chip Kidd’s clever book designs are given short shrift in this show, as are several worthy magazines that are included: Make, ReadyMade and Frame. To be fair, it is hard for these accomplishments to compete for our attention with dramatic architectural entries such as the Acconci Studio’s twisting and undulating island “pod,” traversing the Austrian river Mur, made from interlaced steel mesh, glass and asphalt. Other impressive architectural projects figuring in Design Life Now come from Toshiko Mori, OMA/ Rem Koolhaas, Michael Van Valkenburgh, and Santiago Calatrava, as well as Leni Schwendinger’s massive light installations for bridges, architectural sites and interiors.

What could be more important and dramatic than the Lifeport Kidney Transporter, designed by Organ Recovery Systems with IDEO? Its sleek exterior features a display that “constantly monitors the organ’s performance data in real time,” with precision- engineered technology that doubles the kidney’s standard viability time (Lifeport Transporters for the heart, liver and pancreas are in the final stages of development). Also in the medical field, Hunter Hoffmann’s “Snow World” virtual environment lowers a burn victim’s excruciating pain perception by half through a virtual interactive glacial world populated with igloos, penguins, wooly mammoths and snowmen.

NIKE’S RESEARCH INTO THE RANGE OF MOTION OF ATHLETE’S FEET PROPELLED THEIR DESIGN OF THE NIKE FREE 5.O SNEAKER, WITH AN ARTICULATED SOLE THAT ALLOWS FULL RANGE OF MOTION AND FLEXION. THE SNEAKER DOES NOT INHIBIT THE FOOT’S OWN MOTION, ALLOWING IT TO FUNCTION MORE NATURALLY.

But for sheer fun, it is hard to beat the limited edition “art toys” of KidRobot or the remarkably lifelike animation and creative storytelling of Pixar Animation Studios. Still entertaining but with an underlying agenda, Howtoons is a comic book that teaches children how to build homemade technologies, creating their own toys and fun using ordinary materials. Humor is also evident in many of the industrial design entries, such as Ron Gilad’s Dear Ingo spider-like chandelier and Ken Smith’s synthetic flowers covering the museum’s front exterior surface.

Robotics, some fun, some functional, some conceptual, are in abundance at Design Life Now, including Wowee’s robot toys Robopet, Robosapien and Roboreptile; Natalie Jeremijenko’s Feral Robotic Dogs, designed to raise environmental awareness by their ability to “sniff out” toxins; Joseph Ayers’ ambulatory, underwater, data collecting RoboLobster; Hansen Robotics’ incredibly lifelike animatronic “social robots,” represented by its latest replica of Albert Einstein; and NASA’s Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Rover (LEMUR) IIa, a robot that can “substitute for as well as assist humans in space.”

HOWTOONS PROVIDE INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROJECTS WITHIN A PLAYFUL ILLUSTRATED NARRATIVE FEATURING A BOY AND A GIRL. PROJECTS RANGE FROM ROCKET LAUNCHERS AND ZOETROPES TO LIGHT BENDERS AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. THE CONCEPT ORIGINATED WITH SAUL GRIFFITH AND JOOST BONSEN WHEN THEY WERE STUDENTS AT MIT; THEY WERE JOINED BY NICK DRAGOTTA, A PROFESSIONAL MARVEL COMICS ARTIST WHO BROUGHT THE CHARACTERS TO LIFE.

Some personal favorites: Clear Blue Hawaii’s beautiful Napali kayak, a transparent, foldable kayak (it fits into a backpack and weighs only 26 lbs.), which “enables users to skim the ocean’s surface like sea mammals”; Nike’s “smart design” for athletic shoes and apparel, exemplified by its bio-responsive fabrics and an articulated sneaker which allows the foot an unfettered range of motion; and Chuck Hoberman’s Rapidly Deployable Structure, a 500-sq.-ft. “instant shelter” that can be erected in under three minutes by four people, endure snow loads of up to 4000 lbs. and withstand winds of up to 65 mph. No, I am not an adventure traveler; I simply admire the ingenuity, practicality and handsome design of these inventions.

As I said, something for everyone, and certainly worth the trip, as you are unlikely to see many of these entries together elsewhere. However, Design Life Now might have benefited from grouping designs of a similar nature together, rather than displaying them in what seems to be an arbitrary arrangement. This would have allowed visitors to evaluate a design in the context of its field … rather than experiencing a kind of cognitive dissonance and having to work so hard at drawing comparisons.

THE DETAILS:
Design Life Now is on view in New York City at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Design through July 29, 2007, and in Boston at The Institute of Contemporary Art from Sept. 28, 2007, to Jan. 6, 2008.