The exhibition of AIGA's annual competition, aptly titled 365: AIGA Year in Design, is up at the National Design Center. This year's collection consists of the best in communication design from 2008 - including logos, websites, animations, experiences, packaging, advertisements, with nearly 200 pieces on display.

The installation, designed by Hipbone Design, transforms the gallery's rather awkward space into a series of "rooms" transparently defined by naked steel stud partitions. Graphic panels and counters are made of light-weight particle board bolted to the studs. Steel cables, stretched above the counters, make handy "clothes lines" to hold credit information, which is printed on 3 x 10-inch folded strips. The side walls are blanketed with posters and printouts, which further delineate the high-ceilinged space.

365: AIGA Year in Design at the National Design Center in New York. Photos: Peggy Roalf.

The exhibit structure's linear design serves to tame the massive amount of visual information on display and the occasional monitor, serving up animation and website design, also helps to defuse the visual assault by so much printed matter.

The show includes work by big name entities, such as Lippincott, Siegal + Gale, Pentagram, CG Partners, and more, as well as previously unknown designers of exceptional ability. One of the most impressive pieces from an emerging talent is The Crisis of Credit Visualized, a thesis project by Jonathan Jarvis when he was a graduate student at Art Center College of Design. I lingered to watch a section titled "How Leverage Works." What was a great mystery to me is explained through simple analogies, crisply illustrated and spoken in hipster language by a heavy-duty corporate voice-over.

While posters are pretty much a throwback to earlier times, they always look great in this gallery. Among the largest and most interesting is Art and Activism, created by UCLA/Design Media Arts for a lecture by Karen Finley. Across the way is the 2008-09 Theater Project Poster series by David Plukert/Spur Design, in which the artist uses photo and cut paper collage to evoke the tragic opera, Carmen among other offerings Further down the wall is The Strongest Thread, a promo poster for Levi's 501 jeans by Sagmeister/NY. "The jeans themselves are iconic, so we decided to go with just a product shot, using nothing more and nothing less than a single pair of 501s," Stefan has explained. The photograph of shredded jeans, deconstructed down to their thread, buttons and label, is by Tom Schierlitz.

In the category of corporate communication design, one of the standouts is the Herman Miller exhibition for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair by People Design. Based on the 1952 House of Cards toy designed by Charles and Ray Eames, this trade show exhibition becomes an iconic moment in the annals of Modernist furniture design.

And there's more. So much more that you might consider breaking up your tour of the show with a coffee. 365: AIGA Year in Design continues through November 25, 2009. 164 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. 212 255-4004.