For designers of consumer products, graphics, environments, furniture, equipment and more, getting into the I.D. Magazine Design Review is like going to Mecca. For the past 54 years, this annual issue has presented the best in design, selected by a jury of top pros in each discipline.

This year, I.D. teamed up with Parsons The New School of Design to host an exhibition of the winning entries. The festive opening at the school's gleaming new Sheila C. Johnson Design Center on Wednesday night was packed with honorees, designers, faculty and students eager to get a fix on the latest trends. With much to see and absorb - 131 pieces in all - I decided to make a top ten list.

Installation photos: Peggy Roalf.

In the consumer products category there are so many high-tech and high-priced items, including a few from Apple, that I decided to pick something that hides its function behind an indecipherable look. The most mysterious has to be the SPARQ Agility Web, consisting of dozens of lime-green octagonal rings joined with black clips, attached flat to the walls, wrapping around a corner and onto the floor. This turns out to be a highly evolved alternative to the "ladder drill" for athletic training. Because most sports require movement in all directions, the Agility Web, with its ability to be clipped together in multiple configurations such as hurdles, offers a 3-D take on the standard drill. The Agility Web was designed by Portland's Terrazign.

In the graphics category, I skipped past the gorgeously designed and printed books, brand promotion and POP collateral stuff, my eyes arrested instead by the poster for a talk given by Brian Collins of Ogilvy's Brand Integration Group. One of the juror comments, "This is the only poster that's weird and interesting...You have type with arms! Holding letters! It forces you to actually look at it and figure it out," says it all. The piece was designed by Kapono Chung of New York Ogilvy/BIG.

The furniture category is perhaps the most interesting for the range of materials and types of products included. The graceful Ribbon stool, designed by Oki Sato of Nendo Studio-Tokyo, was produced using the latest steel laser-cutting technology; its swooping lines were inspired by the ribbons of ballet shoes. The Equipment category includes a suite of Postal Aids for the Netherlands TNT Post designed by FLEX the INNOVATIONLAB of Delft that represents the pinnacle of Dutch style and functional design.

Environments run the gamut from the Seattle Art Museum's monster-scale Olympic Sculpture Park to a dome fashioned out of 310 fluorescent bulbs, to a dome of water jets to cool off under on a hot day. That's eight so far. Tough choice -- your turn.

I.D. 2008 Annual Design Review is on through September 28 at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons The New School of Design at Fifth Avenue and 13^th Street. The super-minimalist exhibition design by Pure+Applied | Design Studio gives center stage to the objects and includes a poster sized newsprint handout with information and credits.