Common Risks Drive Innovation Streak

(Via Bweek) MoMA's exhibit on products made with safety in mind shows how risk, coupled with good design, drives innovative solutions to human needs. Function,clarity, and usability are paramount, which isn't to say form is an afterthought.The products in the collection are well-designed, witty, and often beautiful. The collection also captures the many facets of safety. Shigeru Ban's ingenious paper houses and netting impregnated with insecticide provide shelter from environmental threats. The aerodynamic Giro Atmos bicycle helmet and Stephen Armelino's Bullet-Resistant Mask represent modern-day body armor. These are seen more as risk inspiring more discovery!! and not meant for spreading the fear of safety around. "Safety is a daily need as basic as food. The instinct for safety has steered human choices throughout history," says, show's curator, Paola Antonelli.What the 300-plus disparate objects in the exhibit share is a certain simplicity - they all display a remarkable economy of thought and materials, achieved because of the clarity of their goals," Antonelli notes in an essay written for the accompanying book. Function, clarity, and usability are paramount, which isn't to say form is an afterthought. The slideshow is available here.The products in the collection are well-designed, witty, and often beautiful. These will come to the aid of those that will be touched by emergencies still to come.