HIGH STYLE : The Good Office

WITH MORE THAN 100 million Americans now spending most of their waking hours in offices, the workplace is emerging as the new frontier of contemporary design. But what is good office design? From pencil holders to computers, it means products that blend aesthetic appeal with functional efficiency, products that take advantage of solar power, ergonomics and the constraints of time and space.

Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design presents “Good Offices,” some 150 examples of the best-designed office equipment and products in the world--from such old chestnuts as the IBM Personal Computer Model 30 and the “NeXT” to the high-tech Canon Faxphone 8 Personal Desktop Transceiver and the lowly pushpin, now transformed into a sculpted steel-and-rubber supergizmo.

Main Gallery, Art Center College of Design, 1700 Lida St., Pasadena, (818) 584-5052, until March 3.