A School of Visual Arts Grad Remakes the Pill Bottle: “By the time an object, or an apartment, or a company hits the half-century mark, it’s usually been through a redesign or two. Yet the standard-issue amber-cast pharmacy pill bottle has remained virtually unchanged since it was pressed into service after the second World War. (A child-safety cap was added in the seventies.) An overhaul is finally coming, courtesy of Deborah Adler, a 29-year-old graphic designer whose ClearRx prescription-packaging system debuts at Target pharmacies May 1.

Adler grew up in a family of doctors in Chappaqua, New York, but escaped medicine for an M.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts. She was inspired to return, at least tangentially, after her grandmother Helen accidentally swallowed pills meant for her husband, Herman. The drugstore prescription bottle, it occurred to Adler, is not just unattractive, it’s actually dangerous. Statistics back her up: According to a recent poll conducted for Target, 60 percent of prescription-drug users have taken medication incorrectly.” (New York [via Amy’s Robot])

I like the flattened shape so it doesn’t roll and so that the entire label can be seen at once. It is quite smart to include a color-coded ring so one knows at a glance which family member’s medication it is. Adler has also considered including a magnifying strip, and a label that develops a big red ‘X’ across it when the medication expires.But the best innovation is, IMHO, the simplest, which is to print the name of the medication in the blodest, largest, most legible typeface. I have never been able to understand why even I, whose eyesight is unimpaired when I wear my reading glasses [g], has a challenge searching a conventional prescription label to find the name of the drug, and why the format from different pharmacy chains is different.