Brilliant design works like that subliminal arrow in the FedEx logo: It’s only overlooked because it has been absorbed without notice. In the era of YouTube, American Apparel, and the seemingly ubiquitous BlackBerry, that kind of affecting subtlety might seem entirely lost. Then again, you won’t find those enormous successes of contemporary design in the Cooper-Hewitt’s current National Design Triennial.

Neither will you find cornstarch-based disposable cutlery, the round Kleenex box, or the shiny new nickel, based on an 1800 portrait of Thomas Jefferson by the American neoclassical painter Rembrandt Peale. The revamps of those familiar designs — so oddly wed to their banality — hardly bear celebrating. Perhaps that’s because they’ll soon prove as commonplace as YouTube-inspired schadenfreude or American Apparel–style softcore advertising. Yet some of the most inspired and effective design today is intended to become patently ordinary. The $100 laptop is the perfect example.

Conceived in early 2005 by One Laptop Per Child, a Delawarebased nonprofit organization started by faculty of the MIT Media Lab, the cheap, portable computer is designed to provide the world’s poorest children with access to computer technology. The remarkable Linux-based machine, with a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, can run on a hand-cranked generator, and functions as a low-cost way to bring a much-needed educational tool to the developing world.

Part of the project’s success lies in the collaborative ethos and problem-solving resolve of its designers. The laptops are to be sold to governments who will issue them via community schools; the first are to be sent to Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, and Thailand, starting this year.

Ubiquity was also the point of one of the year’s most visible ad campaigns. The Japanese clothing giant Uniqlo opened its first flagship store in Manhattan, its largest in the world, with a rebranding effort to accompany the move to New York from Japan. Along with a revamped logo and publication, the company also canvassed the city with portraits of what they took to be quintessential New Yorkers (though not decked in the absurd range of colors the company offers). These included Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and “Iron Chef” star Masuhara Morimoto.

Another Japanese clothing company, A Bathing Ape, has already gone from relatively obscure to mainstream in the last two years, through a combination of celebrities wearing the brand — from Mandy Moore to Jay Z — and a marketing strategy based on artificial scarcity. Many of the company’s stores are unmarked, or have a one product per person policy. It offers limited editions of products, which include bright camouflage T-shirts and sneakers, in order to increase demand. That’s enough to make people line up outside its So-Ho store for hours.

A decidedly less cult brand, Dunkin’ Donuts, is spending some of its $2.43 billion private-equity buyout on an advertising campaign of its own. Created by the Boston firm Hill, Holliday Advertising, the re-brand is based on the tagline, “America Runs on Dunkin’,” and includes television and radio spots, as well as print, online, and in-store advertising.

The premises of the campaign, part of a strategy aimed at tripling the company’s size over the next decade, are the “American values of hard work and fun.” At the heart of the re-branding is a kitschy four-part pictogram depicting its populist slogan: a map of America, a stick-figure running man, the word “on,” and the company’s double-D icon.

Meanwhile, graphic designer Milton Glaser, creator of the “I Love NY,” is focused on tragedy abroad. His latest project is intended to bring the humanitarian crisis in Darfur to the attention of New Yorkers. Until the end of this month, nearly 300 subway cars will include a poster that reads, “What Happens in Darfur Happens to Us,” and includes words like “Mother” and “Brother” crossed out.

The School of Visual Arts, where Mr. Glaser has been an instructor and board member since 1961, is financing the $120,000 campaign. A billboard-size banner that is also part of the project hangs outside its building on 23rd Street. The poster is also available for sale at Mr. Glaser’s Web site, with all proceeds going to the International Rescue Committee, the largest aid group currently in Sudan.

This socially conscious bent — echoed in the $100 laptop — looks to bring awareness of pressing issues into everyday life. But unlike with most other examples of brilliant design, which we often hardly notice, the hope is that this message will not be overlooked.