Recent development (up to September, 2001) in the design and use of small molecular organic electroluminescent materials for display applications is reviewed. The material issues pertaining to design, synthesis, transport properties, color, guest-host emitters, fluorescent dopants, electroluminescent efficiencies and operational stability are described. A special section is dedicated to the review of recent progress on phosphorescent (triplet) emitting materials used in OLEDs.