In 2026, after nearly 90 years, the Institute of Design was folded into Illinois Tech's School of Design & Society.
This website is an archive of the impactful and inspirational work produced by the ID community before that transition.

László Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937, treating design as a discipline that was teachable, testable, and consequential. Nine decades on, its scope had widened from the things people use to the systems they depend on: hospitals, government agencies, classrooms, supply chains, digital platforms. Along the way, ID community members developed the published research, methods, and frameworks that designers rely on every day.

Chief among them is human-centered design: close attention to how people actually live, and advocacy for what that research reveals. It shaped designers who are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity: curious, rigorous, inclusive, and stubbornly optimistic about design's ability to change the systems that shape our lives.

To every one of them, who taught, studied, built, critiqued, and stayed late in the studio: thank you, and keep designing.

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2021 Latham Fellow Jon Veal Has Died

Memorial Planned for February 18

February 13, 2023

Jon Veal, Co-Founder and Creative Director of alt_

ID is saddened to learn that 2021 Latham Fellow Jon Veal has died. The Chicago Sun-Times has more.

As part of his fellowship, Jon participated in a video-recorded panel conversation about how designers are embracing new roles in society to create new outcomes with those most affected by their designs.

COVID disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities around the country—affecting employment, mental health, and education, and highlighting that these systems were not designed with, or for, us all. Chris Rudd moderates a conversation with Jon Veal and other Latham panelists about how designers are embracing new roles in society to create new outcomes with those most affected by their designs.

Jon was also part of Season 1 of ID’s podcast, With Intent. Hear the episode and read the transcript for S1: Episode 8, “Faith and Permanence with Jon Veal.”

“
We might not be able to make permanent change because permanence in our world is not sustainable, really. But what we are able to do is push the needle forward just a little bit for someone else to be able to take up the baton.
—Jon Veal

Jon Veal Memorial

Saturday, February 18, Noon CT
Chicago Cultural Center
78 East Washington Street
Chicago, Illinois
Reserve your spot

Attendees are invited to bring canned food and prepackaged goods to the memorial, which will be donated and distributed through existing alt_ markets.

Jon Veal

Jon Veal

Related

Faith and Permanence with Jon Veal

For Whom Are We Making It?